As much as I hate to rant unprovoked against religion, I saw a fake Facebook status from Galileo that made me feel like doing so. For those who don't know, I used to identify as an Atheist, but as of late have begun to identify as a Naturalist. Naturalism is "The view that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws (Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?)." Basically, it is what some people may think atheism is, but defined in what their views are, rather than what they are not.
One of the things that people tell me should drive me to religion is "faith." They say that I should have faith in something that I have no evidence for. My thought is that if there were a higher power, wouldn't it be pleased more by somebody that has the mental prowess to think for himself, rather than blindly follow those in power? If I were a robotics engineer, I would feel more accomplished if I had created artificial intelligence more than if I had created a robot that follows a set program.
Also, there are people that argue against evolution because they say it is only a "theory." This argument shows me that they truly do not understand basic science. They think that the words "theory" and "hypothesis" can be used interchangeably. A hypothesis is a possible explanation for a phenomena that does not yet have empirical evidence to support it. On the other hand, a theory does have empirical evidence, and is widely accepted as truth. The difference between the way scientists think and the way outsiders believe scientists think is that scientists can never prove something. Scientists can only disprove things. Scientists can only offer up empirical evidence in order to support a theory. This is why evolution will always be called a theory.
Evolution is probably the scientific theory that divides this country the most, even though the evidence is staring us all in the face. We domesticated dogs from wolves thousands of years ago, we caused MRSA to evolve from Staphylococcus within the last century, I myself have seen small scale evolution in the lab, but yet as recent as 2009, 60% of Americans still do not believe in evolution. They point to gaps in the fossil record, but yet beg for all to have faith in an invisible man up in the sky. They point to all of the mistakes that have been made by scientists as a reason to doubt their work.
Today is a perfect idea to point out why that last argument holds no weight. Five years ago today, the IAU realized that they had made a mistake in the classification of Pluto as a planet, and changed their stance. They accepted that they had been wrong, and pointed out their mistake. Science is always correcting itself when new evidence comes to light. While some people use this as a way to discredit controversial theories, many realize that this actually gives them more credibility. Which is why I do give the Catholic Church some credibility when they came out 5 years ago and said that intelligent design is a fallacy. They at least showed some intelligence when they did that. Even if nobody that attends Catholic services heard about it. Religion has a history of killing all those that go against their beliefs: Pagans, Galileo, et al. So why should we believe that they are right over a group that will do the proper research when presented with an opposing opinion?
