194 comments

• Comment Link Thursday, 04 April 2013 19:52 posted by ml

  first, there may be a god, but not the one of any of the earth's thousands of religions.
  it's easier for me to believe that aliens came here, perhaps appearing as holograms or even in person, and were interpreted as gods because they came from the sky and had technology we thought was magic, than it is to believe that some 'supernatural' being cares about some creature here. example, soldiers in WWII landed in places like new guinea and gave the people food. the natives then made mock airplanes and created rituals to try to bring them back, effectively creating a new religion.
  
  second, the moral argument...civilization had morality before there were gods. children under 4 know what is right and wrong without ever knowing about god, that HAS been shown in experiments. animals take care of other animals not in their group or even their species without believing in god (well, we don't know or believe they do)
  
  third, in spite of this, this still doesn't explain some of the unexplainable or at least unexplained, why an object can fly across a room without being touched by anyone in the room, why an exorcism seems to really work, or why most people who have near death experiences say they experience 'light and intense love' (and no, no lab has been able to recreate this experience)

• Comment Link Wednesday, 03 April 2013 21:05 posted by Gretchen

  Both sides missed the point. God is love. To say that science refutes god is to say that science refutes love. This is an irrational pursuit. We seek god because we seek love. Not the love of the physical and material world. This love is informed, tested, measured, etc. by science. The love that comes from god is experienced in the deepest part of our being we have come to understand as our soul. It's the kind of love we experience when our humanity is expressed outwardly, toward others, in a way that increases and expands the love of humanity. It's found in forgiveness, patience, compassion, charity, kindness, peace and many other human expressions of love. Religion is how we come to know and to love god and in knowing god we discover the perfect model of love. Then we pursue our purpose in life, which is to express our humanity in the purest form of love attainable, limited only by our will, guided and informed by god and religion. Yes, one can seek to love without god, but why? Thousands of years of critical, intelligent human thought and discernment have produced an incredible body of knowledge contained in religion. These ideas have been tested by time, and culture, and science, and all the things that have come and gone over the history of humanity. This refutation is a thinly disguised rage against god and religion (and therefore love) and seems counter to the betterment of humanity. And it leans precariously toward arrogance and ignorance.

• Comment Link Wednesday, 03 April 2013 20:40 posted by jesus christ

  Awesome debate!!! Where does that guy get off saying that there is NO evidence that the conscience stems from the materiel world? Last time I checked, people who don't have functioning brains (and I mean, people who PHYSICALLY don't have functioning brains) don't have a conscience! Isn't that pretty powerful evidence that the conscience is created by the brain?

• Comment Link Wednesday, 03 April 2013 12:47 posted by Josh

  No, science does not refute God, or gods, ghosts, sprits- what have you. But millennia lacking evidence and a preponderance of unrepeatable claims makes the supernatural unlikely. I can't say with certainty I won't dig up a lump of gold in my garden this spring. That doesn't mean I should have faith in the man who says gold is out there.
  This debate did not refute my claim that debates are the single worst form of learning. They're about point scoring, flights of rhetoric, and nitpicking- facts and evidence, or experience if you prefer, need not apply.

• Comment Link Wednesday, 03 April 2013 09:28 posted by Frank Sattar

  While I believe this is one of most important topics. I believe the group defending God were at a disadvantage because it was science versus Christianity, or rather an interpretation of Christianity. It would have better if the debate involved Scientists who believe in the existence of creative force or entity and Scientists who don't.

• Comment Link Wednesday, 03 April 2013 06:28 posted by michael conyers

  Science is God... Science absolutely refutes religion, however, God in my view has nothing to do with religion. God is energy. God is attraction. God is mass. God is existence. God is everything.
  
  I believe in the limits of human understanding. But if you are looking for a pathway to understand God, worship science. Have faith in the miracle that is the human mind, the human spirit, and the human experience.

• Comment Link Tuesday, 02 April 2013 22:40 posted by patrick d

  The strongest reason for religiosity is fear of death/ non existence. Most people don't understand that you cannot by definition be afraid of not existing. If you could take away someone's psychological need for religion, they would never come to the conclusion that there is a god. There's just zero evidence for it. Of course lots of people think there is evidence for it, but it is a lie they tell themselves. That is meant to be observational, not insulting. We all lie to ourselves in certain ways. In christian religions people think it is very important to believe in the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but believing those stories is not believing in Jesus, it is believing the people who wrote the stories. In most cases at least sixty years after the actual persons death. No rational person could believe this stories are true, and that's why religion isn't rational. And you can't convince an irrational person to be rational.

• Comment Link Tuesday, 02 April 2013 21:14 posted by G2C

  Both sides missed the point. God is love. We seek god because we seek love. Not the love of the physical and material world. This love is informed, tested, measured, etc. by science. The love that comes from god is experienced at the depths of our being. It's the kind of love we experience only when our humanity is expressed outwardly, toward others, in a way that increases and expands the love of humanity. It's found in forgiveness, patience, compassion, charity, kindness, peace and many other human expressions of love. Religion is how we come to know and to love god and in knowing god we discover the perfect model of love. Then we pursue our purpose in life, which is to express our humanity in the purest form of love attainable, limited only by our willingness to say yes.

• Comment Link Tuesday, 02 April 2013 15:40 posted by David E

  One only needs to look at HISTORY to see that science is slowly refuting God...
  
  Phenomena that were once attributed to GOD, such as disease, weather, consciousness, etc, have been shown to have a completely PHYSICAL basis...
  
  Unfortunately, there will always be little CREVICES that will remain unilluminated by science, and the religious will use these to hold on to their BELIEFS...

• Comment Link Tuesday, 02 April 2013 11:17 posted by Allan Hutton

  If there is a God, where did he , she, or it materialize from?. since it is observable that we all came from somewhere (our parents) who brought forth God, additionally if as it is believed God is all powerful, could he, she or it (God) make boulder so big that he, she, or it could not move it one centimeter. God it is quit plain to see was created in the deep dark recesses of primitive minds, long, long, long before the light of science could filter in and educate them. CONCLUSION: God is the awful remnants of the primitive uneducated minds long, long ago. Christianity is the most philosophically absurd, morally repugnant, and bloody of all the worlds known religions, history shows us the unrelenting pain misery and suffering is has caused