I consider it largely a waste of breath to throw specific scientific findings against religion, because both use different frames of mind and reference.
Ideally, that's true. It is often claimed that science and religion are entirely separate from one another, in that science tries to answer the 'how' of things and religion tries to answer the 'why.' Religion, some people tell us, isn't about the physical world at all, but only about the supernatural or the divine.
However, I don't believe that this is actually true in practice. Every religious tradition I am aware of without exception, from Hinduism to Islam to Shintoism to Christianity, makes empirical claims about the physical world.
All empirical claims about the physical world are matters best evaluated by evidence, not faith. If a seer or a prophet or a guru or a shaman makes claims about the age of the world, or the size of the world, or the nature of physical law, or states that thus-and-such an activity will persuade a supernatural deity to cure a disease (as long as it's not a missing limb or a lost eye, anyway--god has always had severe limits when it comes to miracle cures) or strike one's adversaries dead with lightning, those are empirical claims that can be tested.
The faithful often play a game in which they make empirical claims about the physical world, then retreat into "you can't test religion with the tools of science, empiricism isn't appropriate for matters of faith" when those claims are put to the test.
And like I said before, every time a religious faith has made an empirical claim about the physical world which has disagreed with science, the science has been right and the faith has been wrong. If we can not trust faith to give us the right answers on issues where we can check the answers, how can we trust faith to get the right answers on issues where we can't check the answers?
Originally Posted By: "Hal Itosis"
Is the ["known"] maximum speed of light the absolute highest rate at which matter (photons) or energy (information) can be transmitted?
