September 8th, 2010

I would guess that since man first learned to either draw pictures on walls, and make a crude mark signifying his authorship he has wondered about the mystery of his existence. Eventually as time and the earth raced through the cosmos, his race made a determination that there must be a supreme being that being bored one day decided to add another element to the 3rd planet from the Sun and man became a major part of the majestic scheme of life. A few years later, man decided to put a name to this being, most labeling it the creator in this a simple explanation was found to justify their existence the definition of simple has expanded beyond anyones expectations, wars have been born and millions have perished battling for a front row seat in worshiping the creator. Religion has boiled down to a simple act of faith, now whether you consider faith as a simple act is another thing all togetherwhereas faith can mean different things to different individuals. It goes beyond the definition of believing in the creator, God, Allah or whatever name you chose to utilize in your day-to-day walk through life, it involves most of all in the faith that you assign to yourself and to the loved ones that interact with you during your journey. Today riding parallel to faith, albeit with fewer participants, we now find science. Science a discipline that demands proof after proof of a certain theory or substance before it is included in the teachings of our scholars, whereas faith in its simple form only asks for an individuals belief with absolutely no proof necessary. Bertrand Russell, a noted atheist, during one of his public lectures was asked by a member of his audience, And Lord Russell, what will you say when you

stand in front of the throne of God on Judgment Day? He replied, I will say: Im terribly sorry, but you didnt give us enough evidence. In this brief exchange is found the basis for the natural way that most atheists believe, the evidence is scarce and fleeting at best, allowing them to reject the possibility of a supreme being. In todays huge society we find that three religions, all having originated from the same part of the world, at war with each other, whereas when Abraham made his journey south from the southeastern edge of what is now Turkey or Anatolia his wanderings led him to eventually settle in the Holy Land or the Levant. From here Judaism, Islam and Christianity were born all three of them indirect products of his lions, Judaism and Christianity from Isaac and Islam from Ishmael the headlines spread across the newspapers of the world and video news feeds show a land embroiled in a on-going conflict that transcends the ages. To an outsider this conflict is a mystery, to a citizen of the region it is perfectly understandable, albeit countless attempts have been made to reconcile the participants in the region the act is no closer to a pact or peaceful arrangement than it was during the Crusades or a Holy War that claimed countless lives and the shifting of borders as occupying forces moved across the land. Each of these three religions treats each others religion as misguided, and each of them submits a claim to be the correct way to worship the same God. Consequently, with they each do battle in the land they preach from their bully-pulpits blaming each other for the on-going conflict. Each supplies evidence to support their claims. They argue and test the others in some cases publishing their experience that their hypothesis is the correct one. When compared to each other religion overwhelms the count, as it absorbs the passions and intellects of hundreds of millions of people, whereas science is far behind in its numbers, but then again a direct comparison of strictly numbers is not fair, is it? When you examine science you first notice that it is a very specific and technical kind of knowledge, one that requires patience, a strict following of rules, a narrow practice of focus, bucket loads of math and the ability to assemble complex solutions to equally complex problems. Such as, I dare the uninitiated to fully understand quantum theory without a more than basic

understanding of mathematics if you do in your journey, without mathematics, youre just kidding yourself. Religious belief is another animal, in that it is not restricted only to those with a certain education and knowledge base, it does not require years of training or countless hours of pawing through detailed text books late into the night preparing for an examination the following morning. It is not specialized and it is not technical, keep in mind were discussing the ordinary Joe or Jane who wanders into a church, mosque or synagogue to spend a moment or two with their God. Additionally, religious belief is widespread, whereas scientific knowledge is not! This is not to say that there are not some people at the local koffe klatch who sit and tickle the edges of a scientific theory splashed about in the morning newspaper, but as a whole very few sit down with a steaming cup of Starbucks and discuss in detail the smashing of an atom in Switzerland. With religion, for example, there is the super hot topic of the construction of a mosque two blocks from the 9-11 disaster, whereas the man-in-the-street believes with all his passion the destructive force of that day as led by a group of fanatical Muslims. Tempers fly as deep theological discussion walks either side of the fence everyone is an expert and is in lockstep with either that side or this. Unfortunately, the 9-11 disaster has dragged the United States and some of its western allies into two conflicts in the Middle East, lives have been lost on both side and the rift between religions and ideology has only deepened and widened. While many educated people know about what Einstein, Newton and Darwin mentioned a time or two, in addition they know and accept the basic modern view of the world understanding the basic scientific rules behind its existence, when compared religious claims are placing a distant 2nd, a fact that does not seem to worry most Christians. In the end, this lack of interest in more than just the skimming of the basics of science contrasts sharply with the worldwide interest in religion. Although a concrete definition of religion or the fact that it is or isnt experiencing a decline is hard to achieve, where it is hard to define only one thing as religionI admit this goes far beyond my ability so Ill leave it at that! What I can remark on is the simple fact that as a society we tend to

