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Originally Posted by dreadgeek
Yet, I'm still going to insist on demarcation. I think that's fair. While I don't see any good reason to believe in a heaven and I'm going to apply a fair and consistent standard (i.e. no special pleading) I am not going to argue that science 'disproves heaven' or what have you. For that, however, I think religion/spirituality needs to recognize the demarcation lines as well. Whether someone believes that the Bible teaches that humans were created by God is and should be irrelevant to the scientific process. "God created humans" is a religious statement, it has no business in a scientific discussion unless there is some proof that we *need* to invoke a divine being (and we don't) to explain some feature of the natural world we shouldn't allow it into the discussion. If we *do* have to allow that idea into the discussion then that statement has to be subject to the same criteria otherwise we are no longer doing science.
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This.
It is my understanding (don't get me wrong, I'm no expert, having decidedly NOT majored in theological studies or anthropology) that spirituality and religion, per se, were devised as a means to explain "the unexplainable" in early developing culture. Phenomena that weren't understood were attributed to higher beings, spirits, gods, etc. as a way for emerging societies to make sense of the world around them. As the sciences evolved and offered explanations for these occurences with data and repeatable results, spirituality was no longer required to insulate us from fear of what we do not understand.
That being said, I think the concept of demarcation is valid. Spirituality should absolutely be applied to philosophical questions, and that which cannot be explored by science (until we evolve the technology to do so, of course). However, I see the religious card being used less as a tool to promote community and more as an excuse to hide behind bigotry and ignorance. Unfortunately, science cannot be applied to human morality.