Truth
Thoughts about Religion, Science, and Faith
Abstract
Christians hold that their faith does good, but other faiths do harm. At any rate, they hold this about the Communist faith. What I wish to maintain is that all faiths do harm. We may define “faith” as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of “faith”. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. Selections of sayings about christianity and the relationship of science and religion.
© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Friday, 6 March 2009
Abstract
Christians hold that their faith does good, but other faiths do harm. At any rate, they hold this about the Communist faith. What I wish to maintain is that all faiths do harm. We may define “faith” as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of “faith”. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. Selections of sayings about christianity and the relationship of science and religion.
Robert Wray
Given the accepted scientific ideal, Occam’s razor, that “it is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer” or “where explanations exist, the simplest is to be preferred,” then, faced with the choice of explanations:
- the universe just exists,
- God exists and he then created the universe,
the good scientist would choose the former. As Kierkegaard said:
Faith is holding a belief in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contraryKierkegaard, On Absurdity
Surely this is incompatible with the notion of scientific evidence.
Christians hold that their faith does good, but other faiths do harm. At any rate, they hold this about the Communist faith. What I wish to maintain is that all faiths do harm. We may define “faith” as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of “faith”. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence.Lord Russell
Last uploaded: 30 October, 2010.
