Atheist, Give me THREE GOOD reasons why...?

Question

Three good reasons why God and science do not,can not,and should not go together?

Answer 1

Maurice, what's with this "Three Reasons" stuff? It seems to me I've seen you ask for three good reasons before.

Isn't one good reason enough?

And there is one good reason. Once you place some effect on God, then you are not inclined to seek other causes for that effect.

Answer 2

1. History.
The first arrows in the battle between science and religion were fired by the church. Without rehashing the issue too much, let's look at Galileo's defense of a heliocentric system. He was forced by the Pope to recant in 1616. We now know that he was right, but he was not pardoned until 1992! Granted, this is an extreme example, but the church is notoriously slow to accept ideas that are contrary to its teachings. By its nature, though, science will continually put forward theories that will run counter to church doctrine.

2. People
It is my opinion that many faithful do not want to see science and religion go together. Most Americans are scientifically illiterate and I believe that this is a matter of choice. It might be personal choice or local policy, but somewhere along the line decisions are made that have led us to this point. At the same time, though, Americans are more religious than ever. I can't say whether one thing has anything to do with the other (correlation, after all, does not mean causation) but it seems that right now the zeitgeist has allowed for angels to be more popular than biology.
Now, there have been times in the past when the opposite has been true and science has been more respected than religion, but it seems that people have historically made a choice between science and faith.

3. Testable Hypotheses
This is the big one. The foundations of scientific thinking require that ideas be testable until they are proven to be true. Sometimes we lack the technology or knowledge to test ideas to their utmost "truthiness," but in these cases we relegate the results to the book of famous (and not so famous) theories. Strictly speaking, gravity (which we thought we understood for years) is still only a theory. Only the most rock solid ideas which have withstood repeated testing with repeated results have become scienific laws. Throughout this whole process, though, there is abolutely no room for "then a miracle happens" or "god did it."
God is an idea that cannot be tested (except through gedankenexperiments, which don't hold up in court) and cannot currently be met on the scientific plane. Furthermore god is designed to be untestable. God requires that things be taken "on faith" and that "then a miracle happens" be an acceptable part of the equation.

These are some of the reasons that faith and science are mutually exclusive.

Answer 3

1) Science requires evidence. There is no evidence for God.
2) Science explains the natural world. Gods are supernatural.
3) The God hypothesis is untestable. This also means it can't qualify as science.

Answer 4

Science is the observation of the natural world. God by definition is supernatural.

The God hypothesis is, at best, unhelpful when attempting to study the physics and biology.

God and science may be able to be reconciled, but the perceived "word of God" should never be taken more seriously than our real-world observations.

Answer 5

I'll give you one, as it's the only one required:

Deity cannot be deduced or induced via logic. Science requires as such.

They can be held separately, but where they conflict, it's science that wins, as it's science that's provable.

That reduces to the 'God of the Gaps' idea, and if you want to worship a deity on a diet (hey, those gaps are getting thinner all the time after all), be my guest.

Answer 6

I never claimed that, and in my mind it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Plenty of scientists also believe in God (but they aren't stupid enough to try to 'prove' gods). That I don't need supernatural beings in my model of the universe doesn't mean I can't imagine some other people would derive some value or purpose out of that.

But if you want to take certain bronze-age "holy" texts literally as in literal absolute truth (see young earth, noah, lots of things), then there will be a definite conflict. And you will lose.

Answer 7

Here's one excellent reason that covers many. Science is admitting something exists and you don't know why so a person does something about it to see what they can find out.
Religion is NOT admitting you don't know the reason why and making up an excuse to explain it away.

Answer 8

1) Creationism
2) Creationism
3) Creationism

Now here's three reasons why they should go together:

1) Albert Einstein
2) Rene Descartes
3) Issac Newton

Answer 9

Three? How about the one critical one.

The scientific method deals with gather evidence, testing the evidence and proposing explanations for this evidence and making predictions, running the test again, evaluating the evidence, repeat...

Where does God fit into that?

Answer 10

I can't

I never said they couldn't - if you can fit your god belief around accepted science then good for you.

You should direct your questions to fundies - they're the ones who seem to have a problem with the two