Re: [Phys-l] About the "why" and "how" questions.

[William Robertson <wrobert9@ix.netcom.com>]

This illustrates much of what I've been talking about regarding  
science and religion. I just don't see why anyone would see it as a  
competition, and would see the need to denigrate people with religious  
beliefs. Religion and science don't play the same game, though some  
think they do, on both sides. Of course religion answers the final  
"why" question, for millions of people. And that's the end of my  
comments on this.

Bill




On Dec 23, 2010, at 10:18 PM, Hugh Haskell wrote:

> Putting the answer to the final "why" in "the province of religion"
> is debatable. It certainly isn't the province of science, but
> religion has little to contribute here either, other than more or
> less ancient man-made myths. Since those answers are speculation of
> the most idle kind, I would not give religion the comfort of thinking
> that they have found an answer to a question that science cannot. To
> assume that religion rules here is, just as accepting a "god of the
> gaps" argument, a dead end. Historically, science has repeatedly
> moved the limit of the final question down the road, each time
> pushing the "province of religion" before it. It seems clear to me
> that religion has nothing of value to offer as an answer the final
> "why" question, any more than science does--less, in fact, since we
> can assume that the efforts of science will in fact move the final
> "why" further along with time.