Honesty, Religion, and the Real World (337 hits)
Category: NoneRating: -1 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by worm (View user info) at 2007-08-02 14:05:38 EDT
Whenever the health, safety, and happiness of others, is at stake decisions must be made based on the evidence, and we must be only as certain as the evidence suggests. Such an approach is at the core of intellectual honesty.
I'm very thankful to live in a society that demands intellectual honesty. Its fruits are everywhere. No one advertises birth control to senior citizens, or teach children that they come from outer space, or add steroids to their Twinkies because none of these decisions are based on the good evidence. The above decisions are dumb, dangerous, and deadly, respectively. The world would be a scary place without intellectual honesty. This is why I find religious influence to be so troubling.
Imagine tomorrow we found Jesus' bones. If we did some DNA testing and found that Jesus didn't have a Y-chromosome, this would be fantastic evidence for a virgin birth. The bones would surpass every other Christian relic in existence. Such powerful evidence would compel hordes to join the Christian faith. A major claim of Christianity is now has strong evidence to support an otherwise stretched certainty, and can claim intellectual honesty.
Now imagine those same bones tested and found to be ordinary. This would cause little harm to Christianity because... God works in mysterious ways... he would have to have a y-chromosome to be fully human... science can't explain yaddayaddyadda...
Therein lies the folly of religious thinkers: if science supports their conclusion, great. If the evidence does not support the conclusion, the science is ignored.
I've found that when certainty is poorly defended, you can call it "faith" and make it virtuous rather than disgraceful. How that works, I don't know.
~
There was a "Great Prayer Experiment" conducted recently. The Templeton Foundation spent $2,400,000 on a study to determine whether patients undergoing heart surgery recovered more quickly when prayed for. The results were published in the American Heart Journal (2006). Again, imagine the interpretations:
Positive response = scientific backing for prayer, headline news.
Negative or neutral response = science can't explain such a profound mystery.
Well, it turns out that the patients that weren't prayed for recovered at an average speed. Those who received prayers and were not told about it also recovered at an average speed. Those who received prayers and were told about them "suffered significantly more complications".
Interperate the results however you want, but I don't have to try very hard to convince you that the faithful had drawn their own conclusion before the evidence arrived. But could it be any other way? Their religion condemns them for doubting. The whole contest of ideas is rigged because their initial assumption cannot be dissolved.
Imagine a food inspector or doctor working under the same premise. Would you eat that food? Would you have that procedure? I wouldn't.
When it comes to intellectual honesty, the faithful break all the rules and make no apologies. Yet we allow, even encourage, religious decision-makers to take positions of power in our churches, communities, and government. It's truly absurd.
Religion has gone far enough. It's time to put an end to the apologetics.
Be honest.
User Reviews
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2007-08-02 20:10:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
WTF?!?!!!
Why have you not done a "There's something about..." shitty bandwagon post?
Take some picture from google image, write a line or two of something "clever", then post.
3 minutes = 20 +2s
This post, while maybe not the best, did clearly take some effort, and, in my humble opinion, is better than all those god damned bandwagon posts on the front page today.
Intense circle-jerkery has rendered those posts a 1.5 or better while this gets booted off.
This should be rated higher. It's not great, but still.
A cut/paste of Allyson's tits, of all things, NSFW http://www.ubersite.com/m/110695 shouldn't be held in such high esteem.
Argh!
As an aside, I think I've driven past that giant cross before. Is that somewhere in southern Illinois?
Submitted by icarus1987 (user info) at 2007-08-02 15:44:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I "interperated" this as a crappy post.
Submitted by Yozz (user info) at 2007-08-02 15:44:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2007-08-02 14:07:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
WTF I'm NOT READING ALL THAT
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I don't know what it is, but THAT NEVER gets old. I laugh my ass off everytime somebody *says* that.
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2007-08-02 15:33:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
You want honesty?
This kinda sucked.
Submitted by RabiedRooster (user info) at 2007-08-02 15:28:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is a serious writers forum
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2007-08-02 14:39:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2007-08-02 14:31:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
"I'm very thankful to live in a society that demands intellectual honesty."
...
"Interperate the results...".
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'Nuff said.
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2007-08-02 14:11:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
lol
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2007-08-02 14:07:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
WTF I'm NOT READING ALL THAT