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Originally Posted by filtherton
On a scientific note: it is just as much an act of faith to believe absolutely in any of newton's laws or the laws of thermodynamics as it is to believe absolutely in god.
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No.
I have no faith in Newtons laws. I have used them to calculate ballistics or the force of an impact and then compared this with actual measurements to verify them as part of a university physics class. They work. With them I could tell you (well I would have been able to tell you 18 years ago) how much velocity and what angle was needed to make a projectile travel X distance, how high it would get, and how hard it would hit, in a vacuum and at various air densities. The variables add up and slight deviations will be noted.
Likewise at the same university as an exercise you would calculate the expected temperature of a liquid when a cold body was placed in a hot liquid, and then measure the actual result.
Both Newtons laws and the laws of thermodynamics are flawed to some degree, but they are working tools which are 'close enough' to make accurate predictions.
I have no faith in them, I have demonstrated some of them , those capable for a 2nd year science major at any rate, and they have held up.
If we had such proofs for God, odds are I'd be in the choir right now. There is no faith involved beyond assuming that which I haven't directly tested is also valid. Likewise when someone comes along as shows that they are not valid, I'm willing to change that 'faith' I have.