Torn On The Science Vs. Religion Issue

[keero16]

See here's the thing: Define "science." You can't just say "science...." that term has too broad of a definition.

[feeltheillinois]

i am soothed by listening to you work out these ideas, haha

[RockBanned]

Science says that love is a chemical reaction and that's 100% true. It does not say however that your brain's interpretation of that reaction is anything less than what you feel it is. It's like pain. Feeling pain boils down to a chemical reaction too but that doesn't make slamming your finger in the door hurt any less.

The only thing is, when you assert there's something else there (i.e God/force), you have to provide evidence it exists; that's all science says.

[DiabolicalWinning]

I know this comment is coming 4 years later but heh I figured I'd put a little input into this because it is 4 am. It's just better to formulate your own opinion and believe whatever you want to believe and don't try to impose what you think onto other people. Because the real truth is that nobody really factually knows any of those huge questions as to how everything came to be and what the universe is expanding into.

[RockBanned]

@DiabolicalWinning It's true that science doesn't have the answer to all of the big questions. However, there are things we factually know to be true and I think it's fine to "impose" your beliefs on others if you're factually right. For example, surgical techniques are perfected using science and imposing those objective truths as a standard. I certainly want the people who run a hospital to "impose" the use of science.

[drewdeth9]

One of my biggest battles is learning to formulate arguments that are actually rooted in logic and not spawned from pure senseless emotion.

THAT, my friend, is science.

[unhealthytruthseeker]

Whenever I think about how bad life is, or how meaningless death is, I like to contemplate a line from "Unweaving the Rainbow":

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia.

[unhealthytruthseeker]

@unhealthytruthseeker Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

It's hard to feel nihilistic when you consider just how fortunate your existence is.

[monolithicbaby]

I do understand where your coming from, I've felt like that a long time too. But one of the MAJOR things that made me an atheist/sciencelovah is the series 'Cosmos: a personal voyage' by Carl Sagan. It explains a lot of things. I started to realise that the world and the universe are magical and beautiful already, without some supernatural thing in the air. And of course, that science does not offer an answer for everything (yet). That's the fun in life. Think for yourself and enjoy!

[Dash092996]

I find the whole chemical thing to be quite depressing. If all our feelings are really just chemical reactions and all of that will dissappear when we die, then what's the point of living to begin with? And how could love be explaned? You love someone only because a bunch of atoms caused a chemical reaction to make you feel that way. It sounds kinda worthless. I'd rather believe that I love someone because of the moments we shared together than of something that fades so easily.

[unhealthytruthseeker]

@Dash092996 I would say that the meaning of life is to be found in the living of life, and that the transience of life gives it the same kind of beauty as a flower, rather than the beauty of a statue.

It's really not the particular composition of our brains that gives us thought and emotion. Rather, it is the complexity of the internal arrangements. Much of life (including non-human life) is information. Living things are made of rather common elements. It's the complexity of

[unhealthytruthseeker]

@unhealthytruthseeker those arrangements that gives life its form. A ink well and a stack of paper is composed of the same stuff a book is, but you wouldn't consider and ink well and a stack of paper to be in every way equivalent to the works of Shakespeare. Also, the stuff that makes us up is constantly changing, yet our personalities stay stable. Our experiences are much more like waves traveling through the water than the water itself.

Just a more positive way to see things.

[RockBanned]

@Dash092996 Why find it depressing though? And how is it worthless? Your feelings disappear when you die, but that doesn't mean they disappear while you're alive. Love being a chemical reaction doesn't change how you feel about someone you love, or what you'd do for them or what they mean to you. You STILL love them for whatever reason you love them. Why is it a big deal to accept the objective truth, when you don't lose any of the subjective meaning of love by doing so.

[w00td00t]

There was this man, who needed surgery on his brain. Something went wrong, and every day he woke up after that, he thought it was the day of the surgery. this never changed

Imagine being twenty and suddenly wake up as an seventy-year-old. That would definitely freak you out.

Weird thing was though. He did remember skills, he learned after that.

So say, he plays ping pong every day. He will get better even though he is stuck on that one day.

It's hard to explain with this limited character count.

