The surprising links between faith and evolution and climate denial — charted

[gcomeau]

36. I'll just re-post what I commented there yesterday...

I really wish people would stop confusing "look, people can hold these two ideas in their heads at the same time!" with "Look, these two ideas are compatible!"

Yes. People can both believe in religion and accept science. That does not in the slightest way render science and religion to be compatible concepts. Just like if I declare that I both accept that liquid water is wet and believe liquid water to be dry that does not make those two ideas compatible. It just means I am holding onto two contradictory concepts and refusing to face that fact.

A fundamental principle of the scientific method is that hypotheses about the way the world works must be falsifiable.

"A supernatural all powerful creator entity exists" is a completely unfalsifiable hypothesis. The principles of the scientific method dictate it be rejected.

Pointing at some groups of people who either don't know or refuse to acknowledge this and so declare they both accept science and believe in God does not alter that basic fact. If they insist on retaining the God hypothesis they are rejecting science by definition. And yes, that remains true even if the people we're talking about are scientists. Scientists are every bit as capable of special pleading and mental compartmentalization to avoid exposing their treasured beliefs to logical scrutiny as anyone else is.