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Originally Posted by j. d. worthington  So I'm by no means inclined to accept this definition of religion. After all, every major religion also claims to have the story of the origins of everything -- yet they do not tend to agree, nor do they tend to match any aspect of scientifically verifiable evidence. Yet there is nothing more important to the genuine truth of a religion than some sort of proof that the deity of that religion exists and is able to affect the universe. Without that, what you are left with are a set of philosophical precepts and wonderings about realms the existence of which we have no worthwhile evidence whatsoever. |
Which is why it is often referred to as "religious faith". No proofs required or sought. I once knew a Methodist minister who I swore drove his car (an Edsel) on faith. We "of little faith" who had to ride with him weren't so convinced. The business we often get into about religion having an impact on the physical world slops over into "magic". Preliterate humankind would/will try to coerce the deity(s) to do something beneficial. Spell-casting, etc. Don't want to get the two concepts confused. Religious determinism comes much closer to magic and mysticism than it does to actual religion.
Quoth J.D. a few posts ago: "It isn't only the U.S. -- look at how religion and mysticism have made such a resurgence all around the world in recent decades; the more fundamentally superstitious and counter to scientifically observable reality, the better."
I would have to say that the U.S. goes it one better by having politics accommodate if not dictate religious expedients. Why else is it okay to reject the Kyoto accords and make big business and the oil empires untouchable?
While I agree that some sort of scientific-religious compromise/collaboration is neither likely nor desirable, I find myself harking back to the final scene in the film,
Inherit the Wind, in which Spencer tracy as the Clarence Darrow character places
The Bible and a copy of
The Origin of Species together before walking out of the final scene. Perhaps no synthesis possible, but not altogether mutually exclusive either.