Absence of proof is not proof of absence...

@BlueVeins

Sure, things that we can actually expect to be able to gather evidence for. Seems fair.

@Pretzel

Well i think the problem is that scientists take that unspoken preface for granted while the general public doesn't.
In fact when they read quotes from scientists with wording like "it appears that" or "it is likely that" they read it as lack of confidence in the results. Or they ignore such qualifiers entirely because they're totally unaware of the provisional conclusions that science makes lol

@bugeye but not infallible
we used to think that the earth was the center of the universe and that it "rose" and it "set"

that was evidence based on the circumstances we observed as a species.

it was wrong (sorry flat-earthers)

@Ceinwyn it's lacking a young man in uniform being sacrificed for non-specific reasons

@Kwek00 I don't understand why people think that religion and politics don't mix. Surely if you are a believer in a religion such as Christianity you must also believe that you have a responsibility to change the world (convert the heathen, provide for the poor, etc.). This is inherently political.

We might disagree with some of the political actions that religious people (of all kinds) take but it seems absurd to expect them to not be involved in political life.

@ninalanyon )Most religions are inherrently political. But once politicians have the "guidance of God" at their back.... things become absolute really quickly. Because the religions that we talk about that puts "them" vs "us" in this story about "good" vs "evil", they only think in black and white. There is no compromise no chance of living together. At best, you can find some tollerance but without the protections that you have in one of our current western democracies. Everything is there to opress those that aren't of the flock in favor of what ever narrative the interpretator of the religion wants it to be. There are no barries except for the ones that limits people physically.

The issue is not that religion is inherrently political. The reason why people during the enlightenment casted God out... is because there are no proofs for the narrative, there is no sure way of knowing what this "God" wants at any time. And that person or groups that invokes a figure like God, will just lay ash to everything they don't like. All backed up by the crazy idea that they are doing the absolute good thing in the universe because some figment of their imagination told them too erase the absolute evil. Once those ideas take root... there is no stopping the insanity, everything is permited as long as the priest tells you it's okay. There is no reasoning, no compromise just orthodoxy and victims. If that God is some ethereal thing or a human being that declared themselves fuhrer. It's just a can of worms that I think the world is better off not opening time and time again and expecting diffrent results.

@sspec

Well this one in particular is just something i've thought about before and was reminded of it as i was reading the Lost World.