> science is meant to offer an ever improving model and understanding of
> things, always subject to change and enhancement, always open to
> scrutiny and question.

I agree with this, except for the 'understanding'. There is much debate
about this, but IMO (following Popper) science just creates an
ever-improving set of models. The 'inner working' of the models has
nothing to do with the real world (whatever that might be), except that
these models predict the real world in ever-increasing accuracy. That is
all science can do. (Which is, when judged on prediction capability,
more than any other system can do.)

> religion is the opposite of this, it can have no validity if it
changes even a little bit.

The actual difference is that religion does not attempt to do
(falsifyable) predictions, it just tries to explain (after the fact).
But it does claim to tell things about the real world. Which means that
it can do things science can't, like giving comfort in the hour of
death.

Note that both have their dark sides. Science gives people technical
abilities they IMHO should not have (think backsack H-boms, or any
atomic bomb at all). Religion convinces people they are right in killing
other people (think any world leader or leading terrorist you can think
of). The combination of the two (religion for motivation, science for
capability) leads to the worst (religious term: demonic) results.

IMHO true science can not oppose or support true religion, nor can true
religion oppose or support true science. They simply don't overlap. The
troubles start when when people pose (IMHO meaningless) questions like
'does an atom realy exist' or 'does god exist' and expect a simple
answer. The scientific answer to both questions is roughly: 'this is a
silly question' or 'this question can not be answered' or even 'this is
not a question'. The religious ansewer to the first question should be
the same, for the second question no answer is needed. IIRC the easern
philosophies have very good and short answers for silly questions. One
of the troubles of our western thought system (both scientific and
religious) is that we that assume every question has an answer.

PS moderators, I did change the subject and I think this aspect of the
discussion can lead somewhere :)

Wouter van Ooijen

-- -------------------------------------------
Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products
docent Hogeschool van Utrecht: www.voti.nl/hvu
 

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