The other science and faith post reminded me of a conversation I had at lunch with a group of non-Mormon engineers/attorneys a few years back. The group, in general, seemed to possess a religiously motivated hostility toward biological evolution, with one or two notable exceptions. One commentator seemed to sum up the majority's feelings when he concluded that the problem with biological evolution was the scarcity of evidence linking non-cellular constiuent elements with the origin of the first cells. He wanted more evidence. Almost all seemed to agree. This same commentator had, earlier in the lunch, made disparaging comments about the moral character of atheists. I made a few tepid comments challenging the majority opinions, which I cannot now recall, but remember thinking that what I really wanted to say was "So, you withhold belief in biological evolution pending additional evidence, but you're willing to believe in God with no evidence whatsoever?"

PhELPs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One
> commentator seemed to sum up the majority's
> feelings when he concluded that the problem with
> biological evolution was the scarcity of evidence
> linking non-cellular constiuent elements with the
> origin of the first cells. He wanted more
> evidence.

Except that isn't even an issue for evolution -- it's an issue for abiogenesis. Evolution doesn't address (or pretend to address) the origin of "life" -- it simply explains how, once "life" existed, it changed over time. And the evidence for that is overwhelming.

> "So, you withhold belief in biological
> evolution pending additional evidence, but you're
> willing to believe in God with no evidence
> whatsoever?"

Of course. Because if we don't know, god did it. :)

"He wanted more evidence"

You mean like when a TBM says "show me one shred of evidence that the church is bogus".

It seems that in the US, religion is used as a drug. Juice up and you don't have to think. Politicians love it so they fan the flames.

Faith: This idea feels so right that it is true.
Science: Try this idea out and see how it works in the real world.

Faith: Cling to anything that confirm's my idea.
Science: Try to prove the idea wrong. If it holds up to the tests then it's probably a useful idea.

Faith: I can't be wrong about this.
Science: I could be mistaken. I will put my findings and my methods out there for other people to check