No logic from God

February 18, 2025

While respecting Allan Patience’s academic achievements, I wonder about his logic. He asks, if I prefer to believe in science rather than believe in God, “why did I post about God in the first place?” Why not? Isn’t it critical to consider both sides of an issue in any intelligent commentary?

Dr Patience also says that so-called philosophical “positivism” limits scientific research and theorising “to what is observable and measurable”. Sounds impressive, but hardly explains the value of science as the gathering of reliable information from all sources, experimenting and testing it before drawing conclusions that can be verified – or discounted.

None of the same applies to religion, which requires unqualified acceptance of unprovable texts purporting to be relaying the inerrant, or even literal, “words of God”, An “infantile conception of God” perhaps, but it was exactly the conception that was drilled into me from childhood through early adulthood by my church teachers.

I fully respect people of faith who practice “God’s words” advocating love and tolerance, but the opposite for those who use religion as justification for violence and destruction. I presume Dr Patience and I are at least in accord on this view.