I have always been of the mind that science is just the progression of what we do not know about the universe. If one takes an objective look back over the history of scientific "fact," more often than not what we knew to be true was proven completely untrue a millennium, a century, or even just a decade later by someone who refused to just blindly except something as fact just because it came from a guy wearing a white lab coat.
And when comes to the origin of all things, true science has not, and can not, give an answer, as true science requires something that can be observed, as well as recreated and repeated in a controlled environment. Which means at some point mankind will simply have to admit that there are some things we simply cannot know for sure. We must take them on faith.
Now, with that comment about not being able to believe in a deity that "restricts" our right to learn, explore, and understand, well I have to say wouldn't a deity capable of creating an entire universe as well as the very concepts of space and time, all through the power of his/her/its spoken word be, by his/her/its very nature, a being whose every capacity is far beyond anything we, mere mortals, are capable of grasping, much less replicating on our own? So it's not really a "restriction of rights" so much as "understanding and accepting our limits." I mean even with our science it is an entirely imperfect process because no matter what information any system, machine, program, or other such tool delivers to us will still have to be filtered through our limited capacity for understanding what exactly it is we are seeing. It certainly wouldn't be the first time and most definitely won't be the last time that we made an assumption based on what we observed, ran with it for years and mocked anyone who denied it, only to find out later that it was completely and utterly misunderstood and misrepresented. Let's face it, for centuries we thought the world was flat and "proved" it by the simple logic that unless it is properly balanced, anything placed on a surface that is not flat is liable to slide, roll, or simply fall off, and since we're all still standing here and our houses haven't toppled over, the world simply must be flat and to believe otherwise is pure nonsense. "Scientifically speaking," the "flat Earth" theory was entirely sound and proven according to what mankind knew of the world. These days we look back and think "what simple-minded fools to not grasp such fundamental concepts as gravity and centripetal force that keep us from tumbling off or being flung into space." How many years from now will mankind look back on what we "know" now and say "what simple-minded fools" as well?
Just some food for thought. Not trying to hijack the thread. I'm trying to keep this more about science and the pros and cons thereof, but even so that's not truly the topic upon which this thread is based.