[Flokkerdude]

I come from a pretty religious family. And I was fed all the christian stuff you know too. But when I was 6 my grandfather died and I just said. There is no heaven. And from that point off I seemed to change alot, I became kind of a depressed kid. I still am now 13 years later. I refuse to believe in the existance of a deity. It's weird but I believe all we feel are just chemical reactions in our brain. It would explain why some people can kill without doubt, and they are short on these chems.

[414JonnyB]

As a human myself- man who would have thought, right- I like to think that there is more to life than just life. I like to imagine greater forces that create who we are. However, with such a plausible argument by science, it seems unreasonable to believe that something so seemingly fictitious could be true such as a god, or many gods for that matter. It's hard to believe that the things which we take for granted in life are so simple as science and no bigger spirit. I understand how you feel.

[CelesChere694]

Yeah, I understand that our bodies have chemical reactions but, in my opinion, those only contribute to certain functions like digesting food. Chemicals can't determine emotions. Your spirit does and your spirit tells your body to do things. Of course this only my speculation. I don't want to start a comment war about this.

[NintendoCapriSun]

Yeah, I totally get what you mean. The emotions may seem to be caused by chemicals, but the chemicals are caused by... our interpretation of what we see, I guess. But an interpretation manifesting into something physical just seems baffling.

[cjadlam]

Everything that happens in our bodies is due to biochemical interactions. How can your 'spirit' communicate with your body without engaging in some type of chemical reaction (neurons firing etc.) As for emotions, the main brain structure involved is the limbic system which is interconnected with many other centres providing complex reactions to situations. Stimulating parts of the limbic syst during brain surgery can produce sensations that the patient can interpret as eg. joy or fear etc.

[davidostberg]

jealousguy what did u think of the character data on star trek did u think he was alive?

[APenguinRawr]

You see this debate ... This is like Alien vs Predator vs Yeti vs UFC Fighter.

[RaggieDoo]

OHhhrarr r ! Predator invented the world ! Join ME !

[APenguinRawr]

Predator invented the Turd. MUM FTW!!!

[RaggieDoo]

Alien eats my Turd ! OOhhrawrr

[APenguinRawr]

Microsoft. Microsoft created the universe.

[RaggieDoo]

Ohh yesh they did :D

[InteGrayting]

Glad you are on a search for understandable truth. Think about this point, and form your own opinion. We have discovered certain laws that are constant in the known universe, such as the speed of light, gravity, and atomic fusion to name a few. If man died out today, these laws are constant without us here, but if man goes away, how does the bible hold up? Could it be that if man dies out religion goes with us, but the universe will still exist whether we are here or not. Have a nice day.

[RaggieDoo]

Sooo have a nice day, taking one chance something something and turn it around !  Soo have a nice day !

[crazykb]

I have one more comment (yes, this is my last). I'm a believer that many (too many) people are fucking stupid. Then I see Vids like this, and I have some hope. Perhaps, new technologies like 'You Tube' will 'raise the volume' on meaningful, intelligent conversation. I hope it does. Because I'm sick of the 'Paris Hilton' world we live in.

[crazykb]

One last thing. About free will. I believe in the view that consciousness is an 'editing point' (among other things of course). The initial impulse is created unconsciously (at least I would argue that most are), the impulse is then sent to the level of awareness where we can act, or not act, on the impulse. Dr. Gary Marcus calls the brain (and his book) a 'Kludge'. I agree. We all have impulses, such as eating a 'third piece of cake', that we try to resist. However, we usually eat the cake...

[crazykb]

Another quick comment about suffering. Suffering (pain) is caused by the electro/chemical processes that occur in the brain. Pain, is sent to the brain by certain receptors in tissue. When these impulses reach certain brain structures we 'perceive' pain. The same is true for our emotional responses to pain, or watching others in pain. It's all biochemistry. Humans, like all other creatures, are complex biological machines. Nothing more, nothing less.

[crazykb]

The maker of the Vid stated that he never believed in what science had to say up until two weeks prior to making the Vid. This illustrates the ignorance that people have regarding science. I mean, how can you make the claim that 'you don't believe in the teachings of science', when everything we take for granted in the modern world came from it? Talk about denying the elephant in the room! If we are to create a prosperous future, people have to understand how the world works.

