does God prefer science and secular ethics to religion?

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The only thing this theist find shocking, offensive, and often unprepared for is continued ignorance about theology and religion from a global, multicultural perspective

Religion and theology have no relevance in my life. That shocks and offends you? Sorry, but I leave such musing to those who see value there.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Religion and theology have no relevance in my life. That shocks and offends you? Sorry, but I leave such musing to those who see value there.

And yet here you are daily, on a forum dedicated to a subject that has no relevance in your life.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

And yet here you are daily, on a forum dedicated to a subject that has no relevance in your life.

Not to study theology. I'm here for things that ARE relevant to me.

 

[Valjean]

Ethics and philosophy can be guided or misguided. We aren't infallible. God can guide through philosophy and ethics. I believe that is the proper approach to religion, it is to gain insights and not just blindly attribute to God what we don't know for certain.

Yet religious societies are more miserable, less prosperous and have higher crime rates than secular societies, where people decide for themselves what is best for them.

 

[Quintessence]

Religion and theology have no relevance in my life. That shocks and offends you? Sorry, but I leave such musing to those who see value there.

I was commenting about ignorance regarding theology and religion - the extremely poor cultural literacy on matters of theology and religion - not whether or not you personally believe it is relevant (which it always is, if you care even slightly about accurately understanding others and getting along with other humans). In fact, there was an article about this recently in The Conversation that I'd meant to make a thread on but just didn't get 'round to.

Finding objective ways to talk about religion in the classroom is tough − but the cost of not doing so is clear

Many countries wrestle with whether to include any kind of education about religion in public school lessons, and each one takes its own approach.

theconversation.com

 

[PearlSeeker]

I believe in God, however:

I believe that science is a better way to understand the universe than religion as it actually investigates the reality of existence

I believe that ethics and philosophy are a better means of telling us how to behave than anything any religion can offer although for practical purposes the two approaches have much in common

I believe that science and secular ethics make anything religion can offer in those fields look crude, primitive, and arbitrary

I think that God thinks this too

Does this sound reasonable?

I believe that it is because I believe that God values reason and truth and wants us to know these

I think that organised religion upsets God, especially when it goes too far and goes against truth and liberty (as it very often does)

God or Nature (it depends how you look at it) "gave" us reason and community. Basic ethical thinking is usually learned through storytelling. It doesn't matter if the stories are fictional. The problem is when the stories are contrary to reasonable understanding of ethics. Even small children notice that baby killing in biblical story (Exodus) is unjust.

 

[wellwisher]

I believe in God, however:

I believe that science is a better way to understand the universe than religion as it actually investigates the reality of existence

I believe that ethics and philosophy are a better means of telling us how to behave than anything any religion can offer although for practical purposes the two approaches have much in common

I believe that science and secular ethics make anything religion can offer in those fields look crude, primitive, and arbitrary

I think that God thinks this too

Does this sound reasonable?

I believe that it is because I believe that God values reason and truth and wants us to know these

I think that organised religion upsets God, especially when it goes too far and goes against truth and liberty (as it very often does)

One thing you left out is politics, and its hand maiden called propaganda and fake news. If science is so good at reality, how come science is not setting the record straight in terms of fake news versus truth? It could set up a tally system to help discredit all fake news on both sides. Science avoids this out of fear or will take a side; one sided truth detector. Philosophy also runs and hides. They can act tough at peace time or if they go along with the flow.

For example, medical science for decades came to the conclusion transgender beyond DNA sexual assignment was pathology. It is like using a pickup truck as sports car and thinking this is a winning combination. Now that there is political push, medical science is silent, ignoring decades of science common sense. Science has its strengths dealing with inanimate reality, but standing up to political gaming is not one of them. Even psychology is silent and unable to speak out, since politics can use fake news and minions to politically assassinate you, or use backdoor tactics to ruin your career; cut funding to accuse you of fraud. DEI can ruin companies with companies afraid to stand up and throw out the virus due to fear of political backlash.

