Re: [asa] The God hypothesis- a test

Quoting philtill@aol.com:
> He showed overwhelmingly
> that these studies prove religious people to be happier than irreligious
> people.
..
> Now the Bible says Christians will suffer in this world, "in this world you
> will have tribulation, but I will give you peace." That sounds like a
> testable and proven claim.
>
> Phil
>

McGrath sites studies showing religious people (including Christians) are
happier in general.

Bible says Christians will suffer.

I'm not disagreeing with either of those statements, but atheists (who like many
fundamentalists who specialize in non-nuanced views of things) would have fun
with that.

For Christians it raises interesting questions: so are the presumably "happy"
Christians not genuine? Or perhaps --more likely, "happy" and "suffering" are
vague enough terms as to not be mutually exclusive. And even more likely yet,
there is probably no way a survey or study could meaningfully capture
statistically accurate data on how "happy" various groups are. If I had to
answer a survey on whether I am happy or not, either answer would be a lie
because my true state simply can't be represented in that binary fashion,
unless we carefully define what "happy" is. And definitions run afoul of simply
predetermining the results.

Another question: if it's "all religious people" that are in general happier,
then that would put Christianity in the company of all religions whether true or
false. So what would that show anyway?

Joy may be a slightly deeper (or as yet unpolluted) term than "happy". But
whatever word is used I don't foresee statisticians ever being able to compile
meaningful data on it that could be taken seriously as evidence.

Thank God for his Word. I personally grow exasperated with the post-modernist
flavors our news programs increasingly have. These days it seems to count as
"news" what most people are thinking or favoring in the polls. Never mind, for
example, what a presidential candidate actually thinks on a real issue. We are
instead informed how popular or unpopular he/she is. Or never mind whether
something is true or accurate and what real evidence comes to bear on it. We
apparently want to know instead "how many others think so?". In some cases or
stations of life, if somebody wants to actually learn something, their own peers
should be the last resort. Instead they/we flock to the polls.

--Merv

--Merv

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Received on Fri May 16 10:50:30 2008