Yeah, but thermodynamics isn’t fluid dynamics, is it now?
If. Which…they don’t. No conflict is present.
Great cheese, people, are you trying to miss or cloud my point? The point I was trying to make is, that for all the attacks that science undergoes in threads like this, nobody really disbelieves in science as a whole. They use science and the direct products of science all the time. They don’t disbelieve that thrown objects make parabolic arcs or that voltage is wattage over amperage or any of that, and most of them have even used televisions, microwaves, or computers without ever thinking that they’re powered by demonic spirits.
No, nobody really disbelieves in science or discounts its certainty -except when it’s argumetatively convenient to do so to defend their preconceptions, of course.
Of course some people do. There are people who think that it’s all arbitrary, and that anything people believe is as good as anything else. There are people who don’t believe in rationality or logic. There are people who don’t believe in mathematics, or rather think that it’s made up and wholly optional. There are people who don’t believe that the world is real, which means they don’t believe in science, either.
And plenty are willing to use science, but dismiss all of it’s principles and collected knowledge if it contradicts their myths. Claiming that they don’t ‘really’ disbelieve in science seems to stretching it. That’s rather like saying that a dictator believes in democracy if he doesn’t bother killing people over an issue he doesn’t care about.
I think a cult/religion divider might be that most long term religions have been softened over time. Catholicism for instance, its belief structures and what it asks of people are a lot less stringent than they have been in the past.
I think aside from the newness, cults may not have all the bugs worked out of their theologies. It seems like a thousand holy leaders over time might smooth out the rough spots in dogma. Whereas many cults are the work of just one guy. An otherwise normal person might embrace religion just because of cultural reasons or mortal fear. Creating a religion however, requires heaping bucketfulls of crazy.
[in regards to the hijack]
Also the notion that science is a religion is remarkably stupid.
One of the very hallmarks of religion is its utter uselessness. Trust in science makes sense because it has given you the computer you’re reading this on right now. Religion has thousands of years of nothing.
Someone who trusts science is realistic because of its track record. Someone who trusts religion is a soft head because they’re choosing to believe in a fairy tale story with zero evidence.