The only one's who show backbone, in these cases, are the religions, since they understand human nature and also what I call the closet satanists and their illusions and fake news games of darkness; smile and back stab. Closet Satanists is a not a religion or cult but a life style. Science is afraid of the dark side of human nature. There are no martyrs of science fighting bad politics, even though politics will cause wars such as two World Wars and now Ukraine and Middle East.

This is part of the reason the founding father of USA enshrined religious freedom, since such as these, will take on the forces of closet Satan, even while these Forces lie about religion, to get rid of their only checks and balances. Dictators hate religion since it can stand in the way of welding full power and control of people. The Soviet Union tried to get rid of religion and appeared to do so until the Soviet Union fell and the scores of religious could come out of hiding. There are strength and skills that are under estimated in terms of the religious. They are ready when needed such as to help stabilize the destabilized chaos due to politics.

We all need to love one another and not follow programmed hate due to political divides. This goodness makes some people nervous like a vampire and holy water, less their games be neutralized.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I believe in God, however:

I believe that science is a better way to understand the universe than religion as it actually investigates the reality of existence

I believe that ethics and philosophy are a better means of telling us how to behave than anything any religion can offer although for practical purposes the two approaches have much in common

I believe that science and secular ethics make anything religion can offer in those fields look crude, primitive, and arbitrary

I think that God thinks this too

Does this sound reasonable?

I believe that it is because I believe that God values reason and truth and wants us to know these

I think that organised religion upsets God, especially when it goes too far and goes against truth and liberty (as it very often does)

Your God is a reflection of your values, so if you think organized religion is bad, so does your God.

 

[CharmingOwl]

Idk about what the gods or the monotheistic god wants, but if they want anything than other than people to be logical, they will have to talk to us and explain what we are supposed to do, because acting in a way that does not correspond to some sort of secular logic or reasoning does not seem justified. This is how we get religious groups trying to enforce strict religious rules on society with no reason that is justifiable to non-members.

 

[Alekdar]

I believe in God, however:

I believe that science is a better way to understand the universe than religion as it actually investigates the reality of existence

I believe that ethics and philosophy are a better means of telling us how to behave than anything any religion can offer although for practical purposes the two approaches have much in common

I believe that science and secular ethics make anything religion can offer in those fields look crude, primitive, and arbitrary

I think that God thinks this too

Does this sound reasonable?

I believe that it is because I believe that God values reason and truth and wants us to know these

I think that organised religion upsets God, especially when it goes too far and goes against truth and liberty (as it very often does)

Hey hey! Atheist here
I think religion has a part for explaining the world (athough not it's main purpose), but from the point of view of those who wrote it, im sure at the time it looked like the best explanation, nobody knew how nature worked so God was responsible for everything.
Science is literally the "Why" or "How" of things: Why is the sky blue? How did my wife get pregnant if i was on a trip until yesterday?
It is understandable to compare and seem religious explanations as crude and primitive, they had less material to justify stuff, they worked with what they had, but Science is also Arbitrary, which i don't think it's a bad thing, we create convenient concepts and tools, but our starting point may as well be arbitrary if it works and serves our needs.
Is it legal to try to think what God thinks?
Organised religion is the basis of the most popular religions today, and they don't seem to lack God's favour (although i don't know how it looks).
Cheers!

 

[Nielklot]

How is it useful?

I had a broken tire pump, and I keep it because it represents what a working tire pump should do, how is THAT useful?

Go on.

Go on.

Sounds like me. I hold on to all sorts of broken things, thinking that someday I will eventually work at fixing them. I toss them eventually all the while holding onto new broken things hoping for the same. Sounds almost like hope in something, that in the back of my mind I know to be a fruitless endeavor.

 

[Father Heathen]

If god gifted us with the ability to reason, I doubt 'he' would've intended for us to forgo its use. So by that logic, god would prefer science over religion, especially considering that religion was created by self appointed and self serving mortals who presumed to speak on god's behalf.