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The different claims among these faiths have consequences, for they've produce endless misery over the course of history.... Clearly, religions aren't incompatible only with science: they're incompatible with one another.... This farrago of conflicting and irresolvable claims about reality stands in stark contrast to science.
Jerry Coyne
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After all, what new insights has religion produced in the last century?
Jerry Coyne
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In religion, faith is a virtue. In science, faith is a vice.
Jerry Coyne
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If you spend your life looking in vain for the Loch Ness Monster, stalking the lake with a camera, sounding it with sonar, and sending submersibles into its depths, and yet still find nothing, what is the more sensible view: to conclude provisionally that the monster simply isn't there, or to throw up your hands and say, It might be there; I'm not sure? Most people would give the first response—unless they're talking about God.
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Now, science cannot completely exclude the possibility of supernatural explanation. It is possible—though very unlikely—that our whole world is controlled by elves. But supernatural explanations like these are simply never needed; we manage to understand the natural world just fine using reason and materialism.
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The question to ask believers is this: Does it really matter whether what you believe about God is true—or don't you care? If it does matter, then you must justify your beliefs; if it doesn't, then you must justify belief itself.
Jerry Coyne
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Tiny, nonfunctional wings, a dangerous appendix, eyes that can't see, and silly ear muscles simply don't make sense if you think that species were specially created.
Jerry Coyne
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Although scientists come in all faiths, including no faith at all, there is no Hindu science, no Muslim science, and no Jewish science. There is only science, combining brainpower from the whole world to produce one accepted body of knowledge. In contrast, there are thousands of religions, most differing profoundly in what they see as true.
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We are the one creature to whom natural selection has bequeathed a brain complex enough to comprehend the laws that govern the universe. And we should be proud that we are the only species that has figured how we came to be.
Jerry Coyne
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If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.
Jerry Coyne
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One can meet all the emotional requisites of a human—except for the assurance that you'll find a life after death—without the superstitions of religion.
Jerry Coyne
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My claim is this: science and religion are incompatible because they have different methods for getting knowledge about reality, have different ways of assessing the reliability of that knowledge, and, in the end, arrive at conflicting conclusions about the universe. Knowledge acquired by religion is at odds not only with scientific knowledge, but also with knowledge professed by other religions. In the end, religion's methods, unlike those of science, are useless for understanding reality.
Jerry Coyne
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The fact that both Jews and Christians ignore some of God's or Jesus's commands, but scrupulously obey others, is absolute proof that people pick and choose their morality not on the basis of its divine source, but because it comports with some innate morality that they derived from other sources.
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If you can't think of an observation that could disprove a theory, that theory simply isn't scientific.
Jerry Coyne
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In the end, theistic evolution is not a useful compromise between science and religion. Insofar as it makes testable predictions, it has been falsified, and insofar as it makes claims that can't be tested, it can be ignored.
Jerry Coyne
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But all that changed when Darwin explained those designlike features by natural selection. The best evidence for God simply vanished.
Jerry Coyne
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Science has only two things to contribute to religion: an analysis of the evolutionary, cultural, and psychological basis for believing things that aren't true, and a scientific disproof of some of faith's claims (e. g., Adam and Eve, the Great Flood). Religion has nothing to contribute to science, and science is best off staying as far away from faith as possible. The constructive dialogue between science and faith is, in reality, a destructive monlogue, with science making all the good points, tearing down religion in the process.
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Although this book deals with the conflict between religion and science, I see this as only one battle in a wider war—a war between rationality and superstition. Religion is but a single brand of superstition (others include beliefs in astrology, paranormal phenomena, homeopathy, and spiritual healing), but it is the most widespread and harmful form of superstition. And science is but one form of rationality (philosophy and mathematics are others), but it is a highly developed form, and the only one capable of describing and understanding reality.
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Above all, religion, faith healing, and alternative medicine all show the diagnostic feature of faith: an agenda not to find the truth, but to support one's biases, emotions, and personal beliefs.
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No reputable theologian, or rational believer for that matter, adheres strictly to Biblical morality. As everyone knows, believers pick and choose their morality from a smorgasbord of divine commands, both good and bad, in scripture. And doing that shows that you have a sense of right and wrong that doesn't come from the Bible or God. Ergo, it comes from evolution and culture.
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Even more than religious belief, acceptance or denial of evolution is a test of character. For if you deny evolution is true, you are either pandering to the public even though you know better (showing that you're ambitious but lack character), are truly ignorant of the facts (which means you can't be trusted to be informed about crucial issues), or are a flat-out creationist (showing that you're batshit crazy).
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No, we don't have faith in reason and science in the same way as Cru members have faith in God. I see faith according to Walter Kaufmann's definition: strong belief in propositions for which there is insufficient evidence to command the assent of every reasonable person. We have confidence in science because it has led us to provisional truths—it works. Cru doesn't even know if there's any God, or, if there is a divine presence, that it's the Abrahamic god rather than the Hindu god, Yahweh, or Wotan. And we use reason in the same way: it leads us to truth. Revelation, dogma, and authority do not, for if they did there would be only one religion rather than thousands with their disparate and often conflicting doctrines.
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For good people to do evil doesn't require only religion, or even any religion, but simply one of its key elements: belief without evidence—in other words, faith. And that kind of faith is seen not just in religion, but in any authoritarian ideology that puts dogma above truth and frowns on dissent.
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Can you prove that leprechauns don't live in my garden? Well, not absolutely, but if you never see one, and they have no effects, than you can provisionally conclude that they don't exist. And so it is with all the fanciful features and creatures we firmly believe don't exist.
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It is curious that those who claim such firm knowledge about God's nature and works become silent when asked about God's methods.
Jerry Coyne
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Quote of the day
Destiny is the invention of the cowardly, and the resigned.
Ignazio Silone
Jerry Coyne
Born:
December 30, 1949
(age 74)
Bio:
Jerry Allen Coyne is an American professor of biology, known for his commentary on intelligent design. A prolific scientist and author, he has published dozens of papers elucidating the theory of evolution.
Known for:
Why Evolution Is True (2009)
Speciation (2004)
Most used words:
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religion
faith
evidence
god
truth
religious
morality
claims
reason
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find
people
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