In my experience, every single religious argument eventually boils down to an appeal to mystery. I‘ve never encountered one that didn’t. If anyone can cite one, I would love to hear it.
This phenomenon is unexplainableThis phenomenon is currently unexplainable
When the god of the gaps ends up in a gap this 🤏 big.
This phenomenon is unexplainable by current science.
Conclusion: Moses talked to a burning bush!
Any chance it was a cannabis bush?
Well, cannabis plants aren’t bushy, and cannabis doesn’t cause hallucinations, so I’m going with no.
I have thought for a long time that religious people are deeply incurious. Science attempts to explain the details. They don’t want that. They want an explanation that makes them feel like magic is real and that things they don’t understand cannot be understood, therefore they aren’t lacking for not understanding them.
This lazy thinking carries over into other areas as well. It is epecially noticable in politics. Demagogues will continue to keep people divided into cults. Free-thinkers don’t stand a chance against such anti-intellectual passions.
I have thought for a long time that religious people are deeply incurious
An explanation that covers their behavior better is that they’re all power hungry. They want to be part of a powerful tribe at some level, even if it’s at the bottom rung of that tribe. At the higher levels of the tribe they get money funneled up from lower levels, business connections, and isolation from the consequences of their actions. At lower levels of the tribe they still can derive that feeling of being part of a group, or hold onto the believe that they’ll get “their’s” sometime after death, but the lowest member of that tribe will at least feel like they’re buying the smub feeling of being better than someone else. Market forces in that situation push them towards being incurious because being too curious can damage standing in the group. You can see all of this in action recently by the takeover of the GOP at the top levels and what happens when you publicly go against the group.
They want an explanation that makes them feel like magic
If I’m wrong and you’re right, then please don’t forget the pile of corpses attributable to that magic feeling. Most of those people were innocent of everything but going against the tribe, and some of them were true believers of the tribe.
I find that strange too. As a Christian, I love science. Science had given me thousands of opportunities to say, “is that how that works? Huh. Isn’t God awesome.” I find science and God to be no more competing explanations than an architect and the principles of engineering as the reasons a building exists.
I didn’t downvote you and I’m not sure why someone would. I think it’s great you can see there not only no contradiction between faith and science, but one can strengthen the other. I’ve always thought that should be the case, myself.
tbh if I was some bronze age guy wittnessing an apocalyptic thunderstorm, I’d also believe the thunder god is mad at something
