Fr. Ivo wrote: > >Religion has a scientific basis in universe and human being. This is >what >Dr.Santosh will not be able to understand... >
I explain below exactly how Fr. Ivo raises the scientific illiteracy of Goanetters who are unfortunate enough to read his posts in this thread. "Religion has a scientific basis in universe and human being." ......Fr. Ivo The absurdity in this statement becomes apparent when one asks the question "Which religion?" Christianity believes in a creator and a personal deity. Buddhism and atheism do not. Which belief has a scientific basis? A person with some science education would say "neither", because such supernatural beliefs cannot be verified or falsified by observation or experiment. "This book is not "religious" or "philosophical". It is scientific. It is based on neuroscientific experiments. I can challenge Dr.Santosh on this point." .....Fr. Ivo I would say that the best preparation for the challenge would be to read a high school textbook on science. The Beauregard book is not scientific because it makes wild unscientific speculative claims. The claims are unscientific because they cannot be verified or falsified by observation or experiment. Two examples of such bogus unscientific claims are the following: "But that hard problem ceases to be a problem once we understand the universe itself as a product of consciousness. We might expect living beings to evolve towards consciousness if consciousness underlies the universe. Consciousness is an irreducible quality." .....Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary "I do not doubt in principle that a contemplative might contact a reality outside herself during a mystical experience." .....Mario Beauregard But what is even more outrageous is that the Beauregard book endorses Intelligent Design creationism and spooky parapsychological phenomena such as telepathy. In fact, the authors make the incredible claim that there is strong evidence for these psi phenomena. The amount of unscientific gullibility displayed by these authors is mind-boggling. "What Dr.Santosh accepts is "scientific", what he rejects is "unscientific"" ......Fr. Ivo Fr. Ivo would not have made the above statement if he were not so well versed in the misunderstanding of the difference between scientific and unscientific. The elementary high school textbook of science would tell us that for a claim to be regarded as scientific it must be testable, i.e. it must be verifiable or falsifiable by observation or experiment. None of Beauregard’s claims are testable. They are just rehashed preconceived personal religious beliefs and airy speculations with absolutely no scientific value whatsoever. "The point that Dr.Mario makes is that the mystical experiences are created by a reality outside the brain." .....Fr. Ivo This is a great example of an unscientific claim because it cannot be verified or falsified by a scientific observation or experiment. The supernatural reality outside the brain cannot be objectively detected or measured by independent means. The belief that it does or does not exist is therefore a religious or philosophical belief. Beauregard claims in the book that he has no doubt that this supernatural reality exists. I say to him, more power to you for believing in the dogma of your religion, but please stop fooling your readers (many of whom, like Fr. Ivo, have no clue as to what the science in neuroscience stands for) that this is your scientific conclusion. Cheers, Santosh
