Quote:
Originally Posted by ganbaru
I can't say for sure if Person B is supposed to be a very religious individual or someone very knowlegeable in many high level scientific theory  |
Although this may not be the case in the example you highlighted I do think a case can be made that science or more specific the belief in technology and progress follows a similar psychological dynamic to that of religion. The belief in progress is deeply instilled in society and much of the underlying assumptions based around this are often built on nothing but acts of faith.
Also, people often say they believe in science and believe in theory x,y or z but in reality their knowledge of the theories in question are often (not always) minimal. People trust the words of an expert which is nothing more than an act of faith since you have not seen the evidence yourself, you have faith the person is honest. Now in most matters this is okay and this faith is most secure and best placed when it comes to the harder sciences and when we are talking about well established theories but people often place an enormous degree of faith in science that is far from proven and this faith is especially questionable if the theory is uncertain and is based on a soft science. Such acts of faith, which are quite prevalent in mainstream society is not much different to the act of faith a religious person might place on the religion they chose to follow.
To give an obvious example just ask peoples' views on capitalism, socialism or communism. And then ask how these paradigms operate but when asking this question ask about how these theories work in the textbook
AND how these theories work in practice. If a person can answer these questions and answer them honestly it wills be an enlightening process. In any case the act of misplaced faith is not limited to religious nutters, after all faith is the unwavering believe in a set of belief structures despite the lack of hard evidence to support it. Since our knowledge of the world is far from complete then we must place some faith in the actions we undertake.