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Originally Posted by Augi
I don't think it would stand to his logic to remove science. Science, as far as I know, has never been the reason for fighting a war. Science is merely a tool to achieve humanity's will. Take science and technology away and you still have men fighting over anything with their fists---not just over who has the better god to pray to.
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Fair enough, although I suppose I could say that some wars, and other kinds of conflicts have resulted from arms or technology races....
But I could also say that a number of scientists I've spoken to do seem to treat rationalism, which generally they equate to science (I think they mean the theory of scientific reasoning and investigation, not methodologies of research and fabrication), much like a religion.
I would like to make it clear, I am a fan of science, and a believer in the efficacy of reasoning and investigation. I believe wholeheartedly in evolution, in the Big Bang, I was in the physics club in high school, etc. But the fundamental notion that all things are in some way objectively observable, or that a phenomenon can only be trusted if validated with repeated laboratory experiments which yield identical results, is a worldview. A chosen point of view. As much as any other philosophy, as much as a religion. It is a way in which to interface with the world. And when used responsibly by responsible persons, it is very effective, within the parameters of it's own paradigm. But inevitably, some things will not be effectively covered by that paradigm. And to suppose otherwise is, in its own way, just as fundamentalist as those fanatics who think that Genesis was designed to be a textbook on cosmology, geology, and biology.