Science vs Religion stream of consciousness...

Not what I read.

 

Its part of general relativity. If the sun vanished it would be 8 minutes before the earth left its orbit.

 

Show me a reference.

 

I suppose the fact I have a phd in theoretical physics isnt sufficient? ;-)

 

You should know exactly which shelf and book to run along and grab then shouldnt you?

 

Indeed - http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3232

 

Unfortunately the latest edition of my reference text book "Everything you need to know about gravity but were afraid to ask" was published in 2002. I always thought Newton was patchy.

 

I didnt say science is about dominion over the natural world I said "it is the nature of mankind's arrogance that science is generally considered to have dominion over the natural world" - ie. many people perceive science in this way - as an example of how humans can deconstruct the wonder of existence in order to explain it, define it and catalog it. There is more to our existence than can be measured IMO.

 

Ah ok we agree then.

The misconception about gravity is deep rooted.

The light speed limit of gravity is a prediction from general relativity though so its been known since einsteins days.

 

In contrast I thought it was a legacy from Newtonian theory which Einstein disputed?

 

No newton thought it was instantaneous and einstein disputed it. In general reletivity nothing can exceed the speed of light (well tachyons possibly but they can never go below it).

 

To quote the article you referred to:
"Isaac Newton thought the influence of gravity was instantaneous, but Einstein assumed it travelled at the speed of light and built this into his 1915 general theory of relativity."

Ie. the perception that the influence of Gravity being instantaneous was a legacy from Newtonian theory which Einstein disputed in his theory of General Relativity.

 

Sorry what I wrote wasnt clear originally I should have split the sentence. But yes that is what I mean as shown in my subsequent post.

 

Haven't read the entire thread but the following thought(s) occurs to me in response to your original post Julian.


The belief in an after life can be (and often is) used as argument to commit some horrendeous acts against fellow human beings.
eg martyrs can be garenteed their place in heaven for following gods will.

and

I would have thought that rationaly minded people would see the fact that science questions the existence of the afterlife, leading to the very real possibility that we only have one shot at life and that it's in our best interests to make it as pleasant an experience as possible.

So off the back of those thoughts it would seem to me that it is science and not religion that gives us clear reasons as to why we should all get along with eachother.


GTM

 

Hear hear - it means we have to take reponsibility in this life. And removes absolute answers so that we have to think about what we do.

 

Really interesting posts, however science is not that far removed from religion as it seeks a truth and the proof of it. Religion seeks a one way truth then owns it and asks all its followers to live by that truth.
I believe the way forward is to reject both and accept that there are many truths and many understandings and many ways to live out our lives - in hormony preferably with others who follow differing paths with differing beliefs seeking different truth.

Accepting and welcoming difference gives us all a chance to live with our dream and respect others right to do the same -- We have too much government, too much science, and too much dogma in religion!

 

Actually it is far removed. Scientific knowledge is verifiable - religious knowledge is not. Also science deals with doubt and uncertainty - and knowledge is not the same as proof.

 

brizonbiovizier, I think that science is your religion!

 

au contraire - its just a means of conceptualising and then manipulating the world for purely utilitarian purposes. I dont think its anything to do with "truth" per se Its a method not a belief.

 

That statement could apply to either science or religion IMO, in fact I'm not sure which you aimed it at .