Science, in its
purest form, is the *
lack* of
faith. The
basis of science is to
question everything, taking
nothing for granted. The
path that science takes is one where no matter what seems right, the question will always come up, "But what about...?" Granted, science relies on
assumptions to forward its
cause, but does not take these assumptions for fact. We treat some
suppositions as
postulations, but the
truth is (excuse the wording) that science
acknowledges that these assumptions are not the actual ways that the
universe may work, but rather a
model that we can use to better our understanding of the universe. Faith asks that we
accept something,
blindly and
without reason. We are not to question faith. Science questions everything, and thus faith has no place in science.
Update (regarding
Lamed-Ah-Zohar's contribution):
I completely agree with you in that the layman's
reliance on science is
faith. However, the point I was trying to make (being the
devil's advocate that I am) was that science "in its purest form" has no faith. How science is used by others is not necessarily science itself.
So as to the first problem, "Apparently people don't pay attention to science in its purest form," my
assertion is that those that don't pay attention should not have an effect on the idea of science itself. Science as it is, does not rely on what others assert as truth, as it constantly questions everything it assumes.
The second problem you present I think I've already explained away as science not relying on every person to care about the "
filament in the lightbulb." Perhaps I'm not too clear by what you mean here. For this, I apologize.
The third problem you present here, that "There are some questions that science will never be able to
answer but are no less important," seems very narrow-minded. My thought is that these questions do exist, but science
strives to answer them or come close at least,
despite the
limitations of our understandings of the
universe and the limitations we place on science. Science does not
write off the question of the
existence of a god or gods, but looks to find evidence either way.
I guess the
main point I'm trying to make is that faith requires no questioning or reason, whereas science does.