Beliefs and Science

Belief makes a star appear as a god, science makes a star appear as gases.

Every now and then, I ask myself how people can hold onto beliefs which they cannot prove are facts...and this is one of those times. There is a Philadelphia forum that I follow to read about current events in my neighborhood, and on that forum, there's a section called Spirituality and Faith. In that section, there is a user who is a creationist and posts excerpts from books and studies supporting his beliefs. Is he wrong in his beliefs? Who is to say what is right and wrong when it comes to beliefs. But my frustrations with such people come from the fact that they consider their beliefs to be true and everything else to be false. I am not questioning their faith in any way....they can follow whatever they want to, but when they start putting their unscientific "facts" to explain their validity is what infuriates me.

Unfortunately, such people exist everywhere. Take for example this guy on the forum...it doesn't matter how many facts and scientific studies you put in front of him, he is never going to understand them. He infuriates others on the forum because he doesn't even try reading the scientific studies posted by others. He believes, no wait, he KNOWS that what he believes is the truth and everything that doesn't correspond to his beliefs is false. Ironic, isn't it? Because this belief is what it is, a belief and not a science. Science is about change. Science is when you stop believing that Earth is flat because you have evidence which shows that it's round. It's when you stopped believing that atom was the smallest constituent of matter when electron came along.

I understand when people want to resist change...it's scary and it's unknown. This is especially true for people who live by certain beliefs, which could be anything, and changing these beliefs could very well mean changing themselves. But calling yourselves scientific under such circumstances is wrong. Go ahead, resist change if you must, but stop thwarting others' efforts to make a progress. Like that guy on the forum, you can argue for your beliefs, but when we show you the evidence, have the balls to quit or accept change....otherwise, you're just a dumb fuck!