Has Science made God irrelevant?

You are free to discuss what relevance means, as there is no one correct interpretation of how something is relevant or not.

Debate.

Science provides a physical interpretation of the universe that religion cannot. It deals with the literal, the world that we can process. Its relevance there is unquestionable - any explanation of life must take into account the scientific aspect of it. That being said, however, science is only the human understanding of all that is in the universe; it explains the How, the Why, the Where, the When. But it cannot prove or disprove if there is a What that guides, or at least initiated, the universe and its laws.

I know this is a very sensitive matter--but I will try to say this nicely. It is hard to believe that someone's who prays to God, And Jesus, will not believe in mermaids, werewolves and ghosts. Yet they will bow to a spirit they have never seen--and put their life into His hands, if there are hands of his--to prove that they are true. I know of a man who lived in California, who traveled to Africa and slept open on the plains. After he had not come back after a week a helicopter found lions tearing the leftovers from him. He left his life to Him--only to have it taken away. Think--a man, like you or I, easing his fingers and to have a world pop up in front of him.

Honestly, that's kind of like asking if the existence of cats means no one should have a pet dog.

Science doesn't need to clash with religion, and vice versa.

I've begun to question the usefulness of these sort of discussions as the results are generally quite predictable. Atheists say stuff that can be boiled down to "yes", the religious say stuff that can be boiled down to "no", and those in between say something in between, and there usually isn't all that much discussion beyond that.

For the record, I'm one of those in between who finds both ways of looking at the universe questionable at best as both stem from human reasoning, which is well known for being fallible.

Well, put it to this. Science deals with the physical side whilst religions deal with the spiritual side. Honestly, that's the most basic form of what I'm really gonna say, but I'm too lazy to type, so, meh.

Percy said:

Well, put it to this. Science deals with the physical side whilst religions deal with the spiritual side. Honestly, that's the most basic form of what I'm really gonna say, but I'm too lazy to type, so, meh.

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I'd argue that is no longer the case in western societies. Even now the Catholic Church is saying science is right. Evolution is undeniable, the Big Bang is an extreme possibility, etc. Those are not my words. Those are the Pope's.

Now of course that's just Catholicism but I think it points to a much larger change in religion in general. Religion is no longer used by the masses to explain things. Science does that. It is simply a coping tool now; it gives people hope in a rather hopeless world and as long as our lives are so..depressing and exceptionally difficult people will find hope and peace in religion.

It seems that Christianity is evolving from a religion of myths to a religion of support and peace that instead will teach people to embrace and accept the science "that God created."

Humanity is evolving for the better! Don't forget that when you're reading the news.

I think science is just another religion. But unlike religions like Catholicism which believe their god has always been there, science assumes that there's no god (if we don't count numbers as gods), which is why, in their opinion, one has to be created...by using science, of course.

I don't have anything against people who believe in a god, but I can tell you that in Romania the Orthodox Church gets too much money while hospitals and schools are completely ignored.

If it had, would this thread exist? Belief in, and experience of, something Divine continues to shape humanity.

I feel like definitions of terms are needed for this thread to be at all productive. God is many different things to different individuals and cultures. To which of these do we refer?

Similarly, are we restricting science to empiricism? If that's the case, science has little relevance to an experience of interior illumination or spiritual guidance, and perhaps even less relevance to a cultural belief system.

I think the question itself, and the enduring popularity of this general topic, point to something burning deep in the collective mind. The strictly empirical and materialist culture of modernity tells us that what is really real is only frisky dirt. There aren't Gods or angels, and what does exist certainly has no capacity to give a damn about your well-being. Or so the story goes.

And yet we experience love every day. People continue to have transcendent experiences of mystical unity, and bathe in the immanent wonder of existence. The scientific materialist story is unfit to describe these truths. Yet it continues to try to do so, because we have also falsely limited religion to its mythic conformist stage.

