You then go onto to say that science is reasonable because you took a science class in school. I don’t buy this reasoning. Just because I have been offered a theory and a good explanation for something doesn’t mean that it is the truth. It is a leap of faith to assume that just because a few experiments worked in school that this means that every experiment in science is probably right. When we accept anything in science that we don’t understand we are in the same position as any believer who puts their faith in their preacher. The person who goes to religious class may also believe that they have been given a good theory. These people may even decide that their experiences of a personal contact with a higher power is their experimental proof.

It is true that scientific knowledge changes in relation to new data. That is probably its biggest selling point. However this does not necessarily mean that it is bringing humanity any closer to the truth. It could be taking us further from the truth. We are still left with the most basic question of whether or not the observable and measurable is real or not real. For all we know this is all one clever dream. Even if science one day manages to explain every aspect of the universe we will still be left with the question of ‘is any of this real?’. Now you may argue that it is unreasonable for me to ever doubt reality but that is your subjective opinion.

You finish your post with another straw man argument. I never claimed that lack of evidence is evidence of the truth. My argument in this post is that I don’t know enough to discount the idea that god/gods exist. I personally have not seen enough evidence to believe in such an entity, but I don’t have any evidence to discount the possibility either. The fact that I just don’t know means that, as far as I’m concerned, it is reasonable for other people to believe in such things.

your first point of what is resonable and what is not reasonable is not correct.
for example, according to your reasoning, if I choose to think that “killing children would increase my life force” is reasonable then it should be considered reasonable because “Who gets to decide what is reasonable and unreasonable to believe in?” You see the problem here? Reasonable things are considered reasonable unless it doesn’t agree with what is observeable. So, it’s reasonable to assume that science is correct with regards to things that I cannot directly observe, the shape of the planet, gravity or whatever theory you want to test. Why do I feel this is reasonable? I took science in school and I understand the scientific principals – I’ve seeen science performed and trust that other science is performed under the same scrutany, checks and ballances as the easily testable and observeable science i’ve witnesseed.

also, you seem to be mis-construing scientific doubt with reasonable doubt. for example, unicorns do not exist. that’s a reasonable statement to most people, however if you take into account the entire vastness of the universe and how much we haven’t discovered, it is possible (thought unlikely) that there is a single horned horse somewhere out there – so, is it reasonable to assume that unicorns exist? no. evidence does not support that at this time. like the scientific method, if suddenly we find a single horned horse on jupiter (or somewhere) science will change it’s theory to represent this new piece of evidence.

there is, in fact, even less evidence that a god or magical creator exists than a unicorn (at least there are hornless unicorns, i still have yet to see proof of any magical being)

as far a science taking things on faith, it is true in some respect that we take some science on faith – after all we all haven’t witnessed the shape of the earth. that is why all scientific study has the same cavet. “this is how things act now, if it changes in the future, the scientfic method will have to adopt the new findings.”

religion does not have this cavet, if something changes in the future they desperatly deny that the past happened.

so – in short – lack of evidence is not evidence of truth.

david

like you i am in need of a trip to a dentist and i live close to min buri and wondered if you could forward me the address or phone number of the dentist you visited

i too will pluck up the courage

regards david