The Science of Discworld IV Judgement Da - By Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart Page 0,140

with all of the other religions in the world when it comes to those dreadful atheists – infidels, literally people without faith. But as soon as you start to examine what different religions, or different sects within a given religion, or even different believers within the same sect, actually believe, common cause gives way to bedlam. The Church of England, for example, is currently split into factions over the issue of women bishops, and is perilously close to splitting into two different sects. And the Church of England itself originated in a split from the Church of Rome. There are thousands of different Christian denominations, let alone other faiths.

In this debate, we have no desire to argue for either position. We’d rather there were no bishops at all – men or women – though being realists we don’t expect that to happen. What intrigues us is that good – indeed, devout and committed – Christians, people on both sides of the argument, have examined their innermost hearts, prayed to their God and been answered with a clear vision of God’s wishes. There can be no doubt that that is what they sincerely believe. But, curiously, God’s wishes turn out to be that (a) Women bishops should be allowed, and (b) They shouldn’t. Indeed, God’s wishes are remarkably similar to what those of the individuals concerned have been all along, before they consulted their deity on the matter.

From within that debate, if it can be dignified with the word, it is clear to all that one side is right and the other is wrong; one has correctly divined God’s wishes, the other is deluded. Problem: which is which? From outside, we are observing an interesting experimental test of the efficacy of prayer, indeed of the existence of the kind of deity in which the Church of England believes, indeed the general concept of a belief system. Silentio dei is not the difficulty: God has indeed spoken to both sides – or so they genuinely believe. But He has spoken with a forked tongue. From outside, if He existed in a form consistent with the beliefs of the Church of England, then surely He would have told everyone the same thing.

So this particular religion fails a definitive experimental test, one inadvertently set up by the believers themselves. In science, that would be a good reason to reject the hypothesis.

Worldwide, religious believers outnumber atheists, even if we exclude people who nominally belong to a religion but don’t practise it. However, across the board, the world’s religions find it virtually impossible to agree on the supernatural features of their belief systems. They often seem to agree on fundamentals such as a god – but which god? Each religion, each sect, has a god that – it tells us – demands a different set of rituals, a different form of worship, different prayers. Each is in the minority, so at most one can be correct. But they all appeal to the same reasoning: faith. Since their own beliefs disagree, faith clearly doesn’t hack it. Thus the apparent majority turns out to be smoke and mirrors.

The writer and comedian Ricky Gervaisfn2 made a similar point more pithily in 2010:

The dictionary definition of God is ‘a supernatural creator and overseer of the universe’. Included in this definition are all deities, goddesses and supernatural beings. Since the beginning of recorded history, which is defined by the invention of writing by the Sumerians around 6000 years ago, historians have catalogued over 3,700 supernatural beings, of which 2,870 can be considered deities. So next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say ‘Oh, which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra …?’ If they say, ‘Just God. I only believe in the one God,’ I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.

Ultimately, religious beliefs are based not on objective evidence, but on faith. Religions are belief systems, and many proclaim this as an advantage: faith is a test, set by God. If you don’t agree with them, you’ve failed. Many religionists – and a proportion of postmodernists – have claimed that science is also a belief system; in effect, just an alternative religion. Not so. They have failed to understand the key difference between science and belief: in science, the highest points are given to those who disprove the tenets of the alleged faith, especially its central tenets. In science