[NintendoCapriSun]

Hey, appreciate all the comments! I wish I could say I have progressed past the confusion, heh. It's not so much that I don't believe in science, I just don't believe in the notion that we should rule out all possibilities just because of things we don't know. The whole advancement of science is a double-edged sword, because we are doing things today like flying planes and talking on paper-thin phones, much of which I'm sure we probably said was "impossible" just over a century ago.

[NintendoCapriSun]

That much progress in one century suggests to me that we don't know everything just yet. I mean, maybe if we've only been around for 2000 years (as religion suggests) then yeah, it's not so unbelievable that we've made that much progress in 1/20th of the time that we've been around. But scientists are the ones that say we've been around for longer. So now we've made all this progress in what, 1/10000th of our time here? I mean that's one hell of an exponential growth. I don't know.

[NintendoCapriSun]

OOps, I should probably mention that I am Jealousguy, the video creator, I'm just on my other account. lol, silly me.

[velvett37]

It is that Spirit that exists here and in the afterlife and in all time that ever is or was that drives you to search. I love that you contemplate things at such a young age. True, chemicals create reaction, but what is it that creates the chemicals down to their beginning root. I am a physics buff. Its a great feeling the day you can pile everything into one concept to include God and science. You are headed there. Keep searching. You are beautiful.

[jreal15]

I like people like you. You are awake in a world asleep. The fact that you have the open mind to question says enough about you alone. Science vs religion is a debate I refuse to partake in. I have my views and I choose to stay open to all possibilites. Nice video.

[prophetofyomomma]

Science and religion are not unrelated, but neither can be used in the other's domain. Science explains the natural world and religion explains the supernatural; i.e. God is above the natural world, and so science has no power with Him.

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." -Albert Einstein.

[crashoppe]

keep your own opinion. its as good as anyones. either the universe came from nothing, which gos against science, or it came from something.

[dorn9503]

You speak of awareness and that when the brain stops you all is ended, but what about sleep? You are by all means alive and yet you are not aware, even in most translations of the bible it is stated as asleep in death. Science is merely mans atempt to be in control, explain away god so we become the ones in power, but if you look closely all science does is explain how we think god did it.

[AgentGhost]

We are aware in our sleep. It's called an altered consciousness. Science doesn't try to gain control. Religion is about control, nothing can be further from that than science. Science is about finding the truth in the most non bias fashion possible.

[starrymorning81]

All I know is last night I dreamed Drake's other bottle that's been missing for at least a week was under this one chair. Well today I lifted it up & guess what I found? Yep. God, Salty, anybody explain that one!!?

[prophetofyomomma]

My 6th grade Math teacher once had a dream that her sister was pregnant and she called her the next day. Her sister got a pregnancy test and she was pregnant.

[FranFromBrazil]

Well, that's also a tricky topic.

i believe in religion more than in science, but it's just hard. Things happen in the world for a reason, that's what I believe.

[479Lucy]

Science cant explain everything but neither can religion. I think they should be able to complement each other, not oppose.

What happened to the girl in the hospital bed?

[Samanthathedog]

I agree with you about the quality of life issue...life ends when a person can't function; I believe The Bible and that one day I will be in heaven; enjoyed your views...that's alot of deep thinking!

[Gemm73]

Hmmm, I do believe in theories of science, but I'm also religious. I have had some experiences in life with the departed that have further cemented my belief in an afterlife.  I do believe that our 'energy' goes on after the physical being passes away. Kudos to you for making this vid.

[alleycat9856]

whoa deep stuff i totally agree with some of your points if my car was aware of stuff it would hate me lol

[Shawn7687]

Another big thing I think about, is everything in the world gets recycled. Every little thing. No energy just disappears, it changes. So whatever gives us this emotion, our feelings, everything that makes us different from instinct and survival, it has to be recycled too. So our soul, spirit, whatever you want to call it, by the law of science, it cannot disappear either. It has to go somewhere, like all energy does.

[Shawn7687]

I dunno what to believe about it either. I want to believe in an afterlife, thats for sure. But sometimes its hard to. I rationalize it by just saying, "Why do people go into burning buildings to save a stranger?" I mean, what part of self-preservation or instinct is that? Why do we enjoy art, music, or fall in love? There are so many things we do out of emotion or self-awareness that can't be explained through chemicals or science.