Comments on: Is Religion compatible with Reason?

By: hilbertthm90

hilbertthm90 — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:11:59 +0000

My own thought experiment is that if religion could be wiped from all of humanity’s memory, but science still existed, then religion would not come back. We have now answered enough questions that religion is no longer necessary (this doesn’t rule out some form of spirituality from arising which may be what you are referring to as Deism).

On the other hand if science was wiped from memory, and religion was allowed to exist, well, we already know that science would come back since that’s pretty much how it happened the first time around. This indicates to me that religion is just a replacement until science figures stuff out.

@Ubiquitous. I agree that if religion could keep its nose out of truth then the topic wouldn’t be an issue, but by its nature this is impossible. Suppose there exists religion X, and this religion is based completely on belief of claims that go against reason. If a follower asks if the beliefs are true, and the leader says no, it is only a belief, the religion will dissolve. It no longer serves a purpose.

By: Ubiquitous Che

Ubiquitous Che — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:34:30 +0000

I think religion is compatible with reason provided that religion does not interfere in the domain of truth.

However, religion won’t do this because the earthly power of religions rests on the authority of their truth-claims. Take away the belief in the truth claims, and you take away their power.

If religion could keep its nose out of truth then I doubt that the topic of this discussion would even be an issue.

(I am an atheist and an anti-theist, by the way)

By: anneandkate

anneandkate — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:47:16 +0000

Believe it or not, I was actually aware that Nietzsche’s version of “God is dead” is, as you say, “referring to something much different than what people” usually think. I was referencing the Christian Children’s song, “God’s not dead.” I might have been exercising a little bit of hyperbole by saying those that would say there is no God are crazy. Any way, I do not think that you can prove/disprove one way or the other. So to say definitively one way or the other is unreasonable. I believe religion can be culturally-indoctrinated. But the philosophical question of Deism is separate from this I think. The idea of Deism – separate from any sort of theist ideology – is, at the very least, plausible. Any way, I enjoyed your comment:D

By: hilbertthm90

hilbertthm90 — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:30:02 +0000

I don’t know. I don’t think that saying there is no God is all that crazy. I think that people are highly culturally indoctrinated, and that is very hard to all out say that God doesn’t exist. I feel that this is all it is, though. Cultural indoctrination. If you appeal to pure reason (you’d probably like Sam Harris’ The End of Faith even better than Hitchens), then you will not say that denying God is crazy. You would in fact come to the conclusion that it is quite reasonable.

P.S. Nietzsche’s phrase “God is dead,” is referring to something much different than what people generally associate with it.