There was a Q & A session at a church about whether there is one way to God/Heaven and I asked why scientists, who supposedly seek the truth objectively, would be more likely to conclude that Christianity isn’t true. The pastor said that he didn’t know.
I asked if it could be the devil leading them astray…
He said maybe and also suggested that the scientists might be more reluctant about giving their whole life over to Jesus.
I’m starting to think that maybe that is true… maybe scientists like independence rather than dogma. (On the other hand scientists might say that we “know” that evolution is true, etc) What do the Christians out there think?
There was only one other “question”. It was from an 18 year old that I’ve been told has a mind of an 8 year old. He said something about there being no suffering, etc, in Heaven. I thought it was interesting that the skeptical question would involve a lot of intelligence while the believer just showed a child-like faith.
After the service I suggested to the pastor that maybe it was about faith vs evidence or something… e.g. even though the doubting Thomas was provided proof, Jesus said that blessed are those who believe without the same kind of evidence. I also mentioned that Jesus quoted scripture about not putting God to the test when tempted by the devil. On the other hand scientists like to do repeatable tests.
Now I recall a verse about human wisdom being foolishness in God’s eyes… i.e. though scientists may be “wise”, they might be wrong (“foolish”) about God.
BTW recently I have been considering about praying to God to reveal himself but I haven’t done it yet… maybe because I don’t feel ready to commit my life to God. I used to be a young earth creationist but now I am an agnostic.
So Christians - why would people who are very intelligent and supposedly objective be more likely to be non-believers?
God deliberately fucks with people who are able to use reason and logic to reach conclusions, by providing them with false data that leads them to erroneous conclusions.
Like I suggested earlier it could be the devil it is doing this… that way God is still the good guy. (it says that the devil is the father of all lies and Jesus is the truth [and the way and the life])
And the usual response to this is:
“And the wise will proclaim it aloud.”
BTW, when a scientist says something like he knows evolution is correct, he means that he has seen direct evidence that evolution happens. There are many cases of speciation observed, both in the wild and in the lab. However all knowledge in science is provisional, and strong enough evidence will eventually modify even the strongest theory. Consider that Newton’s Laws were even more accepted than evolution, and the combination of the theory of Einstein and its confirmation through experiment caused them to be modified.
IIRC various studies say so, especially in certain disciplines like biology. Highly educated, technically inclined believers tend to be engineers rather than scientists. Some mention of it on Wikipedia here for example.
In order to be successful as a scientist, you have to be prepared to accept answers you don’t like, and you have to be prepared to look everywhere for them.
Those are two things believers often (not always, but more often than non-believers) have a problem doing.
A while ago most scientists in Europe were Christians… BTW creation “scientists” believe that the evidence points to God and creation… either the evidence really does point to a non-God explanation or the devil is behind this… I mean why else would agnostism/atheism infiltrate the scientific community in somewhat recent times?
You first need to establish that scientist are more likely to be non-believers.
What kind of scientist. Are we talking “gender scientist” drunk of Foucault and other useless nonsense. Or real scientist.
Why scientist should be a particular interesting segment. Just because you know a hell of a lot about artic ice core sampling, pulsars, battery technology, Roman 2nd century poets, or whatever don’t give you any particular insight into existential issues.
Like believing in a Santa Clause-like god. Thinking like an eight-year-old is good if you’re six.
Go ahead and pray. But be aware of confirmation bias — like finding presents under the tree from Santa Claus. But that would mean you think like an eight-year-old, so you wouldn’t understand confirmation bias, and that’s better. So forget it.
Obviously I’m no Christian, but people who are very intelligent, or even mildly so, looked at the question in more depth and more objectively than a pastor, who makes his living from the collection plate and who may not believe — depending in no small part on his intelligence — or an eight-year-old.
The grinch! (Remember, you’re eight.)
Except when he tells you to smash babies’ heads against rocks, of course.
Of course it (the bible) does. It’s a sales pitch. What else could it say? That Jesus is a fraud?
Most professed to be Christians. If not, they and and their families would starve or worse. And before the word science was coined and the term natural history relegated to the trash heap.
“A study has shown atheism in the West to be particularly prevalent among scientists”
If that is misleading you can edit Wikipedia if you can provide sufficient evidence.
A real scientist.
“What percentage of Scientists/Astronomers are Atheist?”
Scientists should be knowledgeable about whether the evidence points to the universe being created or whether it looks like stars and planets formed by themselves. They should be knowledgeable about whether it looks like species were created or emerged by themselves. They should be able to find evidence about whether the universe is about 6000 years old (which I believe is what the Bible seems to say) or whether it is billions of years old. Scientists that are biologists or astrophysicists are of particular interest.
BTW I’m talking about fundamentalist Christianity in particular… not about some kind of theism like deism where God stays somewhat hidden.
Is that enough of an answer? Now if you’re a Christian could you reply to the question?
The better question is why “scientists” tend to not be members of the types of churches where the flock worries about why other people are not members.
Well the pastor of that church didn’t seem particularly worried - he didn’t seem to put much effort into answering the question. Anyway it seems Christians have a very hard time with this question so I think it is a good one… perhaps Rune is a Christian and they didn’t even hint at what their answer might be.