Friday, February 29, 2008

Science vs Faith: What side are you on?

Before we rush into any conclusions, i am not asking that anyone choose one side because if you have been a staple on my blog you would realize that i always prefer a middle more stable ground rather than picking an extreme which requires that we constantly debate out stance against other extremes especially at times when our extreme theories aren't so convinving.
So why do i pose the question then? Well i am asking that you tell what discipline dominates your thinking; what set of rules or justifications to you turn to when faced with a choice or otherwise moral decision. Do you look to facts in nature (science) or tend to the holy writings -bible, koran etc (faith) to justify your actions?
Personally i choose neither one but use both of them choosing between each one depending on the situation at hand. I know what you are thinking; there he goes again settling for a common ground rather than sticking with one thing but honestly you can't rely on just on discipline to make who you are or at least the source of your justification. You need religion and science to go hand in hand for the a more effective society; a great mind once said " Science produces guns but religion tells you how to use it correctly".
The same applies to our society today in respect to laws, rules and norms. We might want to advocate that our legal constitutions are strictly political or selected based on facts but i would disagree with that because it is impossible to have a stance on pretty much everything without appealing to you faith or believe. When a political figure or representative gives his or her stance on thing like taxes, abortion or firearms, their personal experiences as a tax payer, a conscious human with a pre-disposed knowledge on abortion as well firearm violence all come into play. They also call on their faith from time to time making them ponder if the right thing to do is to reform the tax policy, if abortion is murder and if making firearms easily accessible is the best thing for a society where gun violence is always on the news!
We try to make out public space as free as possible from a particular religion, faith or belief but in doing so we open our public space to every religious belief and justification out there possible(on the basis of religion). I'm in no way advocating that our society becomes a strictly Christian or Moslem and therefore everyone has to abide to the laws of the Bible or the Koran. What i'm trying to expatiate is that we as members of a public society have to realize that others and us included have various religious beliefs we tend to call upon or use as a decision making rule book thus respect each and every one for that and realize that .....Different do not neccessarily mean wrong.

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