Consider this post directed towards anyone who agrees with the following statement:
You know what's similarly amazing? How much power is gotten out of science. Place a civilization powered by the fruits of scientific inquiry in a war against a civilization that is ostensibly pre-scientific, and the result will be a bloodbath Yahweh could be proud of - complete and utter destruction. This was the case back when the biggest technological advancements were "let's use short stabbing swords and shields in a tactical position", and it's doubly the case now that science has delivered us the power to wipe entire continents off the map.
The computer you are typing on is a wonder of scientific advancement, of understanding our world and putting that understanding to work. The house I live in (can't make assumptions about you but I think it's fair to say that quite a bit of this applies) was built in accordance with scientific standards to ensure that it would be energy-efficient, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and last for a while.
When I go out, I step onto an advanced machine that ferries me from point A to point B faster than the fastest horse. My job involves tending to advanced machines which mass-produce small plastic parts for other useful tools, an advancement made single-handedly possible by the fruits of the scientific method.
Then, I go home via the same machine, and eat food made bountiful beyond the dreams of our ancestors thanks to modern farming, fertilization, and breeding techniques and accessible by the same token.
WE. HAVE. BEEN. TO. THE. MOON.
You know why people put their trust in science? Because science works. Because it truly and demonstrably improves every single aspect of our lives from the tiniest minutia of not needing to dig a hole to take a crap to the massive overarching power of modern agriculture to feed an exponentially growing populous.
What's amazing to me is that to this day and age, there are still people who, while quite obviously soaking in the benefits of science (as evidence by you posting on this forum) are willing to say things like what you just said. The exact same science that built the lives we live in the west is responsible for our understanding of the cosmos and our own history, and the understanding that the bible is not and cannot be literally true.
And then there are those who claim that science is not universally applicable. Okay, fine, maybe it isn't - after all, it does limit itself to the natural. But if you want to throw out an epistemological framework that is consistently known to work, the onus is on you to provide an alternative framework, and to demonstrate that it actually functions as such. It's not enough just to say "science isn't the status quo". At this point, science specifically and empiricism in general are the status quo. They are the methods we have used to create this modern society, and if you want to discard them, you'd better have both a damn good reason for doing so and a damn good alternative present. So far, I still have yet to see such an alternative. Maybe someone will be able to help me out here.
You know what's similarly amazing? How much power is gotten out of science. Place a civilization powered by the fruits of scientific inquiry in a war against a civilization that is ostensibly pre-scientific, and the result will be a bloodbath Yahweh could be proud of - complete and utter destruction. This was the case back when the biggest technological advancements were "let's use short stabbing swords and shields in a tactical position", and it's doubly the case now that science has delivered us the power to wipe entire continents off the map.
The computer you are typing on is a wonder of scientific advancement, of understanding our world and putting that understanding to work. The house I live in (can't make assumptions about you but I think it's fair to say that quite a bit of this applies) was built in accordance with scientific standards to ensure that it would be energy-efficient, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and last for a while.
When I go out, I step onto an advanced machine that ferries me from point A to point B faster than the fastest horse. My job involves tending to advanced machines which mass-produce small plastic parts for other useful tools, an advancement made single-handedly possible by the fruits of the scientific method.
Then, I go home via the same machine, and eat food made bountiful beyond the dreams of our ancestors thanks to modern farming, fertilization, and breeding techniques and accessible by the same token.
WE. HAVE. BEEN. TO. THE. MOON.
You know why people put their trust in science? Because science works. Because it truly and demonstrably improves every single aspect of our lives from the tiniest minutia of not needing to dig a hole to take a crap to the massive overarching power of modern agriculture to feed an exponentially growing populous.
What's amazing to me is that to this day and age, there are still people who, while quite obviously soaking in the benefits of science (as evidence by you posting on this forum) are willing to say things like what you just said. The exact same science that built the lives we live in the west is responsible for our understanding of the cosmos and our own history, and the understanding that the bible is not and cannot be literally true.
And then there are those who claim that science is not universally applicable. Okay, fine, maybe it isn't - after all, it does limit itself to the natural. But if you want to throw out an epistemological framework that is consistently known to work, the onus is on you to provide an alternative framework, and to demonstrate that it actually functions as such. It's not enough just to say "science isn't the status quo". At this point, science specifically and empiricism in general are the status quo. They are the methods we have used to create this modern society, and if you want to discard them, you'd better have both a damn good reason for doing so and a damn good alternative present. So far, I still have yet to see such an alternative. Maybe someone will be able to help me out here.
