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Originally Posted by bilbo_baggins
To make a brief response to alatar, on this hobby-horse, you might just question where the data that is pointing comes from. How do you know your eyes can see everything there is to see? How do you know that your ears hear all there is to hear? How do you know anything? You have faith in your scientific data, but that faith is a large leap from nihilism to Scientology (the *theory* that the Scientific theory is correct).
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The theory that the 'theory of science' is correct is open to debate, and scientists continually question whether they are fooling themselves. As humans it's hard/impossible to be 100% objective or remove oneself from the environment/nature to truly observe a thing. As stated, Heisenberg (and Einstein) knew this.
Being a scientist/skeptic makes you a bit suspicious and you start questioning everything.
It seems to me that the first commandment of some religions is 'thou shall not question.' Purported evidence is anecdotal, untestable and unreliable. There are just places you don't go, don't ponder, etc. One might say that having incontrovertible evidence would take away the need for faith, but I would counter that if my eternal existance hinged on that evidence then a benevolent Creator would be a little more forgiving and obvious.
At least Tolkien's 'religion' makes sense to me.
Yes, it's true that I have faith in science. When I want to know the date of the next solar eclipse, I consult NASA, not entrails. If NASA is using entrails, that's fine as long as they are 100% accurate (with error rate).
I know what works for me - the evidence supports what I see, hear and know.
Thanks for your thoughts.