stay within the borders of our particular belief and shun the examination of our neighbors belief. Most atheists define religion as the inability of most men to describe their existence in scientific terms, and lacking in a scientific education throw religion out in front of them ducking the requirement to obtain sufficient knowledge in science to offer up their opinion. Other simply state that some are incurably irrational and are incapable of scientific analysis, while others wonder if there is something else rearing its head above the horizon. Scholars of a different caliber than I say that religion is different than science as it has its own grammar or logic and should not be held accountable to the same standards as scientific or ordinary empirical belief. For example when Christians refer in their belief the phrase Christ has risen, some do not take this as a factual claim, but defines their commitment to a certain form of life, providing them a direction of a moral and practical outlook which is galaxies away from any scientific explanation. Although this view has its merits, it grossly misrepresents the central phenomena of religion whereas when St Paul said, if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain in other words, his remarks point to a historical fact establishing his and his follower absolute faith. Esteemed scholars of religion debate what the resurrection of Christ really means and the significance of the event, and will give at one time or the other sophisticated accounts of the day regardless Christians attached a factual record to the occurrence, and in doing so over the years have established at as factual. Some argue this is not the same as if it was proven with science; it isnt that they are considered non-believers, it just that theyd like a little proto-science to backup the claim. Science involves constructing a hypotheses containing causes and natures of things, this in order to explain the life processes surrounding us, in some cased predicting their future behavior. Medical science addresses the causes of diseases and conducts numerous experiments in their search for a cure, whereas the study of the heavens creates hypotheses that are distant from everyday occurrences employing a high-degree of mathematical abstraction and theories that boggle the mind. Scientific reasoning will only hold a

obligation to a hypothesis to the extent that the evidence either supports it or that requires it. It is a well known fact that scientists should not accept hypotheses that are ad hoc, in other words tailored for one specific situation but cannot be generalized to others remember that hypotheses are designed to make predictions, and if these predictions do not come true then the scholars twist and turn with worry on why not? Science has taken our world and divided its study into a couple of various groupings, where Physics is concerned with the physical world, biology with the living world, Geology with the earth, Astronomy with the Universe, Sociology with people and set aside on its own majestic pedestal the study of Religion. Let us not forget philosophy which takes each of the above mentioned and rips them apart, pieces them together and will debate the outcome far into the future. Deep in our past there was a time when asking a question about this or that was considered a no-no in that they believed that you were addressing your question to God, now anyone in their right-mind would never question the decisions of God. Today there are still many who consider a question about their existence as being the act of a heretic, regardless of the religion. Consequently many avoid the questions that some believe call God into question, and in doing so their leaders create laws that in fact make asking certain questions illegal and if they cant make the questions illegal then they bend and twist human law to enforce their answers using the force of law. Keep in the back of your head when asking a question, that your pursuit for the answer does not harm others, and when you receive your answer that it is not used to harm or take advantage of the weak or disadvantaged. Religions do NOT construct hypotheses, this said the fact the Christianity exists upon certain historical claims, there is still insufficient scientific proof central to Christianity although some claim the resurrection is central to history. Another point that is debated in most discussions related to religion, whereas the Jews and the Muslims disagree in relation to the resurrection, the Jews stating he was a simple preacher, while Jesus is just another prophet 2nd to Mohammad. In general society speaks it position on the Christ only when it is either of the two other sects are pushed into a corner. I personally feel that

although I believe in God that when certain scholars maintain that religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims. They are wrong. There are some religious claims that can be considered ad hoc, and very arbitrary, although their predictions are few and far between, they still are most likely never to come true yet dyed in the wool true blue Christians put aside the predictions not coming true, hold their heads up high and march off into the sunrise waiting for the 2nd coming. Stringent critics of religion are quick to point out that the lack of evidence and the failure of the predictions enforces their belief of the manifest irrationality of religion. These same critics maintain that religious belief tolerates a high-degree of mystery couple with a equal degree of ignorance when it comes to understanding the world. They also point with a shaking finger that when someone prays that the person is very lucky if their prayers come true, if not at all. I respond to the fact that when a person prayers he or she should keep their prayer grounded in reality and to be careful what they pray for, in my humble opinion framing the prayer has more to do with your spirit of acceptance than pushing it off to the supreme host for any sort of assistance. Although praying for peace in a foxhole is a good idea as bombs and huge shells are raining down on you, get a grip and dig deeper it wasnt God who put you there so I should believe due to your free will it is kind of up to you to crawl away for another day. You might ask from time-to-time why there is so much misery in the world and why doesnt God do something about it? Maybe God is doing something about it, whereas it might be not the solution you expected. At the end of the day it can only be said, it is a mystery! Religion, unlike science does not seek to minimize the mystery, whereas it is the goal of any scientific exercise to reduce the steps in an attempt to dig back to primitive concepts or primitive explanations. Albeit they are alike in trying to make sense of the world, they approach the problem using to different formulas, where in science we find it showing how things either conform or do NOT conform to a certain hypotheses on its way to establish a general pattern. Religion attempts to make sense of the world by seeking behind the curtain of things that present a certain kind of meaning or significance of events or things. This kind of exercise does not need laws or generalizations it only

needs faith to establish the fact that the everyday world we experience is not all there, and the finds only show that the mystery of it all is in Gods hands. Someone once said, dont ask me who as it might have been even me, that all involved in the three religions of the Levant should change religions for a year and walk in their opponents shoes, must have been me what a stupid idea! Dont get me wrong, there are good people and there are evil people all sharing the same planet, and in this case three particular religions and each has its share of evil people. I have learned that you cannot reason with evil, normal people dont understand that you dont have to do anything to provoke evil it is more than a mental sickness their blood as it winds its way through their veins is nothing but fire and brimstone in other words evil is a condition that 99.9% of the time is stopped by eliminating the body housing the evil. No matter how the media presents the facts, as some twist and twist the story ending up apologizing for the actions of an evil person