• Science & Religion

    From Lee Lofaso@2:203/2 to Michiel van der Vlist on Sun Apr 26 00:41:12 2020
    Hello Michiel,

    One must doubt to believe ...

    Science is not about certainty. Neither is religion, for that
    matter. But how many people hold on to their beliefs, whatever
    those beliefs may be, and refuse to even acknowledge their own
    view of the universe/reality could be something else entirely?

    This is a small part of an interview with physicist Carlo Rovelli,
    dated 5/30/2012. You can read the entire interview at the url cited
    below. Would be interested in hearing your comments, if any. Thanks
    in advance.

    --Lee

    source: edge.org

    The final consideration regards just one comment about this
    understanding of science and this long conflict that has crossed the
    centuries between scientific thinking and religious thinking. I think
    often it is misunderstood. The question is, why can't we live happily
    together, and why can't people pray to their gods and study the
    universe without this continuous clash? I think that this continuous
    clash is a little bit unavoidable, for the opposite reason from the one
    often presented. It's unavoidable not because science pretends to know
    the answers. But it's the other way around, because if scientific
    thinking is this, then it is a constant reminder to ourselves that we
    don't know the answers.

    In religious thinking, often this is unacceptable. What is unacceptable
    is not a scientist that says I know, but it's a scientist that says I
    don't know, and how could you know? Based, at least in many religions,
    in some religions, or in some ways of being religious, an idea that
    there should be truth that one can hold and not be questioned. This way
    of thinking is naturally disturbed by a way of thinking which is based
    on continuous revision, not of the theories, of even the core ground
    of the way in which we think.

    So summarizing, I think science is not about data; it's not about the
    empirical content, about our vision of the world. It's about overcoming
    our own ideas, and about going beyond common sense continuously.
    Science is a continuous challenge of common sense, and the core of
    science is not certainty, it's continuous uncertainty. I would even
    say the joy of taking what we think, being aware that in everything we
    think, there are probably still an enormous amount of prejudices and
    mistakes, and try to learn to look a little bit larger, knowing that
    there is always a larger point of view that we'll expect in the future.

    https://www.edge.org/conversation/carlo_rovelli-science-is-not- about-certainty-a-philosophy-of-physics

    --
    It Ain't Payday If It Ain't Nuts In Your Mouth

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