Sunday, July 11, 2010

Belief without evidence is not good practice

Through the Looking Glass, chapter 5:
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Religions ask us to believe many things that make no sense when compared with the world we see around us.  No evidence or data is presented;  someone had a vision, so we must put aside our doubts and believe.  But this is not good practice for dealing with worldly matters.  How many examples can you think of?

1 comment:

  1. As for the visions with no data, we have the creeds, such as the Nicene Creed, which are to be recited, memorized, and never questioned. They are about questions of life, ethics, and divinity, but have the feel of a list of state capitals. Wikipage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeds

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