{"id":670,"date":"2010-10-24T13:52:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T13:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/a-priest-and-a-rabbi-walk-into-a-science-lab.html"},"modified":"2010-10-24T13:52:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-24T13:52:00","slug":"a-priest-and-a-rabbi-walk-into-a-science-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/a-priest-and-a-rabbi-walk-into-a-science-lab.html","title":{"rendered":"A Priest And A Rabbi Walk Into A Science Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
I guess today is religion versus faith day in Ottawa because the Ottawa Citizen<\/i> online has a rabbi AND a priest talking about it.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nHere\u2019s the priest<\/a><\/span>:<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
We have come to think science handles facts whereas religion deals with beliefs that are personal opinions. Science, however, is silent on some of the most important questions we have: Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Some people think that because these questions cannot be satisfactorily answered by science, they have no answer.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
That\u2019s because they have no answer.\u00a0 The universe does not exist for our pleasure.\u00a0 The meaning of your life is whatever meaning you attach to it.\u00a0 He is very confused about the difference between beliefs and facts:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
We fail to acknowledge that science and religion share one important thing in common: the need for all forms of knowledge to take some things \u201con faith\u201d when we look for the truth. Very few people today, for example, know much about particle physics: when read an article about quarks, we take \u201con faith\u201d that the scientist who wrote it has told us the truth. People sometimes consider, however, the first-hand accounts in the Gospels of the witnesses of Christ\u2019s life, death and resurrection to be mere opinions (a.k.a. beliefs).<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
This is a profoundly ignorant statement.\u00a0 Maybe I don\u2019t know much about quarks, but the scientists who have discovered them have written peer-reviewed papers based upon experimentation performed in particle accelerators.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need faith to accept that.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
As for this business about first-hand accounts in the Gospels, there is no such thing.\u00a0 Not a single one of the Gospel writers ever met Jesus.\u00a0 Mark is the earliest one and its author, who was not a person named Mark, wrote it decades after Jesus\u2019 death.\u00a0 The others all came later.\u00a0 The books are riddled with contradictory versions of the story.\u00a0 No scholar of the New Testament denies this.\u00a0 No one who has read the books could miss this.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Also weighing in this morning is homo-obsessed Orthodox rabbi Reuven Bulka, author of One Man, One Woman, One Lifetime<\/i>, member of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, and converter to Judaism of Dr. Laura Schlessinger.\u00a0 He actually sounds somewhat more reasonable<\/span><\/a> than his Catholic colleague:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2026[T]he most crucial point of conflict between and science and religion is the mistaken presumption that religion and science are in conflict. Scientists err when they presume that religion contradicts science, and religionists err when they assume that science precludes religion.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
He goes on to point out that evolution and science don\u2019t conflict.\u00a0 Maybe not for him, but for millions of people they do.\u00a0 That\u2019s why over half of Americans are young earth creationists.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Then he says something else that I can definitely agree with:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
The bottom line is that science cannot prove the non-existence of God any more than any religion can prove the existence of God.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
How am I able to say that religion cannot prove the existence of God? Simply because if the proof were truly irrefutable, everyone would be a believer. Or, to put it more accurately, no one would be a believer, because everyone would \u201cknow\u201d that God exists by virtue of the proof, and true belief would disappear.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Belief is, after all, different from unassailable fact.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Very nice sounding indeed.\u00a0 Unfortunately, his lifelong assault on gays can\u2019t derive from any kind of scientific approach since the scientific community has no problem with homosexuality.\u00a0 It can only be a result of his religious beliefs. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
For Bulka the problem isn\u2019t his approach to science.\u00a0 It\u2019s his hypocrisy.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess today is religion versus faith day in Ottawa because the Ottawa Citizen online has a rabbi AND a priest talking about it. Here\u2019s the priest: We have come to think science handles facts whereas religion deals with beliefs that are personal opinions. Science, however, is silent on some of the most important questions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,31,38],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-catholicism","tag-orthodox-judaism","tag-science-and-reason"],"yoast_head":"\nA Priest And A Rabbi Walk Into A Science Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I guess today is religion versus faith day in Ottawa because the Ottawa Citizen online has a rabbi AND a priest talking about it. 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