Thread:User talk:Tmtoulouse/Bump: You know that obnoxious thing people do on the internet when they've said something and they feel they haven't been paid enough attention? I'm doing that./reply (37)

How do you know what the limits of science are to make such a grandiose claim?

We used to have gods to make life happen. Now we know that isn't the case.

We used to have gods to make the sun rise. Now we know that isn't the case.

We used to have gods to heal the sick. Now we know that isn't the case.

We now have gods to create the universe...

See a pattern here? These beliefs are only beyond science that is possible now. You can only comprehend what actual observation of the universe can discover now. The world is like a giant ice sheet of ignorance. We constantly chip away at this with observation, reason, theory and prediction, learning new things as we progress. Meanwhile this vast icy sheet of ignorance is where God hides, and it's shrinking. Can it keep hiding forever? Yes, there'll always be that one last piece to chip away at. But by doing this you diminish your belief so much as to make it pathetic. Why call it God if it's so weak that it has to constantly run away from observation?

Now, back to the original point, what makes this different to other beliefs? Homeopathy originally was invented in the 17th century and appeared to work - though only because it was less harmful than the prevailing medicine of the time. Medicine since overtook it in effectiveness by stopping killing patients long enough to treat them properly. But the alternative medicine still exists, but now retreats back into the ice wall of ignorance, hiding itself from observation. The claim that active ingredients were infinitely diluted was blown apart and then replaced by less falsifiable means.

This is absolutely no different to a religion, which does the same thing but tries to invent things like metaphyiscal realms to hide in. The only option is to admit it's meaningless or shrink it down until it becomes pointless.