seriously the science v religion thing is old hat - the personal God was brought down by Darwin, cosmological discoveries and His epitaph coined by Nietsze ('God is dead')- but most of the forces behind the universe our senses are capable of understanding are not understood - they have been quantified and measured but their nature and origins are often still a mystery, magnetism is an example, science has told us what happens in a magnet when it attracts or repels but still nobody knows why they attract or repel - the cause and effect is unknown, our understanding of the inner workings does not explain the force. I've been reading up on this for a few years for various reasons - the man who really established the systematic, materialist reductionist approach to science was James Clerk Maxwell - relatively obscure bcos he didn't merely discover electromagnetic waves he predicted them - Einstein and Feynman and the whole scientific community put him up there with Newton, Galileo and big Alb himself - he quantified and established measurements for forces and pioneered wave mechanics in electromagnetism - he was a Christian and said we can measure the effect of forces without knowing their nature, he realised it was still all basically a mystery and scientists were merely improving their models of reality - he likened it to bell ringers making sounds without knowing what was going on in the belfry - so knock the evangelicals by all means, but there are atheists who preach and practise iand who are members the Church of England (thry dig the morals but not the supernatural side) - things are a bit more nuanced than some strident souls realise.

sorry for going up my *rse - they've put fun talk in with general talk and I'm a bit lost now - I'll try and do more danny elves jokes than get toooo serious. but it's not creationists v scientists that's all, and as you might have put it (or was it someone else/) believing sceince can answer everything is pretty much a religion itself.

Yeah and there's still not a proper f***ing answer. And you have no idea how relentless the boy is. Deny god and risk unmasking father Christmas. It's an impossible situation and all I've had is people addressing my pride and joy as 'dear ginger pubes' . it won't do.

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

I thought I had given a useful answer. Happy to expand by IM.

Dear youngster,

There is no god

The belief in a an omnipresent being with supernatural powers and a big white beard, who keeps a note of all the good and bad things that you have done, rewards you for good behaviour and never ever answers your communication, is believed by children but not adults.....

Is frankly preposterous

Elves

Nope it's not my name

Science does not disprove God. Go and read the space thread and the stuff I put there about elements heavier than nitrogen coming (only) from supernovae and then tell me there is no God. Well, Creator, if you prefer.

"The belief in a an omnipresent being with supernatural powers and a big white beard, who keeps a note of all the good and bad things that you have done, rewards you for good behaviour and never ever answers your communication, is believed by children but not adults....."

That's not God; that's Santa Claus. And you don't tell children that any of the following don't exist (decreasing order of likelihood):

- God
- Santa Claus
- Conor Wickham

Edited by chateauferret (07 Dec 2017 11.09pm)

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The Ferret
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