Dennis Prager argues that "I believe in science" is meaningless because science doesn't address meaning, morality, or beauty. Callers debate whether science existed in antiquity and whether people prefer it to religion because it makes no moral demands.
Okey-dokey, everybody. I'm talking about on the Ultimate Issues Hour, people who say, I hear it all the time, I don't believe in God, I believe in science. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know what believe in science means. Do I believe in science if I need a scientific answer to something? Yes, obviously. I don't go to the Bible to study galaxies, correct? I don't go to science to study right and wrong. Or get meaning or get beauty. All right, so let's, let's, let's just be honest. It's, it's a, it's a meaningless statement and it needs to be regarded as such. All right, Atlanta, Georgia. Robert.
Hello, Robert. Hey, thank you.
Yes, sir.
You mentioned, uh, pre-science period. Yeah. And you make me think a lot of times, and I realize there's no such thing as a pre-science period because science as a form of studying nature and how things are and why has been always been around from Socrates, which could be considered the first physicist. Um, even, uh, Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist. Um, so, and I also want to mention that I agree with you, science doesn't create art, but I believe that if you're intellectually honest, science has contributed to art, which is a difference.
How has it contributed to art?
Uh, chemistry and manufacturing. A good example, paint, because through chemistry, more easily being able to make paint.
Well, but they had, they knew about paint before they knew about chemistry.
But through chemistry you can make it, and through manufacturing.
Okay, you don't need, all right, you don't need chemistry to write a symphony.
But through the industry, everyone is able to have paint while 2,000 years ago that was not the case.
Oh, all right. That was my point in any event. There is such a thing as modern science. Until the late 19th century, probably the 20th century, going to a doctor, it was a 50/50 chance that you would actually get worse. It was, the odds are you would get worse. What they did, You would have an infection, the doctor didn't wash his hands because they didn't know about germs, touched you there, and then drew blood, the opposite of what he should have done. So it's somewhat of a farce, obviously. Nobody's to be blamed, it's not a blame, it's not even a ridicule. But modern science is the idea that you test data. Is new. That is, that is what became new. All right, uh, let's, uh, let's go on here. And, uh, okay, where was I? Had a one I wanted to, uh, take here. Oh, this was interesting. Katie in, uh, Cave Creek, Arizona. Hi.
Hi there. Thank you for your show and thank you for your movie. Movie. My daughter and I really enjoyed No Safe Spaces.
Good, good. It is a wonderful movie. Thank you.
Yeah, so I just was making the point, I love your conversation about science and God. Um, science is like anything else.
It was—
it's just the study of what God already created, and God created our creativity to make art. God created art reason to want to sing and praise him in music. And he created everything scientific, of which we only know a portion. So I think that people believe in— or they say they believe in science without really giving it much thought. They're not saying, 'I bow down to it, I put my trust in it,' but they really are. And you're right to call them on it and tell them they're worshiping science. But I believe the reason down in their heart is that it requires nothing of them.
That's it. Whew, was I praying you would get to that. You got, you got me to pray. That's why I took the call, because of that point. So, uh, that's, that was the key. That's correct. The reason people loathe religion is because it makes demands. Science doesn't make any demands. That's right. Science doesn't give a damn how you act. That's not science's fault. It's like saying my chair doesn't care how I act. It's not the chair's fault. It's not its job. The chair is to enable me to sit. That's its only task. Science has a limited task. It's an important task, but it makes no moral demands. Exactamente. The Dennis Prager Show, live.
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