Why religion isn't under the same amount of scrutiny?

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Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

Well theres my guess then Besides, scientifically speaking, the ability to know exactly what someone meant when they wrote something (especially in regards to the bible) is very close to impossible without being able to ask them. Interpretation can be very much flawed considering the writer could have meant pretty much anything from the obvious to the extremely complicated deeper meaning. Either way, we cannot know for sure. So from this religion makes an attempt at it but that does not necessarily say they are completely right. Its their belief and at least they gave it a try eh?

Also, even time frames can be skewed in this same respect. Many people talk about God making the world in seven days because thats what they have read in the bible. However, looking at someone who is outside the bounds of time (God), how can we say that it IS the same to us? Seven days to him may certainly not be seven days as we see them. This is why many people now think that instead it is seven "periods of time" which could even be like 1 day=1 thousand years.

My point is you say that religion attempts to answer these questions and you look down at that because it doesnt follow the scientific process that you hold so dear to your hearts. At least they do just that, they attempt it. Of course they could be wrong, however you cant effectively criticize for explaining something that you cannot just because they didnt do it in a way that seems acceptable to your standards.

Slipstrike,

The problem is not that religious theories are treated by religious people as religious theories. The problem is that you're bent on trying to somehow mold these religious theories into scientific theories, which is not going to work. In scientific theory, interpretation is not at all "flawed," in that scientific questions are all posed in a way that there can be no question as to what the original asker could have meant. If you want to ask questions like "what is our meaning in life?" without clarifying any of your terms, then OF COURSE science cannot answer this question, because this is not a scientifically worded question in the first place, and thus the entire discussion becomes meaningless. So, you seem to be misunderstanding the entire point of the discussion here - it's not that religion is in any way WRONG, it's just that you cannot try to use science to interpret religion's core values.