god and science

Just saw a bbc program on the nature of god and its compatibility with science, it got me thinking... and wanting to write something down.

Can you be scientific about god ?

To go into it we need to wade though words that don't really have much good defined meaning, we are not on easy ground. the ground is a world play.

'scientific'.. instead of using this confusing word i am going to go with 'rational'. The program, and many people dont seem to think you can be rational and have a view of god. Well i dont claim to know that much on the subject, but i have observed most people seem to be most irrational about anything close to this subject. I think then, this would explain the prevailing view, that never the twain shall meet..

This brings me to the second word, god. Well you certainly cant be rational about this word if you cant give it a meaning. As far as i have discovered, this word means something different to everyone i meet. If i ask them to tell me about their view of the meaning, most people go off into the sunset with an incoherent dialogue that looses me fairly rapidly.

So to go any further into this observation i have to conclude at least that the word god does not have any useful meaning. At least the meaning it has, is not the meaning most people think it has. it gets even better.

All I have to go on is what i have observed in my life to date, and what i have observed in respect to this word is that its a meaningless word unless you connect it to the person you are talking to.

Startlingly the word takes on a new light, it opens a key into someones inner world. Their hopes, fears, views on morality get put onto their definition and personal relationship with their view of this externally so named figure. As far as i have seen to date in nearly all people i have met, this external figure turns out to be their own inner self. Ask most people to define god and they are defining their own idealised self.

Well, at least if you want to get to know someone its a great discussion point.

I believe you can be rational about god, provided you can be rational...

Unfortunately science itself is often irrational as people are quoting under the guise of science, just because they are a scientist it does not make them rational. If these people are not rational then what they say is not much use either.

Can you be scientific about god ?

A first step could be to say, a rational view of god is that the word tells you about the person telling you about the word. Most scientists dont study much about people, hence dont have to much useful to say on the matter.

I think you could be scientific about god, but not many people have really tried. Everyone including most scientists start talking about themselves before they get any distance into the issue.