Religious and secular cultures are both repressing the emergence of mature spiritual institutions. And as our world careens out of control, we know something is amiss. The issue is that we need a new story of our place and purpose. When we have that established, God and science will no longer need to tear at each other's throats. When we truly feel at home in this place, we won't need to chase after money or push and shove and bend the planet to our will.

oh man i know so many people who would be like "hurr durr i'm an atheist lelelel science >>> god lelelele" and i like to call those people fucking retarded

but the truth is people look to god for things that science doesnt provide

lets be honest here most religious people do accept science developments because they are in different realms, science is natural while god is supernatural, theres no reason to retire the benefits that faith provides simply because lelele science.jpg. faith is far more than just "how the world works"

if science makes you all giddy without needing god and you dont personally need the comfort of faith or religion thats tots cool but that doesnt automatically invalidate the value of god in other people

seriously the most fucking annoying thing about many internet atheists i swear to fucking god

p.s. im not religious im just saying

One could believe that understanding science is bringing them closer to God by understanding his works, while their faith or prayer gets them spiritually closer to God. Meh... I am not really religious but I have always liked this thought....

I'd also like to add that something like 2 billion people are Christians (and most of them gravitate to the mythic-literal form of Christianity rather than its rational or postrational forms), so yeah...... I don't expect that God, whatever one perceives that to be, is ever going to be irrelevant to humanity.

I grew up in a Christian household and my father was a pastor, and I know that science will never invalidate god in the eyes of those that are religious. The purpose is to have faith, and spread the word to those that lack it. Facts that point to evolution and what have you are mere tests of faith. I mean it wouldn't exactly be faith if god could be scientifically proven to exist in any way.

Has anyone taken philosophy for science and values and read Wolfe's "Sorry but your soul just died?" I think it touches on that issue pretty well. Also, there's a nice contrast of: has science become a religion/ideology itself?

I think God and all he entails is a manifestation of humans used to control others by exploiting inevitable ignorance.

I think science and all it entails is a manifestation of humans' intellectual capacity.


Generally, I don't appreciate being manipulated and controlled, so God is not in my interests. But a lot of humans make the assumption that our intellect has no bounds, that everything real and worthwhile will boil down to science - this is one of the most abundant human conceits in our day and is so far from the truth. There is a whole other world of things we can never understand, and I came to terms with it by reading on Eastern philosophies, such as those explained in Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zen.

You can accept that some things no one will ever understand and that they still hold meaning, and condemn the manipulation of theism at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive, and in an interesting way that apparently confuses many.

Science hasn't necessarily made god irrelevant. The depictions we have of god in thing such as the bible have been more so on many occasions been disproved however just because that god has been seen to be untrue by the natures of science doesn't mean that there is no god at all. I'm a man of science, who one day wants to be a physicist and i have never really believed in god at all through my life, but with understanding more about science i have come to realize that we cant explain our existence on Earth. Without being able to explain our existence most people feel that they have no meaning in the world and that's why so many believe in god; to make themselves feel like they are more than just a dice roll. In summary, there still is possibly something like a god that we cannot explain as of yet, there also may not be; until we discover all the facts and realize what our existence is we can't properly and factually decide if there is a god or not.

Yes.

Science for the science god.

R.F. said:

I think science is just another religion. But unlike religions like Catholicism which believe their god has always been there, science assumes that there's no god (if we don't count numbers as gods), which is why, in their opinion, one has to be created...by using science, of course.

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THIS. Even if theistic religions were to go into extinction, the human race will always worship and revere something. In this age, science has become a new "god," and we've come to witness this since the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century.

I would personally say no in that Science is a product of God's work because Science could not have just made itself as stars do not just pop out of nowhere and even if evolution is true, god would made the first cell and would have helped that cell grow and reproduce into another mammal and so on and so forth. Even if there is a co-existing clash of religions saying that there is more than one god or one god only, that does not prove God is something we dont understand and therefore made up for God has revealed science in the Quran which Science later discovered. You might then go on to argue well "why didn't the Prophet reveal that to everyone instead of letting us find out much later?" but you must first know of the time in which he lived and the society at that time. The Quraysh weren't ready for such things and always turn him away and labelled it as "falsehood and nonsense" and they even said "if this religion was true, then we would have been the first to believe it" which is hypocritical as the people before never listened to the other Prophets either and so they continue to delay Islam till today. It's understandable that God can be hard to believe with so much disaster in the world but if you think carefully about it for yourself, "How come such disasters and evil have not touched me?, Why are they suffering and me not?, Is God trying to evaluate my greatfulness for what i have and what others don't? and if so, why me and not the other way around?"

I would love to hear if i have many any mistakes with what i said or if there are any conflicting arguments that go against this plz let me know as i just love to learn