A Free-for-All on Science and Religion

[David Sklansky]

"Einstein's theory of relativity was CERTAINLY seen as "magical thinking" at one point... virtually no one accepted his theory initially."

What nonsense. No one thought his theory was magical thinking. Many thought it might be incorrect. But all knew it came from meticulous deduction, a knowledge of advanced physics, tensor analysis, Riemann geometry, and from the mind of someone who can think a hundred times better than the morons who throw out ridiculous religious theories with no deep thought behind them.

[smurfitup]

I love Richard Dawkins' ideas, but he is incredibly arrogant.

[MidGe]

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I love Richard Dawkins' ideas, but he is incredibly arrogant.

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Not quite as arrogant as most theists. At least he doesn't claim divinity on his side! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Matt R.]

David,
If someone throws a ridiculous physical theory out there with some mathematics and reasoning to back it up, but it is still based on ridiculous assumptions most scientists would not be too far off in calling it "magical thinking".

It took a LONG time for the community to accept relativity because it was so vastly different than what they were used to. The fact that it was right and later accepted is not my point. It had to start somewhere, and in the beginning most scientists thought it was ridiculous... i.e. it was "magical thinking" that it could possibly be true that this was how the universe works.

There have been mathematicians in the past who believed in God, and who tried to use mathematics to prove it. Their analysis is certainly a lot more rigorous than your typical religious person. For them, is belief in God no longer "magical thinking", even though it may be wrong?

I am simply trying to show that "magical thinking" is essentially the creativity and imagination of the human mind. It is used in every aspect of life. Science and religion. Science can be wrong sometimes too, yet we aren't arguing to throw out all science. Religion can be wrong sometimes, yet we are arguing all religion is irrational and dangerous.

[Matt R.]

Lestat,
Definitely. I have a big problem with those aspects of religion as well.

[MaxWeiss]

I'm on Sam Harris's website's mailing list. He sent out video links to a lot of these talks. Good stuff.

http://beyondbelief2006.org/Watch/