Leave this dogma in the dark it came from
Religions have nothing to offer science, asserts Peter Schneider
It must surely be self-evident that man created the gods, not the other way around.
This is in response to the article titled ‘Science, religion do go hand-in hand,’ published Nov. 22.
If religion and science as Rabbi Baskin contends do go hand, then one hand surely is in the hand of an abductor.
Science is nothing more than the ascent of human knowledge whereas religion, firmly rooted in superstition, is nothing more than recycled mythology. How can findings based on objective, fact-based analysis be anything else but mutually exclusive of faith-based notions of supernatural entities?
The Rabbi also tells us that science does not have all the answers and proposes that religion fill in the gaps.
No thanks, Rabbi. Thankfully we have literature and the arts, philosophy and history to guide and instruct toward deeper understanding. Indeed, it’s a good thing that science doesn’t have all the answers because it compels questioning and the relentless pursuit of better answers and, above all else, allows science to evolve.
Can this be said for any religion on this planet? Don’t religions profess certainty? Questioning is often heretical. In one instance the authority figure on gilded throne deemed infallible. “Incapable of making mistakes” is one hell of a way of filling in gaps.
Religions prescribe answers, Rabbi, legislate truth by decree, excommunicate critics, execute them in some cases. Follow or perish is the operative creed. Not much enlightenment there. Religions’ dusty dogma resolutely remains in the dark from whence it came. Regrettably, primeval slime having shaped man’s nature, like crazy glue, holds fast the ancient lifelines providing refuge and comfort to Neanderthal and his descendants, who crawling on the planet’s hostile surface divined the presence of all-powerful spirits.
On-your-knees desperate worship of imagined apparitions ushered in the dawn of paranoid spirituality culminating in due course in the creation of mythologies and their more sophisticated cousins, religions. And much like the human body retains appendages of its evolutionary travels, the mind regrettably continues to harbour these ancient superstitions that find comfort in an eclectic assortment of angels and demons, gods and devils, witches and wizards conceived in profound ignorance and raw fear. It must surely be self-evident that man created the gods, not the other way around. But then again, there are gun-toting Trump fans who adore him.
But why settle for edification when the poetry of fairy tales is so much more appealing? Indeed, Adam’s adventures under the apple, God’s six-day construction project along with the intrepid snake, the magic rib and all the rest of it do provide compelling fiction which demands very little from its audience.
Not so with science. The very recent confirmation that gravitational energy is equivalent to inertial energy is providing invaluable insights into understanding stellar evolution — i.e. WHERE WE CAME FROM. No, religions have nothing to offer science; they are redundant.
Rabbi Baskin has on many occasions in this newspaper shared profound insights into important subjects. His scholarship is to be envied. Respectfully I challenge his contention that religion and science are mutually supportive. They cannot be. The dialogue he favours can be better served with a succinct monologue: That which is asserted without proof can be rejected without proof.