Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutt
Man's arrogance and conceit that at the point in time he's on Earth that he's got it all pretty much figured out. For primitive age man the answer was religion, dieties. Today it's science for many. Two thousand years from now looking back at what we know now, what we hypothesize now, will make us look primitive. The solid science we have collected through our existence will stand, I'm amazed reading about these geniuses from thousands and hundreds of years ago and their work in math and sciences. And two thousand years from now scientists will look at our contributions and be impressed but they'll also think how primitive we were.
Here's what I wonder - if we don't destroy ourselves completely and we continue to thrive on this planet, we are going to make ourselves immortal - whether that is reprogramming our genes, making a copy of ourselves, downloading what's inside our minds into a new body, whatever - to many religion is mostly about a fear of death, non-existence. If we were to live for 500 years or forever the need for religion for many would evaporate.
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See I think it's beliefs based on scientific inquiry that have the least conceit. On one hand you have people that KNOW they were made in god's image on god's special planet that used to be in the centre of the universe. This creator of the universe speaks to them or otherwises is there for them in there lives and has a personal plan for them.
Science on the other hand knows that knowledge is incremental and that we can't know everything and you have to be ok with probabilities, grey areas and unknowns. It also has a less conceited view of our place in the animal kingdom and universe.
On the other hand you also have to be aware that just because our science is primitive compared to 500 years in the future that doesn't make it wrong, bad or weak. The wheel is primitive but we still use it 2000 years later. To a certain extent you discover the large valid scientific principles early. Pretending for a moment there were 1000 advanced species in the universe, you would imagine that gravity was "discovered" before quantum mechanics in the vast majority ;)