Never Give Up

Never Give Up

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Why Should Any Belief Claim Be Sacred?

 A religious belief or claim about supernatural events is by definition unprovable (unless specific predictions are made that will manifest itself in the natural world) since we live in a universe governed by natural laws that are understood with a considerable amount of precision that continues to be refined to ever greater precision. Those laws are never found to be violated. If they were we would have to throw them out because they wouldn't be very useful. Religious beliefs don't have to meet any standards. But those who hold them act like they are sacred and indeed tend to get very agitated if they are questioned. Why should that be? I recently read an article from MSNBC's Cosmic Log, a major science web site, that reported on events after the end of the world did not happen as predicted. The article said it was important not to make fun of anyone's religious beliefs. My first thought was, why not? Why shouldn't anyone making supernatural claims about extremely unlikely events be met with some eye-rolling? In any other area except religion they would be.

Harold Camping, the would-be prophet, was "flabbergasted" that the world didn't end on May 21st and now says it will happen October 21st.

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