this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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Why in 2024 do people still believe in religion? (serious) (self.asklemmy)
submitted 4 months ago by return2ozma to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Are you familiar with Baruch Spinoza? His take is fascinating. His higher power did not concern itself with the fates of mankind, but is responsible for the lawful harmony of existence. It also does not discount or displace science in any way.

That's basic deism but I would disagree and say it does conflict with science. Science is evidence-based, if you claim something exists you must present evidence to support it. I can't just claim there's a 5-ton diamond in my backyard and say "trust me bro". Nobody would believe me, so why should anyone believe in any god without evidence?

[–] disguy_ovahea 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

A hypothesis requires no evidence. It’s then tested through repeatable controlled experiments. The events leading to the Big Bang have no evidence. If science can hypothesize, why can’t religion?

Have you read string theory? It’s no different than Spinoza’s god.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

A hypothesis requires no evidence.

Correct

It’s then tested through repeatable controlled experiments

repeatable controlled experiments are only one aspect of evidence gathering to falsify a hypothesis. Here are a few other methods:

  • Observational Astronomy
  • Modeling and Simulations
  • Indirect Experiments
  • Lab Experiments
  • Historical Data Analysis

By combining these methods we can still falsify a hypothesis, thus allowing "science to happen".

The events leading to the Big Bang have no evidence.

Correct! There is no evidence for what lead to the big bang because we can't gather any data before it started. But we have mountains of evidence that all point to a "big bang" happening - down to a fraction of a second shortly after it started! [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] .

If science can hypothesize, why can’t religion?

Science is willing to discard ideas that lack evidence or aren't falsifiable. Is religion ready to stop preaching because faith, by definition, is a lack of evidence?

Have you read string theory? It’s no different than Spinoza’s god.

The difference between string theory and Spinoza's god is the falsifiable part. String Theory, being a scientific theory, makes predictions that should be able to be tested through experiments (although testing will likely be a challenge much like Astrophysics and will instead depend on other scientific methods to gather evidence for/against it). Spinoza's God is a philosophical concept and not directly falsifiable through scientific methods. Spinoza's god is the equivalent of me claiming I'm friends with a telepathic unicorn from another dimension, both useless and irrelevant.

[1] Gravitational Waves: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-cosmic-discovery-could-be-closest-weve-come-beginning-time-180950109/

[2] Redshift: https://socratic.org/questions/how-does-a-redshift-give-evidence-to-the-big-bang-theory

[3] Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/cosmic-microwave-background-proves-big-bang/

[4] Abundance of Light Elements: https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_tests_ele.html

[5] Expansion: https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_tests_exp.html](https://www.space.com/52-the-expanding-universe-from-the-big-bang-to-today.html

[6] Olbers' Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbers%27s_paradox

[7] Quasars Existence: https://www.astronomy.com/science/60-years-of-quasars/

[8] WMAP Survey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkinson_Microwave_Anisotropy_Probe](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wilkinson-Microwave-Anisotropy-Probe