pjhair wrote: ↑1 year ago
I wouldn't call it hierarchy as it tends to devalue things that you put lower in hierarchy. What is currently more important to you (narrative or science) depends on what you are trying to achieve. For example, if you are shopping on Amazon, all you need is a functioning website. You don't need to worry about the code that has been written to make that website work. However, if there is a bug in the website, then you will have to worry about the code. Similarly, narratives may be important to you if you are trying to improve your life, however scientific methods become important if you are trying to convince people that there are not 50 genders. We live in a world where people have very diverse and often conflicting view on what is important or "real". Devaluing scientific methods and facts leads to conflicts and even wars.
False. Many agnostics and atheists have messy lives. Similarly, many religious people have good and happy life. Many times people in trouble turn to God but I simply disagree with your claim that "lives of all atheists and agnostics isn't messy enough".
Many atheists, like me, don't believe in God because there is no evidence for him. That's it. It doesn't matter what personal benefits or advantages one can derive from this belief, as long as there is no evidence for his existence, I can't believe in God.
Yes, Islam is a destructive religion but it just goes on to show the basic problem of blindly believing in narratives. If those Muslims employed scientific methods, they will probably leave their religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Reason
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dechristi ... Revolution
And then you have the atheist regimes that the death of God spawned. If you give up one (scientific method, reason) or the other (truth, knowledge of good and evil, striving for heaven and getting away from hell), it often has murderous consequences.
There should never have been an opposition between science and religion, and many scientists and intellectuals have actually tried (and are still trying in the case of Jordan Peterson) to reconcile them.
You're right, in the material world, there is no evidence of the existence of God, and probably never will be, because he doesn't exist in that reality, which is why I believe putting science above God (which could be your idea of the highest good) is a mistake.
Believing in God and all it implies is an act of faith, you can't know if it's true before you give it a shot if you want. And it can take a while before everything properly aligns around you. But now I see it, and there's no going back. I wish I had stayed there but maybe it was part of the journey to doubt and have an atheist/agnostic phase, my girlfriend surprisingly had a similar experience. Christian => agnosticism/atheism => renewed (and strengthened) faith.
To address the 'there are 50 genders' claim (and it's not 50 but 63 you biggot! :p), well there are several ways to tackle that one, first, we know that gender is 0.97 correlated with sex, so yeah, it's basically the same thing, you can scrap that since it describes the same thing in reality. Second, a story, a good story is supposed to help us navigate in the world, and yes, a good one will often be aligned with what we find in science: here the chromosomes XX and XY. Trying to change that one will only produce more harm and suffering in the world. Confusion for children and neurotic people, a kind of false god for the radical leftist activists that will eventually make them insane and ostracized by people who don't buy their story, which is like 95% of the population.
Their narrative only creates chaos and has no leg to stand on, unlike religion and the story of Christ, it doesn't organically attaches itself on an existing structure in your mind, virtually no one wants to hear that story, and it's possible that even the most radical people pushing this idea don't believe it themselves. So what was the only way for them to make that harmful and unituitive interpretation of reality survive? First force it into academia, then into the school system and recently into the law itself. I just saw a few moments ago that Germany just put into the law that there was a third gender (diverse lol). Fools, they just unleashed chaos into their law system and society and some people are applauding it.
Anyway, if you have to shame someone into believing your story, threaten them and eventually make it mandatory to believe in it, chances are that it's wrong, and seriously wrong. And yes, I believe that the values that religion (I'm only talking about Christianity/Judaïsm here) taught people can help us destroy those harmful unscientific theories, thanks to the good/evil lens for example.
My last point would be, we've had the scientific method for a couple centuries so, how do you think that the average person would conduct their lives before that? Do you really think that we're superior beings with better lives because most of us in the West have elevated science above religion? It's not what I usually see, as I've said, we all know that the depression and anxiety levels have been skyrocketing in the last decades. So how come science and rationality don't seem to help us with existential angst? When I say that agnostic/atheist people's lives aren't messy enough, I mean that they can afford to have those beliefs without sinking, or their personality make-up also them to bear it for a long time. But me? Nah, neurotic and open as I am, rationality and materialism almost drove me insane.
In the end I see it that: my life is much, much better since I've become a Christian again, and it's not me convincing myself here, it's the truth, it's real, and therefore for me, God is real.
