Does knowing the density of mercury keep you from doing evil? Does knowing the formula of gravity improve your relations with your neighbor? Does knowing the term photosynthesis induce you to lead a moral life?... Does knowing the structure of the molecule show you the difference between right and wrong?
What morality can you possibly derive from science? And if you cannot get any, and science is amoral, then why do you center so much of your writings around it?
2007-07-04 18:49:33 · 26 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The fields of psychology, psychiatry, and neurology definitely do.
Instead of just condemning the person, or saying they're "possessed", we can treat personality disorders as conditions.
Helping people is good, and when like all pursuits, its refinement is done through the scientific method.
2007-07-04 18:52:39 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
Ok, you seem to have confused two discussions we have a lot, the one involving how science contradicts many teachings of religion and the other involving the ability to be moral without a god. Your question makes no sense. It seems that you're implying that everything in atheism and an atheist life comes from science.
I'll assume for the moment that you're a Christian, although it doesn't really matter if you are since it's just to make a point. The Bible would be your guide to life, right? Your question is akin to me asking how the Bible teaches you to file your tax forms. You'd object to my rejecting the Bible simply because it says nothing about W-4's. If you don't like that one, I could ask how the Bible improves your math skills. This time, the topic also has to do with self-betterment.
2007-07-04 19:45:06 · answer #2 · answered by Phil 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Through science you can become a better person simply by understanding things. I don't mean better as in good/evil, just better educated and able to comprehend things. Morals come from upbringing and inherent altruism. Science doesn't provide you with a conscience any more than religion does.
You've really lost me and, well, most of the answers users by calling science amoral though. Amoral means unethical, science advances technology, medicine and understandings of things which are not unethical practices. Some methods may be unethical but generalising science in its entirity as amoral is idiotic and unexplainedly biased.
2007-07-04 22:32:18 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Science is not a morality & cannot bear the weight of a moral code. Only a moral code can show a person how to be "better". Only a moral giver can offer a moral code to make a person better.
Science assumes a natural order. An intelligent Designer is the only way we can explain our orderly universe & life on our planet.
2007-07-05 03:15:45 · answer #4 · answered by bwlobo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well first off, you are assuming that science is the only discipline an atheist studies and that is wrong.. our education is just as well rounded as other people. Some of us were raised with religion, have read disciplines like psychology and sociology, philosophy, humanities and the arts. You make an awfully big assumption about a population you think you know a lot about.
Morality is derived from a number of sources - first and foremost parents, society and environment - it does not have to come from religion. Even though I do not believe in any deity I know killing is wrong.. I don't even need the government to tell me that one. Aside from which, in various religious doctrines, I find things that are absolutely heinous and do more to foster discrimination (which we know is wrong) than to abolish it.
Perhaps you should befriend an atheist or two and see for yourself how they live their lives.. given from your pre-conceptions above you might be awfully surprised.
2007-07-04 19:46:28 · answer #5 · answered by genaddt 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, if it weren't for science, I wouldn't be alive right now. I would have been dead at age 17 from a gallbladder problem. Doctors removed it, and I'm still alive, 18 years later.
You can't derive morality from science and you know it. But you don't need a book to tell you good from bad either. Are you really suggesting that if it weren't for the bible, you would be a bad neighbor, that you would lie, kill, and steal? I don't follow the bible and yet, I have great relationships with my neighbors, I don't kill, I don't steal, I'm not a whore, I'm not a liar. Why do I write about science? Because science proves things, and provides proof based on hard, inviolable evidence. God, on the other hand, is a guy in a book who can't be bothered to show himself to his "beloved creation" and prove to us that he's real.
2007-07-04 18:57:52 · answer #6 · answered by ReeRee 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
How does religion make you a better person? How has religion made men over history virtuous?
What I get from science is logic and my humanity is where I get my moral code. I do not need some 2000 year old scripture that is full of ethical flaws and blunders to tell me the difference between right and wrong. Do you?
2007-07-04 18:56:38 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Being an Atheist has NOTHING to do with science at all! It is the complete disbelief in God and in Satan. There is no science involved. Knowing the difference between what is "right and wrong" should just be common sense. It should not be based on science or religion. Perhaps you are confusing an Atheist with Scientology?
2007-07-04 19:04:53 · answer #8 · answered by medusarayn@sbcglobal.net 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
i get more knowledge and understanding of the world from science but what makes me a good person is that i am human. I don't need any threats of hell to know that i love my neighbour and i want to do nice things for them. I don't do things because if i don't some mythical figure will punish me or if i did something good some mythical figure will reward me. My reward is the appreciation i get from people, or the knowledge that i am a great person, or the knowledge that people like me and will have my back when i need them. I used to be a christian and i was a grouchy neighbour and not as generous and kind hearted as i am now as an atheist/ Why? I think it has alot to do with the fact that i am now more in touch with my humanity and my compassionate self and i am no longer resentful of the fact that i HAVE TO do some deeds. i do them now because i want to do them and that is the difference.
2007-07-04 18:55:58 · answer #9 · answered by uz 5 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Science doesn't make me a better person, And I would be hard pressed to find anyone who says that. Science and morality are 2 very different things and are not related in anyway. Which just goes to show , Your question makes absolutely no sense.
2007-07-04 18:53:41 · answer #10 · answered by punch 7 · 7⤊ 0⤋
you cannot derive moral values from science. but equally, you can't understand the world by wishing it was the way you want it to be. you need to know some facts in order to even begin making moral judgements and that's where science is useful. religious people sometimes just have their facts wrong. i don't see the point in debating morality in those circumstances.
2007-07-04 18:58:37 · answer #11 · answered by vorenhutz 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