Sunday, February 19, 2006

Sticking your neck out

One thing I have learned in my few months of blogging is that no matter what you say, someone is going to be offended, angered, or disgusted at any comment you may make.

Not so surprisingly, some of the most intense responders are those who believe that they have found truth through religion. The particular flavor of religion doesn't seem to matter, since all religions require that one holds to a particular set of principles and system of belief to be held to and defended with ardor and faith, however vulnerable to misinterpretation and/or erroneous conclusions.

Other equally intense responders are those who have taken science as their truth. They have the habit of pontificating endlessly with what they consider proof as gathered by the scientific method, which provides principles and procedures to attain knowledge thru the recognition and formulation of a problem, collecting data through observation and experiment, and the establishment and testing of hypotheses, however vulnerable to misinterpretation and/or erroneous conclusions.

Religion claims to have all the answers. All you need do is put your trust and faith in some particular deity and things will most assuredly work out. Regularly going to a place of worship to entreat or impore your chosen deity for whatever it is you want while offering adoration, supplication and thankgiving is the religious method and requires only faith from the believers. According to religion, heaven -- and eternal bliss -- has been promised to the faithful and eternal damnation for the rest. There is nothing further for humanity to seek out or do, everything has been pre-ordained, enjoy the ride.

Mainstream science does not claim to have all the answers, or even the smallest part of them. Any sensible scientific experimenter will quickly acknowledge that an answer found using the scientific method simply resulted in many more questions. With science, one is offered -- but not promised -- an endless path of discovery that stretches throughout time and promises new and wondrous things to the ends of the universe. Map out your own course, and good luck.

The two extremes seem to be religion on one end and science on the other, with an endless amount of opinion and variety in between. At this point in time, I believe that it is the folks somewhere in the middle that will eventually find the answers.

Science, religion, politics and sex... the four horesmen of the blog, but politics and sex are subjects for another day.

I'm doing this for the fun of it... enjoy the ride.

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