I wasn't too impressed. Too many false equivalencies and cheap shots.
Natural laws change all the time. Newtonian physics used to be laws of nature until a Swiss patent clerk turned the scientific community upside down. The truth is we don't know a goddamn thing about the universe. Until we know what's at the root of it all and answer the most fundamental question of reality, it's all guesswork anyway. Law attempts to describe what is observed. Theory attempts to describe why it is observed. Neither is immutable. Nothing is sacred.
The only objective truth we have is mathematics, and it stays pure by disassociating itself from any sort of subjective reality. But because of this, mathematics alone will never be able to answer the most fundamental questions. That takes guesswork, and mistakes, and tearing away everything you thought you knew about the universe and starting over. I think that is the biggest difference between scientists of centuries past and now; they believed they would be able to understand. We no longer pretend to.
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I also can't blame Christianity for justifying violence. Humans have killed in the name of every god, every nation, and every noble cause since time immemorial. Good vs. Evil. Us vs. Them. It's a side effect of the tribal instincts we have as primates, unless someone has a compelling argument for blaming chimp warfare on the bible, as well. But you see far more than violence in Christianity and most other religions, are countless lessons, instructions, stories of helping the poor and sick and people you don't know and who have no way of ever returning the favor. But you do it anyway, even if no one else understands, even if you are hated for it. You do it because it is more important than wealth or status, or any personal gains.
That belief has manifested in every religion and culture; a feeling that there is something out there that is greater than yourself, or your family or country. Something fundamental and all-encompassing, and we are all a part of it. It's the feeling of human reason and compassion rising above our baser instincts, telling us we are greater than that. Enlightenment, self-actualization, accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Everyone has a vague sense of it, but most don't know how to express it. When some feel it they think, yes, this must be what they mean by feeling God, and everything clicks for them. It's why many Christians believe it's not possible to comprehend true morality without accepting Christ, because to them, that is what the epiphany was. But others may have felt it and attributed it to something else or haven't felt it in any specific terms. Those people probably think the religious ones are crazy and imagining things. But if that is the case, then we are all crazy, because we all express it in some way.
If there is a flaw of religion, it is that it reflects the fact that the humans are still children. Awkward and unable to voice our thoughts and afraid to admit our mistakes, fighting over prejudices, perceived superiority, and misunderstandings. But science and religion both, are an expression of humanity trying to grow beyond that, and come together to seek out the answers to the fundamental questions of who we are. It's a sign that we are evolving as a species and that we want to evolve, and we can only take the first step by accepting that we are all looking for the same thing.
On a side note: I've often wondered if Douglas Adams was getting at this when he made the Earth the system that would answer The Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Humans would build their civilizations and devote their lives to looking for the answer to a vague feeling about existence that we all share. Maybe we were really just looking for the right question.
Sat Oct 05, 2013 11:22 pm
