In the September 16th issue of the Record-Bee, Bill Kettenhofen averred that he has faith rather than science; this is not unusual in today”s world. But because religions are so much a part of our lives we often fail to realize how easily humans can fall prey to the will of influential groups or persons. This results in the fanaticism and militancy seen throughout the ages in the name of religion.
The dangers inherent in these kinds of movements lie not so much in particular beliefs, be they Christian, Islamic, or any other beliefs, but in their demands that adherents surrender their independence of mind. It is an amazing ability that we humans seem to possess to be so willing to surrender ourselves to others rather than to think for ourselves. God and the Bible are not targets of science, but scientific thinking people question whenever someone states that “fulfilled prophecy proves” anything, especially when science proves nothing.
Just because a superannuated book says that something is so, it”s not accepted as a scientific statement and in the jargon of science it is untestable. Science does not go about trying to prove anything. Science generates hypotheses about the structure of the universe and then submits these hypotheses to rigorous testing. For example, contrary to common popular beliefs, the theory of evolution cannot be proved by any evidence from the fossil record; the fossil record can only tell us how evolution may have occurred and which pathways it may have taken, not whether or not the theory of evolution is true. However, the evolutionary framework has been very useful in explaining the fossil record for the past 175 years.
Science is simply a method for finding out about the universe based on these hypotheses and the testing of predictions derived from these hypotheses. It is certainly not prophecy.
To claim that the universe runs in a manner foretold from some ancient text is intellectual laziness. We simply cannot present viewpoints and not make any attempt to seek testable answers. Science is not just another vague theory that simply accepts the word of prophets that may or may not be valid. Theories of science usually work because the methods of science come as close as possible in this imperfect world to consistently provide usefulness.
Greg Blinn, Kelseyville
