Intersubjective Verifiability Versus Belief Based On Faith
The contradiction between the truths derived from intersubjective verification and beliefs based on faith or authority (e.g., many religious beliefs) forms the basis for the conflict between religion and science. There have been attempts to bring the two into congruence, and the modern, cutting edge of science, especially in physics, seems to many observers to lend itself to a melding of religious experience and intersubjective verification of beliefs. Some scientists have described religious worldviews---generally of a mystical nature---consistent with their understanding of science:
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle . . . Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind . . . The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which is based on experience, which refuses dogmatism . . . There remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. (Albert Einstein)
Other scientists, who are committed to basing belief on intersubjective verification, have called for or predicted the development of a religion consistent with science.
A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge. (Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot)
The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have ... The true evolutionary epic, retold as poetry, is as intrinsically ennobling as any religious epic. (Edward O. Wilson)
Responding to this apparent overlap between cutting edge science and mystical experience, in recent years, there have been overt efforts to formulate religious belief systems that are built on truth claims based upon intersubjective verifiability, e.g. Anthroposophy, Yoism.
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Famous quotes containing the words belief, based and/or faith:
“With a woman, a man always wants to let himself go. And it is precisely with a woman that he should never let himself go ... but stick to his innermost belief and meet her just there.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Because it is not always easy for an adult to predict what inaccurate ideas a child may have, it can help to answer questions first with one of your own: “What do you think?” Once you find out what a child is really asking, you’ll be in a better position to give a helpful answer based on the facts.”
—Joanna Cole (20th century)
“I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active—not more happy—nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)