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Comment by ikurei | Hacker News Reader

My 2 cents:

I've read some books on evolution, many about philosophy and religion, and I find it all fascinating, but I didn't completely escape that feeling that it's not enough...

But, instead of saying "these explanations aren't satisfying, there must be a god behind these misteries", my position is "these beautiful explanations aren't completely satisfying, I'm left with some uncomfortable questions, and that's just part of being a human being".

I've been a devout catholic, I've been a kinda-skeptical non-denominational christian, I've been a staunch atheist and a buddhist-leaning agnostic... and I've never felt that I could find perfect answers. Some uncomfortable questioning will always be there, and it's better to try to make your peace with it before trying to solve it.

Trying to solve it is also fine, but not the complete answer.

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The best answer is "we don't know until we do", so the best thing to do is to throw out any pseudoscience (name it god, budda, UFO's, chemtrails or the Bigfoot) to the trash until there's enough scientifical proof of it.

Everything else is babblery and charlatanery.

Beliefs are not solely there to explain the “unexplainable”, you forgot the human part of it.

I agree that explaining what we don’t know with God is, well.. not explaining it. But if the said believer is not blinded by the charlatany branch of his/her religion (in case of Christianity there are many such, and many are absolutely fine with sciences), then I don’t see no evil. For some people it is calming to know that their loved ones “can’t” inexplicably die in every moment in an accident, that perhaps someone is watching over them - and many other, fundamental human innate cravings that want a God. (Which of course begs the question of isn’t God just a projection)

>you forgot the human part of it.

Yet that clause won't make any religion correct.

>For some people it is calming to know that their loved ones “can’t” inexplicably die in every moment.

Same issue. Life is neither fair or unfair, it just is. There's no good or back luck per se, just events ongoing.

It sucks, I know, but thanks to science and trying to understand how the Universe works, we invented the seat belt, for example. Or automatic braking systems for car. And yet, no magic or praying involved. Just lots of hard work. You can stay quiet and do nothing, or you can have a better understanding of your surrondings to avoid the less accidents, the better.

The world may be rational, the human mind is definitely not (even when we believe so) - for some people, believing in a higher entity helps. And they can work harder because of it, or simply have better mental health.

Also, many scientists were/is religious, so let it be a personal choice, up until it doesn’t hurt others.

>Also, many scientists were/is religious,

That's a fallacy, that won't make a religion real. Neither a paper. Just proofs and replication.

What about non-experimental questions, like how did life form? There is useful research regarding these questions with great, educated guesses on the unknowable parts - is it not science?

Also, nitpick but it would be absurd to call ‘religion’ not real. Like, one of the most fundamental organizations in the previous centuries is something I would not call non-existent. Whether God exists or not is a different, philosophical question - and to a degree it is similar to the how did life start on Earth question, with hypotheses that can’t necessarily be verified.

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