Science vs. Religion Steigerwise

Dick sent the article at the link above to the family.

On May 5, 2006, at 3:49 PM, Dick Steiger wrote:

"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do." (See link above)

Here is Tom's response, which I think is very rational and well thought out. I agree with Tom. We're all of the opinion that religious fanaticism is responsible for most of the grief in the world.

I reject the proposition that religion provides a conscience. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is a brilliant moral principle, but it is NOT a religious moral principle. It is a humanist moral principle. Note that it is not "Do under others as God would have you do unto others."

The basis of the Golden Rule is that we can't know the minds of others and so we can't know how they would want to be treated. So the best we can do is to recognize that we are all human and use ourselves as a model to predict the wants of others. It is this recognition of our common humanity - with all of the emotional baggage that entails - that gives the Golden Rule its power, not some blind groping toward an unknowable supernatural force.

If you examine them closely all worthwhile moral principles in the end make no reference to God and are inherently humanist in nature. Religion actually impedes the development of a moral conscience. No one will ever come to the rational conclusion, based on humanist moral principles, that the right thing to do is to crash an airliner into a building, or shoot a doctor at a women's clinic, or celebrate at the funerals of American soldiers, or start a nuclear war in the Middle East etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam.

The bottom line is that science doesn't need religion for anything. Human compassion tells us that just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do. Religion tells us not to eat shrimp and to kill our children.