bbmac
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As we approach the major christian festival of Christmas, it always occurs to me that if primitive man had been sophisticated enough to understand the big bang theory, darwin, evolution, dna, and other scientific approaches that provide a more realistic fact based account of the evolution of this planet/man, 'science' might have become 'religion.'
Man has an inherent need to understand his origins, and the origins of the environment around him, the natural corollary of not understanding it, leads him to believe in something bigger/greater than himself, ie a 'god like' all mighty existance that created both him and the planet. This, and the need to have a governing code/set of standards by which to live and create functioning societies is probably what gave rise to the major religions of the world.
Marx called religion 'the opium of the masses' and western christian history has proved that it was indeed mis-used as an instument of state. Indeed even today in the developing world, and in other more extreme interpretations of all religious codes, it continues to enslave it's followers. No surprise then that the last pope (John Paul II) had effectively abandoned any hope of a widespread christian renaissance in Europe, calling it a 'god-less' continent, the catholic church turning instead to the more fertile grounds of under-developed nations in Africa and South America.
Faith asks of us to believe in a phenomenon that is unproven and probably likely to remian that way, whereas Science attempts to provide logic, and empirical evidence of it's effects on the planet's/man's continuing evolution. Indeed even some Christian teachings now talk about 'intelligent design' as a kind of Adam & Eve/ darwinian hybrid.
It's interesting to wonder what the effect on mankind would have been had man known of the 'science' way back when.
Man has an inherent need to understand his origins, and the origins of the environment around him, the natural corollary of not understanding it, leads him to believe in something bigger/greater than himself, ie a 'god like' all mighty existance that created both him and the planet. This, and the need to have a governing code/set of standards by which to live and create functioning societies is probably what gave rise to the major religions of the world.
Marx called religion 'the opium of the masses' and western christian history has proved that it was indeed mis-used as an instument of state. Indeed even today in the developing world, and in other more extreme interpretations of all religious codes, it continues to enslave it's followers. No surprise then that the last pope (John Paul II) had effectively abandoned any hope of a widespread christian renaissance in Europe, calling it a 'god-less' continent, the catholic church turning instead to the more fertile grounds of under-developed nations in Africa and South America.
Faith asks of us to believe in a phenomenon that is unproven and probably likely to remian that way, whereas Science attempts to provide logic, and empirical evidence of it's effects on the planet's/man's continuing evolution. Indeed even some Christian teachings now talk about 'intelligent design' as a kind of Adam & Eve/ darwinian hybrid.
It's interesting to wonder what the effect on mankind would have been had man known of the 'science' way back when.
