" Science allows for thinking to be wrong, belief systems based on faith do not. Science allows for change when more evidence is found, faith based belief systems do not."

Great point.

Science is always evolving, and while there are hardheaded proponents of certain sciences that get unduly mired into insular and outmoded methodologies used to explain and explore the world, it is still ultimately a field that is ever evolving and growing.

Sometimes this evolution of thought relies on a scientist completely reconfiguring his/her worldview and this can be difficult for anyone.

For instance, much of the scientific community (much less the layman) hasn't caught up with the absolutely astounding implications of quantum mechanics. This can be seen in medicine as well. Medicine is still in the realm of classical newtonian physics (material physics). It is all about giving someone a physical pill, or physically cutting part of their body away.

The full realization of just the current knowledge of quantum mechanics could potentially usher in an age of energy medicine where healing is achieved without any type of physical manipulation.

On the other hand, there is no evolution of thought allowed for in fundamentalist belief systems. In this scheme, new evidence is not simply slow to alter one's world-view, it is outright ignored, until it becomes utterly impossible to maintain the charade any longer.

It's funny because, centuries ago, members of the church had a comparable level of disdain for theories of a heliocentric cosmology as they now have for evolution.

This outright refusal to accept a new vision of the cosmos came into direct opposition to their bible. Where did all of this controversy that caused centuries of intolerance, abuse, and torture come from?

Primarily from this text:

"Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." (Joshua 10:12-13).

You see, if it was the sun that stood still, then it is obviously the sun that moves, not the earth. Well, this was their reasoning based upon a literal interpretation of this book.

This literal interpretation inspired horrendously cruel acts of torture to many human beings, including the relentless persecution of Galileo at the inquisition and the brutal murder of Giordano Bruno.

Here is the story of Giordano Bruno:

"Hearing the ideas of Copernicus about the nature of the universe sent Giordano Bruno into a veritable frenzy of philosophical thought. If the Earth was not the center of the universe, and all those stars clearly seen in the night sky were also suns, then there must exist an infinite number of earths in the universe, inhabited with other beings like ourselves.

This idea about the universe did not sit well with the Catholic Church. They lured Giordano Bruno to Rome with the promise of a job, where he was immediately turned over to the Inquisition and charged with heresy.

Giordano Bruno spent the next eight years in chains in the Castel Sant’Angelo, where he was routinely tortured and interrogated until his trial. Despite this, he remained unrepentant, stating to his Catholic Church judge, Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, "I neither ought to recant, nor will I." Even a death sentence handed down by the Catholic Church did not change his attitude as he defiantly told his accusers, "In pronouncing my sentence, your fear is greater than mine in hearing it."

Immediately after the death sentence was handed down, Giordano Bruno’s jaw was clamped shut with an iron gag, his tongue was pierced with an iron spike and another iron spike was driven into his palate. On February 19, 1600, he was driven through the streets of Rome, stripped of his clothes and burned at the stake."
http://space.about.com/cs/astronomyhistory/a/giordanobruno.htm


The logical question that follows is...if the bible is the inerrant, infallible "word of God" then how is it that God didn't ensure that a correct understanding of our solar system wasn't recorded in that book? How is it that they got it wrong when they said that it was the sun that rotated around the earth?? Could it possibly be because that was the level of understanding at the time? Seems logical and reasonable doesn't it.

Well, eventually even religion evolves, albeit at an astoundingly pace slower than the rest of the world. Believe it or not, the church didn't admit that Galileo was correct until 1992 ( 380 years after he publicly supported the heliocentricity) and a formal apology for the debacle did not occur until the year 2000.

This is the result of pathological close-mindedness. It isn't a great legacy. Fundamentalist religion is again resisting Science on so many fronts and history is repeating itself.