Regarding Religion vs. Science: Some More Random Thoughts

*According to Creationists, evolution is only a theory [but then so too is gravity and relativity, etc.] They apparently need to see an ape give birth to a human before they believe in evolution - but God, now that's reality!

*Magic is not an explanation.

*It's not enough to disprove my argument, you also need to prove that your argument is correct.

*According to Leviticus 11: 6 and Deuteronomy 14: 7, hares (i.e. - rabbits) cheweth the cud. This of course is zoological nonsense. Chalk up yet another Biblical oops.

*The universal trend over all of recorded history is that natural explanations have supplanted, usually exceeded in explanatory power, supernatural (i.e. - religious) explanations. I'd bet that's a trend that will keep on keeping on.

*I've been informed that “There are also impressive facts [in the Bible] in terms of historical and scientific accuracy”. My response: Is this like the scientific accuracy in the Bible that says that bats are actually birds; that disease is caused by demons and evil spirits; that snakes / donkey can talk; that there’s a relationship between hair length and physical strength; that alchemy is valid (water into wine); that there was a global flood – not; that you can create a woman from a male rib; that the sun can stand still in the sky; that the Earth was created before the Sun; that humans can live to be over 900 years old; that you can get pregnant at 90; that there was an actual virgin birth; and of course a Biblical favorite, Jonah and the ‘whale’ tale - and that’s just scratching the surface of scientific ‘accuracy’ in the Bible. And of course the Bible is historically accurate, after all it does mention Jericho and Egypt and Jerusalem, so clearly if these places are historical fact then everything in the Bible is historically accurate, at least according to Christian logic.

*I've been brought to task about the Biblical value of Pi being exactly 3.0. I'm told that “[T]he Bible never once speaks of pi.” This is true, but the data by which you could calculate Pi could have been a lot better had God, that invisible magic man in the sky bothered to proofread His own holy book. In any event, if someone can find grounds to question one thing in any holy book, including the Bible, and by god there are thousands of questionable things therein, then True Believers have to be open minded enough to question everything in their holy book.

*Better to have questions you can't answer than answers you can't question!

*If the Bible is so all scientifically spot-on, then Galileo and Copernicus would never have gotten into theological hot water so to speak. Even the Pope, John Paul II finally had to confess centuries later in October 1992 that Copernicus and (specifically) Galileo got it right and that the Church was wrong and had done these scientists an extreme disservice and injustice.

*When examining a few of my history of science tomes, what do I find?

• The Ancient Greeks were known for their mathematics, observations in natural history and physics. They also came up with the idea of an academic institution of higher learning, and albeit no science, they are clearly associated with the concept of the Olympic Games.
• The Arabs excelled at mathematics and astronomy.
• The Polynesians were masters at maritime and celestial navigation.
• The Ancient Egyptians are associated with massive achievements in engineering and also mummification.
• The Mayans were superb observational astronomers even without any instrumentation.
• The Incas are renowned for their engineering construction and for metallurgy.
• The Chinese are known for numerous discoveries from chemistry to geophysics to astronomy and medicine.
• The Vikings were master seafarers.
• Several ancient cultures independently came up with the aerodynamic principles governing the invention of the boomerang - not associated with the Bible of course.
• Alas, the Bible and Biblical characters do not rate any mention at all. Historians of science do not acknowledge any contribution to science from the Bible or via the characters associated with the Bible. If anything, the 'science' in the Bible gets a massive thumbs down.

*No matter how many unknowns you have, that doesn't lead you to a known, as in God done it.

*If you're a theist, then conclusion first - then try to come up with arguments that support that conclusion.

*Theists don't have evidence; atheists don't have faith.

*You're not supposed to be skeptical of supernatural events as related in a holy text written over thousands of years ago by unknown authors, yet, you are supposed to be skeptical of supernatural (or paranormal or anomalous) events that happen during your own lifetime. Really? Clearly if extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence today, the extraordinary claims of the Biblical era also require extraordinary evidence. There is no such extraordinary evidence.

*A claim is just a claim. A claim is not actual evidence for that claim.

*Arguments are all well and good, but ultimately you need to provide demonstrable evidence.

*Skepticism is not the same thing as cynicism.

*Religion is static; science is dynamic.

*The supernatural is the bucket you toss everything unexplained into and hence thereby explain all previously unexplained phenomena as being of supernatural origin!

*This is my theological explanation. If your non-theological explanation isn't better than mine, then I am right!

*My lack of a scientific answer doesn't make your theological answer correct.

*Be willing to say "I don't know" when you really don't know.

*Even if the entirety of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection were proven totally wrong tomorrow, that still wouldn't say anything about the actual existence of God (or any other god for that matter).

*Ridiculous ideas are deserving of ridicule.

*Theists tend to run around claiming to be expect detectors of all things theological supernatural.

*Assume nothing; question everything; start thinking.

*One needs to teach children how to think instead of what to think.

*If I tell you that the Greek Goddess Aphrodite is (for example) my girlfriend, wife, next door neighbor, barmaid, or school teacher, you're going to demand some actual evidence be coughed up. But if Mr. Clergy or Mr. Priest or Mr. Rabbi tells you that there's an invisible magic man in the sky, well that's somehow different. No evidence required from Mr. Clergy or Mr. Priest or Mr. Rabbi.

*Truth has nothing to do with the strength of your conviction that your truth is actually true.

*The failure to disprove something doesn't mean that the contrary is somehow true.

*It's not a question of does evolution agree with the Bible but rather does the Bible agree with evolution? If not, so much for Biblical 'truth'. The Bible is NOT a science text by any stretch of the imagination.