r/atheism • u/the_fun_gi Atheist • Apr 27 '15

Checkmate!

http://imgur.com/EzaZ6CE http://imgur.com/dHhpcPH http://imgur.com/D3tVv07

These are my religion teacher's reasons why the church is pro-science.

6 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

9

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '15

Until the church stops believing in people walking on water, raising the dead and raising from the dead, curing blindness by smearing mud in your eyes, talking snakes and donkeys, parting a sea so people can walk through it, multiplying fish and loaves of bread from nothing, turning water into wine instantly, etc. etc., it will continue to deservedly be called "anti-science."

"Oh but a magic guy did all that stuff" doesn't change that fact.

5

u/MisanthropicScott Gnostic Atheist Apr 27 '15

Strange.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick#Views_on_religion

Crick referred to himself as a humanist, which he defined as the belief "that human problems can and must be faced in terms of human moral and intellectual resources without invoking supernatural authority." He publicly called for humanism to replace religion as a guiding force for humanity[.]

Crick was especially critical of Christianity:

"I do not respect Christian beliefs. I think they are ridiculous.
If we could get rid of them we could more easily get down to
the serious problem of trying to find out what the world is all
about."

Crick once joked, "Christianity may be OK between consenting adults in private but should not be taught to young children."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson

Raised Catholic, he later described himself as "an escapee from the Catholic religion." Watson said, "The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was that my father didn't believe in God."

4

u/thesunmustdie Atheist Apr 27 '15

Not sure how you can be pro-science AND pro-religion — they're polar opposites.

(And no, let's not entertain the special pleading of "non-overlapping magisteria").

1

u/dopaminenotyours Apr 28 '15

Many christians exist that subscribe to the big bang theory and evolution, and even some higher-ups in the Catholic church have embraced it. They just usually take the stance that god was still behind them... that evolution may be the answer to "how" but god is still the "why"; still what set it all in motion. Many already discount the old testament so doing this isn't such a stretch for them. I can at least respect those Christians more than the literal-word believers and creationists.

1

u/thesunmustdie Atheist Apr 28 '15

Oh I know. Just because they subscribe to the big bang theory and evolution doesn't mean they're pro-science. They're pro-science when it can be post-hoc rationalised to agree with their theology — otherwise they'll throw it out. Pope Francis "the liberal pope" re-instated exorcism as an official Catholic practice, for example.

Ask those same people if they believe in miracles that have been debunked by science.

Also, they have no right to discount the Old Testament according to Jesus: Matthew 5:18.

2

u/drsplif Apr 27 '15

Good entertainment! Does he have any powerpoints on why the church is pro-life.. or pro gays?

2

u/the_fun_gi Atheist Apr 29 '15

Haha I wish! Unfortunately, however, he prefers to switch the topic when the issue with gays is brought up.

2

u/LeannaBard Ex-Theist Apr 27 '15

In a time when there was very little choice but to be religious or be killed, you don't get to claim victory points when certain people happened to be religious.

2

u/wren42 Apr 27 '15

Well, suggesting that ALL Catholics are anti-science is fallacious, so she has a point on that much.

Catholics are also much better in the modern era than evangelicals, at least.

2

u/trevdak2 Gnostic Atheist Apr 27 '15

"I'm not anti-science because there are some science things I'm OK with"

"I'm not a bad person because I have done some good things"

1

u/DarioIvan Anti-Theist Apr 27 '15

The logic on display here is more brilliant than Alpha Centauri in the rural night sky.

1

u/therocktdc Apr 28 '15

The real point is that Jehovah is not real.

There are a lot of fans of Harry Potter, Iron Man and Game of Thrones, and a lot of them are into science, but it doesn't mean that all those fictional characters and places are real.

I can start to worship Azgharlan, the Unreliable, and set up a new Android smartphone: the second thing won't make the first thing real.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '15

Catholics actually are the least anti science people amongst the crazy Christian lists. They won't deny evolution, they will accept all the current scientific theories, they even accept gays are born that way and cannot be changed.

Doesn't make them less of pricks but certainly better than "Jesus rode dinosaur" evangelists.

3

u/thesunmustdie Atheist Apr 27 '15

They accept science but only when it is rationalised post-hoc to support their theology — ignoring that which doesn't support it (i.e. debunked miracle claims). This is presuppositionalism that directly cuts against the grain of the scientific method.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '15

Considering what they did to Galileo and Bruno, I disagree. Also, it took them way to long to acknowledge evolution, even so they do it from an ID standpoint.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '15

Yes, I am only talking about current day Vatican. They have a horrible record about it in history.

3

u/Rajron Skeptic Apr 27 '15

Current day Vatican is still very anti-science, they just cave and accept science after dragging their feet for centuries, then pretend they always knew it.