Originally Posted by
PTravel
Religion has no truth value whatsoever. You can't prove your beliefs are true any more than I can prove their false. So just keep them to yourself, because I have no interest in someone who is so arrogant as to insist that I abandon my beliefs about the unknowable for their beliefs about the unknowable. Belief is the antithesis of knowledge; religious belief is the antithesis of fact.
Let's just take it as a given that religion is a non-falsifiable hypothesis. That being said, it's not incompatible that someone can have a rationalist perspective on science but a theological viewpoint on the "mysteries of existence." People believe all kinds of paradoxes, every day. The concept that the two are incompatible is itself (at least historically) a theistic idea, not a scientific one. Science would simply say "there's no empirical evidence to support your theory" without attaching a value judgment. So, maybe its a good idea to cut a theist a break, and maybe not attach a value judgment to proselytizing? Sometimes a "sorry, I'm a _____" statement and letting it go is enough...just don't say you are an agnostic
On the flip side, I got to see some of the quest for the fullerine from a fly on the wall perspective, and I have to tell you, scientists also work from a perspective of non-falsifiable hypotheses, mysticism, wishful thinking, and outright lies to bring people to their point of view. The patina of objectivity sometimes doesn't hide the fact that people are people and even if their method is clean they are often motivated by irrational thoughts.