arizaphale’s last blog post..*Sigh*

sarala’s last blog post..Book Reviews in Short

Whenever there is a debate between a scientist and a person of faith or a group of scientists and persons of faith, polling shows that people in the audience always walk away from the event with the feeling that those on the religious side won. Here’s what they finally came up with as a reason to explain this phenomenon – people(s) of faith have one book to consult for answers. One. And the information in that book can be bent, twisted, interpreted, etc. to get said person to the answer for which that person is searching. Many answers can boil down to taking something on “faith” or the like.

Science, on the other hand, is comprised of many branches (biology, geology, chemistry, anatomy, etc.) of exploration. Most are still working through ideas and experiments to come up with the hard data required to actually reach sound conclusions. And you will often hear scientists say such things as “we don’t know yet.” That type of statement is rarely heard from those speaking on religion’s behalf.

It’s all interesting to me. I want to understand people who, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, believe the earth is 6000 years old and that we roamed the plains with dinosaurs.

On a side note, if I do decide to raise my child to believe in a particular religion, it’ll definitely be the gospel of the FSM.

Christie’s last blog post..Rest in peace, Mr. Spud

Sorry. No one had done it, so I had to.

What I want to know is, when are they going to start teaching the doctrine of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? The truth shall be revealed.

Gypsy’s last blog post..I’m so sick of myself.

Just wanted to say, this?

“I think it is mainly the fault of scientist not being able to communicate well to the general public. Preachers, religious leaders, and religious radicals are unconsciously chosen for the their ability to communicate well with the general populace. Scientist are chosen for their ability to do good science, and conveying that research to the general public doesn’t enter the equation. Thus the general public is largely unaware of the science and the research done. This begs the question, what can scientists do to better communicate to the general public?”

I wrote about this in that animal research article. I also included your guinea pig reference! (Yay me.)

OK. I’m really leaving this time.

Maggie, dammit’s last blog post..Hear her roar

Christy’s comment reminded me of a bumper sticker I saw once:

“Sure, evolution is just a theory. Like gravity.”

Maggie, dammit’s last blog post..Hear her roar

To answer your question about the 48%? Yeah, they’re the ones who reelected Bush. Who are voting to strip gays of rights. If they’re the majority or close to it, I’m in a sad, lonely place.

Great post, mate.

Maggie, dammit’s last blog post..Hear her roar

I like what Ryan had to say. If Zach came home one day and said “Dad, I’m a homosexual atheist” that would be OK. Equally if he came home and said “Dad, I’ve become a Mormon” that would be OK. As long as he works it out himself.

And Matt, you’re absolutely right about scientific communication. It’s the biggest problem that scientists face – just look at the mainstream press every time someone publishes a GFP labeled transgene in an animal system”Scientists Create Mouse – Jelllyfish Hybrid”, with the madness implied.

Jess, I’m never, ever offended. It’s how I stay sane in the world.

Jamie, what percentage of Utahans (Utans? Utes?) voted Republican in 2004? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that they do believe the sun revolves around the earth. They certainly believed in a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq with the same amount of evidence.