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{"id":643,"date":"2007-10-26T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-26T08:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2007\/10\/scientists-without-religion-are-immoral-so-says-the-vatican.html"},"modified":"2014-11-14T05:58:44","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T04:58:44","slug":"scientists-without-religion-are-immoral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2007\/10\/scientists-without-religion-are-immoral.html","title":{"rendered":"Scientists without religion are immoral – so says the Vatican!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

But we should still be scared of scientists \u2013 left to their own devices, they go mad and start creating atom bombs, cloning human beings <\/a>(and probably worse). Without guidance from a bloodthirsty book written by bronze-age shepherds, we\u2019d all be in the soup. After all, Christians weren\u2019t in charge when they dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaski, were they\u2026.??? <\/p>\n

Sadly for the Vatican (and others who still cling to similar superstitions), the fact is that morality does not come from the Bible \u2013 we are moral despite the Bible (and the Koran). Our morality comes from our evolutionary past, shaped by our capacity for reason and informed and guided by scientific understanding of what makes humans tick. We\u2019re rational creatures, capable of questioning dogma and judging what is wrong and right. Thank goodness! <\/p>\n

Incidentally, for a topical and entertaining fictional telling of the perils of mixing religious dogma with science, check out Phillip Pullman\u2019s \u201cNorthern Lights\u201d (\u201cGolden Compass\u201d in the US).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"