Faith v Fact - New Book by Jerry Coyne

by cofty 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • cofty
    cofty

    Jerry Coyne has been in the news with the release of a new book "Faith v Fact".

    You can read a review from the Independent here...

    "He argues that there is a direct and unavoidable conflict between faith and science. Both make truth claims about the Universe. But only science has the means to test, refute or refine its claims. Faith (which Coyne defines as belief without evidence, including not just religion but pseudo-science and authoritarian ideologies) not only can’t test its claims, but makes a virtue of not doing so."

    You can also listen to a conversation between Coyne and Harris about the book here...

    The following is from an Amazon review..

    "The truth is not always halfway between two extremes: some propositions are flat wrong. In this timely and important book, Jerry Coyne expertly exposes the incoherence of the increasingly popular belief that you can have it both ways: that God (or something God-ish, God-like, or God-oid) sort-of exists; that miracles kind of happen; and that the truthiness of dogma is somewhat-a-little-bit-more-or-less-who's-to-say-it-isn't like the truths of science and reason."

    I hope the paperback is out before Christmas.

    Just for the record I entirely agree with Coyne's position. Accommodationism is a delusion. We should not pretend that there is any compatibility between faith and science.

  • Oubliette
    Oubliette

    Cofty, thanks for sharing.

    Some other important distinctions between science and religion (aka "faith") is that scientific knowledge is discovered and subject to peer review whereas religious beliefs are "revealed," usually only to a select individual or group and is most definitely NOT open for discussion or debate.

  • The_Doctor10
    The_Doctor10

    Love his, "Evidence for Evolution," speech, showed many point by point explanations for all of the evidence. Included link to the video below if anyone hasn't seen it:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CW9G2YVtBYc

  • The_Doctor10
    The_Doctor10

    Even when I was "in," the fact that the "Truth" could never be questioned always bothered me. Simple reasoning, "If the truth is the truth then no line of questioning can hurt it, so why be so worried about people questioning?"

    This is why after I finally completely obliterated my faith in JW doctrine, and subsequently the Bible itself, turning to Science was the best thing ever because its foundation is basically, 'Question Everything!' which is what is so great, Science can be wrong, it'll admit it too, to be wrong is to learn, it's a wonderful foundation.

    It just sucks so much that I didn't have this information through my teen years.

  • cofty
    cofty

    If you can show that an important premise of religion is wrong they will hate you.

    If you can show that an important premise of science is wrong they will give you a Nobel Prize.

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