Quote

Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer. - Unknown

I say
It is only in religion that the clasped hands could collude to prevent the working hands to improve mankind.

Politics, Science & Religion

No doubt the three domains in the title are inter-related. Here is a piece by Sam Harris published in the New York Times on the nomination of Francis Collins to be the next director of National Institutes of Health. Harris' concluding paragraph sums up his worry and motivation of writing the article:

Francis Collins is an accomplished scientist and a man who is sincere in his beliefs. And that is precisely what makes me so uncomfortable about his nomination. Must we really entrust the future of biomedical research in the United States to a man who sincerely believes that a scientific understanding of human nature is impossible?

To me, it is interesting to learn how a Scientist may reconcile Science with god. Here is how Harris describes Collins' thought process:

Dr. Collins has written that science makes belief in God “intensely plausible” — the Big Bang, the fine-tuning of nature’s constants, the emergence of complex life, the effectiveness of mathematics, all suggest the existence of a “loving, logical and consistent” God....Dr. Collins ... insists that at some moment in the development of our species God inserted crucial components — including an immortal soul, free will, the moral law, spiritual hunger, genuine altruism, etc.

The difficulty for me is to reconcile the "loving, logical and consistent" claim of a Christian god who would be ready to suspend/disrupt the working logical and consistent order of the Universe to prayers in order to exhibit "loving". More importantly, if human is the purpose of the creation of the Universe - hence deserves the full attention of god - why Earth is NOT at the centre of the Universe. The almighty god would have created a Universe where Earth would be at the centre.

I share the concerns Harris has. This Collins would be put in a position of huge political power and tremendous among of resources. Would he be able to exercise judgement without bias due to his religious is questionable.

Why Religious are hindering our progess?

On the other hand, those who know God (as apposed to those who simply "believe" in His existence) can be sure of many things. This is because God is never wrong. Ever. He is absolutely trustworthy in that which He says. We can therefore know absolutely about our origins, and we can know absolutely what is right and what is wrong. There is no "probably" when it comes to His immutable promises. - Ray Comfort

The above quote is typical Ray.

That kind of belief system hinders progress. There are lots of unknown yet to be discovered. The lazy system of assigning unknown to a god means there is no more need to find out the truth.

Quotes

Teaching people to be nice for selfish reasons simply leads to the hypocrisy, double standards and conceit that we so often see in the religious. Much better to teach them that being decent is reward enough in itself and doesn't need an ulterior motive. - unknown

Do not pray in my school, and I will not think in your church. - unknown

Jimmy Carter has finally woken from religious slavery

While it may be too little too late, Jimmy Carter's decision to sever his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades is a welcome sign of improvement. This former USA President cited the discrimination of women based on outdated scripture as the main reason for doing so.

What has disappointed me is Carter still blames the injustice upon women as a selfish interpretation of the bible/"holy" teachings by religious leaders. The fact is that religious leaders willingly believe or hypocritically claim to believe in an unproven god and wield their power based on such a lie is a greater crime to humanity. The world would be a much better place without religion.

Religion is an indicator of the failure of education

Isn't very sad that today, when Science has demonstrated how human life can be improved, there are still so many people, presumably educated, to believe in the existence of god?

If as described by bible that human were the purpose to create this universe, it would be very strange to know that we are NOT at the centre of the universe. Previously we thought the Earth was flat. Previously we thought the Sun revolved around the Earth. Today, we know that planet Earth is just one of the many planet of our Sun - the closest stars among millions of other stars in the Milky Way which is just one of billions of other galaxy. Why the creator would have put his/her master piece in such an odd position? Why would the creator be so interested in our every thoughts?

Religion is an indicator of the failure of education.

Quotes

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? - Epicurus

Tony Blair seems to have fallen for some Lewis Carroll-type logical fallacy that runs something like this: I believe in God; people who believe in God are good; people who are good do not do wrong; therefore, what I do is good. -Alexander Chancellor

Why there are so many churches in USA?

Here is my theory why there are so many churches in USA?

1. Religion is a very good business. First, it is tax free. Second, there is no lack of "volunteers" working for you. Third, USA has a very large customer base.

2. There are basically two products religions are selling: hope and fear. Different church has a different combination of them - a different formula so to speak. Those successful would gain great wealth and power. Some churches add a little welfare as a side business.

3. "False christians" has become a caveat. It means customers of the churches other than yours.

4. The initial hurdle to start such a business is minimum. One just needs to give the bible a slightly different interpretation and starts talking up one's interpretation as the "true" meaning. The wonderful thing about christians in that the bible contains such many contradictions, inconsistencies and falsehoods that even the most stupid interpretation would fix into the bible. Even better is that one does not have to justify one's claim. - "Its all from God and I have a direct line with him" is sufficient. The catch is that you need to sell your soul to Satan.

[I know this post will offend a lot of people. So be it. Just name me a preacher who works full time in a real job and then use the money earned in the real job to preach. Successful preachers are paid handsomely by the "church" (his own business which does not pay any tax) and spend like a king.]

[ScSS] Newton's Laws have been disproved

It has sometimes been used by un-informed theists that Scientific laws are "unstable", constantly being challenged and/or changed as Science progresses.

Let me use an example to correct this misconception.

Yes, new findings may dispute previous established Scientific theory. However, a complete overturn of any established theory is very rare. It was great news when Einstein disproved Newton's established laws of motion. Do we still use Newton's laws of motion? Absolutely yes. The main discovery by Einstein is that when objects are moving near the speed of light, its observed mass will increase. Hence additional energy given to the object will not have that manifested effect on its velocity if its mass were not changed.

In our everyday life, we seldom encounter object moving at speed of light and yet we need to calculate its speed (or velocity). At human speed, Einstein's revised laws of motion is ALMOST the same as Newton's laws. For any practical purposes, we can regard the result derived from Newton's law accurate enough.

While I have very limited knowledge in Biology and evolution in particular, I am quite certain that when a biologist claims to have discovered some new theory related to evolution, s/he will be most likely filling in one or more of the missing pieces of the evolution theory. I cannot foresee a discovery which will completely overturn the theory of evolution in any near future.

Quotes

The following two quotes together should give believers a lot of food for thoughts.

Apologists for religion point to charitable works as some sort of justification for it. I answer: non-believers perform these, too, out of simple fellow feeling, not requiring the idea of pleasing a deity or getting into heaven to prompt them to it. - A.C. Grayling

Religion is single-handedly the number one killer in the history of man. - Bradley Wood

Quotes

Atheism is not incompatible with morality, nor does it require hating religious people, nor does it mean a life lacking happiness or meaning. In fact, the journey to atheism can be a wonderful, exhilarating liberation, as many who've walked that road can tell. The only thing being an atheist means is that you don't believe in any gods. In every other respect, you can live your life however you want and be the same person you have always been. - Daylight Atheism