Quote of the Day

"A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

(Sir Francis Bacon, in his essay "Of Atheism"; in the original archaic English this read: "It is true, that a little Philosophy inclineth Mans Minde to Atheisme; But depth in Philosophy, bringeth Mens Mindes about to Religion.")

Comments

Jim said…
And the scientific method brings the mans mind swiftly back again.

It does not really matter to reality what set of the emperors new cloths you dress it up in, it does not increase its factual basis.

Religion is not all bad though, i mean many people use it as a crutch and get a lot of comfort from it. No problem here, though just because something is comforting it does not make it real.

"There will be no return to boom and bust" - that was a comforting thought to a lot of people. Sadly regardless of the number of times a certain person said it, it was never true.
9:03 am
Jim said…
I could tell you that the British economy will recover and the country will not hit economic melt down. its comforting, but its not true.

As this is one on religion though i would like to nominate a patron saint of the British Pound (what ever one of those is) - I think that due to his other positions St Jude fits quite nicely.
11:19 am
Jim said…
On another note as it were (no pun intended) then there was an outcry recently that no bank notes had a female on them. Thus Jane Austin is set to appear on the £10.

I mean pardon my ignorance and all, its just i was under the impression the Queen (who appears on them all) is actually female.
12:45 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Sometimes science brings people back to atheism, but by no means, always.

Real men of science do not invariably take the Richard Dawkins route - the people who think science is a justification for atheism are more often those who have a smattering of scientific knowledge and think they know everything.

There was a reason for picking that particular Francis Bacon quote today - see the "SIlly season continues" post which was originally planned to be the next one but will now be the next but one.
9:03 pm
Jim said…
look you know as well i do that Richard dawknins is not the only only one.
Please dont make me name them as it prves nothing. Like i say, dress it up in whatever set of the emperors new clothes you like. Its still not real.

quoting people does not make things real, real physical, testable, repeatable evidence is a much better way to go.

If i hold A £1 coin 1m from the ground what happens, well it accelerates and hits the floor. if i do this a million times the same thing happens, but thats not enough, so i have my wife repeat the experiment, she does with the same result. i ask my brother to do it too, he does it with the same result, so do his kids.

Now I have a real smoking gun for gravity, try the experiment for yourself.

Religion is different, religion requires faith (which by definition is belief without evidence) and to me, well i just can not accept that.
12:17 am
Jim said…
my error, should say hold a coin 1m from the floor and then let it go.
12:20 am
Chris Whiteside said…
I didn't say he was the only one, I said not all serious scientists are atheists and there are quite a few who are christians or other believers.

Far from trying to prove anything in either direction about a correlation between belief and intelligence I was trying to debunk the idea which had been put forward in the other direction.
8:05 am
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