Science vs. Faith — a few examples
Science VS Faith — A few examples
When a surgeon removes a tumor from a patient, and saves the person’s life, did he look at the situation scientifically, research prior surgeries, run tests based on real world results, and compare them logically with other similar cases in an attempt to systematically narrow down if the patient has cancer, where the cancer was located, and what the most appropriate treatment might be?…
…or did he pray really, really hard and God told him where to cut?
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When a rapist decides to stalk and attack a woman, did he do a statistical analysis of the success rate of rape attempts? Did he research the long term psychological effects that the act of rape has on the rapist himself, or look into the effects on the victim? Did he sit down with a spreadsheet and graph out the chances of being caught, versus the potential jail sentence, and factor in any other possibilities?…
…or did he just take it on faith that he should follow his emotions?
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When the astronauts landed on the moon, did they run tests first, calculating odds, running simulations and analyzing results?…
… or did God lift them up there?
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When a 16 year old girl gets pregnant, is it because she made the mistake of sitting down to logically consider all the potential consequences, examining charts on the statistical likelihood of becoming pregnant, and analyzing the common emotional and physical consequences of an unexpected pregnancy?…
… or did she just have faith that it would all be okay?
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When researchers find cures for diseases, is it because they had a logical system to run tests and analyze results to meticulously narrow down the possible causes of the disease and how it responded to treatments?…
… or did they have a spiritual vision, which told them exactly which chemicals to mix together to produce a cure?
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When a father decides to put down his child’s college fund on a hand of Black Jack, is he doing it because he did research about the statistical likelihood of winning or losing, comparing logically his chances of winning and the joy that would entail with the possibility of defeat and the consequences of that, factoring in any consequences that may occur to his family?…
… or did he just have faith that he wouldn’t lose this time.
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This is not intended to imply that faith has no value. In the example of the surgeon, yes, the research and the tests, and all the science is done first, but once all that is done, and there’s no more tests that can possibly be performed and the doctor has learned all the facts he could reasonably know, and analyzed the results as much as possible, and now it’s time for him to actually pull out the scalpel, and start cutting, then it’s time for faith. A surgeon can’t be thinking about the statistical likelihood of slipping up and harming his patient, or worrying about what will happen if things go wrong, as he is certainly well aware of what could happen. It’s time for the surgeon to calm his nerves and have faith that the forces of the universe will steady his hand and that he won’t forget anything, and that it will all work out.
So there is a huge value in faith. However, if you want to be successful in life, faith should be utilized only after all other avenues of logical analysis have been exhausted. This might sound like it would take much of the joy and wonder out of life, but when you know that you have analyzed things to the furthest possible degree, you greatly increase your chances of success in whatever you are trying to accomplish, and you feel sure of yourself, confident that reality is not going to come up and collapse around you when you find out you misjudged something. This self-confidence transfers into the deeper realms as well, allowing spiritual freedom, expression, and individuality that isn’t possible under a faith-based life perspective.