Can science ever co-exist peacefully alongside religion?

Question

I mean, science is about experimentation and finding the solid facts through investigation. However, religion is based purely on faifth

Answer 1

How are you defining faith?

My friend is a high school chemistry teacher. You know what she teaches her kids? Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean you can't learn about it and know that it's there. Her kids challenge her on it all the time. She'll be explaining something and they'll retort, "Yeah, how do you know that? We can't know for sure!"

"Well, based on the evidence and what we've observed..." (and she'll rattle off a bunch of evidence) "it seems like a logical conclusion."

Is there no faith in science, then? That's one point. Here's another:

I personally believe that God designed this world and us that we would explore, learn, discover. We, as humans, have this insatiable desire to know more, to go farther, to accomplish greater feats. I think this desire was divinely placed in us and I think, therefore, that "science" as you yourself defined it is not only biblical, but godly. Check this verse out:

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
to search a matter out is the glory of kings."
(Proverbs 25:2)

It is our kingly glory, as human beings, to search out a matter. We're curious. "Inquiring minds want to know." We were made to be fascinated. Hunger and desire drive us; fascination keeps us. Anything we can master with our minds, we get bored with. We also feel like once we've understood it, we're above it.

So this is a genius design in God's plan. Not only does it keep up exploring and learning more about this world He's created, but it also means we'll never fully grasp who God Himself is. He's transcendent and eternal, for one thing. But He's beautiful, in the grandest, purest sense of that word. And who gets the incarnation? Does the God-Man, Jesus, really make complete sense to anyone? The Apostle Paul wrote that this mystery is "great, without controversy." That is, no one gets it. Even the angels don't get it. How do you fit God in a baby?

So, we will never get bored, we will always be fascinated, and there will always be more to discover of who He is. In this way, faith, too, is a journey of exploration and discovery, kinda like science. Sure, He doesn't fit in a test tube, but neither do a lot of scientific ideas and discoveries. Besides, who wants a God you can fit in a test tube or fully explain? How boring. How small.

Now, because of the presupposition that there is no God, the conclusions of science are often incompatible with my faith (I'm a Christian), but this is question of conflicting worldviews. It's the presupposition and the conclusion--not science itself--that causes the clash.

That would be my answer.

**EDIT**
And as someone else pointed out, your methods in science would have to be moral, too. Knowledge and the expense of morality is, in my opinion, wrong. Science is only godly when done within moral bounds.

Answer 2

I think that it, unfortunately, is utopian to say so. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't like such a coexistence but from history we know that it's you know like a journey to Mars-- it seems possible but nobody has ever been there and there's little chance that it will change soon. Religion as you said is based on faith and frequently it's a blind faith that makes taking scientifically explained and proved ideas into account impossible. Copernicus proved something which was denied by religion. And as we know he died because of that. Religion although based on love doesn't follow love while solving problems. Frequently it follows the line of violence-- fundamentalists can be found in every religion. Because of people, science and religion will never get on well together I'm afraid.

Answer 3

I believe you have the question backwards; "Can Religion co-exist peacefully alongside Science?" Several times in history, religion has tried to hold back the onrush of scientific knowledge. The Catholic Church has a particularly bad record in this regard, but most likely that is because it is also the oldest Christian Church. While most know about their long-time insistence that the Earth is the center of the Universe, they also tried to outlaw umbrellas as opposing G*D's will and Arabic numerals as being unholy. As G*D slowly opens our eyes, many still refuse because they find the brightness painful.

Answer 4

Read about Quantam Physics (Circa 20th century). Then find out about Buddhism (circa 500 B.C.) Spot the similarities! Yes religion can exist alongside science if they are both going in the right direction.
Science and Religion are both about finding the truth..or they should be. Most religions ask for Blind Faith and don't take kindly to tricky questions. Buddhism, says question everything, including the Buddha and then make you own mind up what is the truth.

Answer 5

No. Religions formed to give their followers a sense of importance and security by creating myths to explain the unexplainable. Science does just the opposite, relying on observation to arrive at empirical truths. History has shown the typical response of religion to science to be one of irrational denial and ultimately violence when beliefs that made their perception of the world more acceptable and self-fulfilling are dispelled by inconvenient truths.

Answer 6

I think the scientists can live in peace but the religious are a tad too violent for it to happen.

I think you should contact the Italian philosopher Lucilio Vanini who was burned alive in 1619 for suggesting that humans descended from apes.

Or Calvinist lawyer Isaac La Peyrère who was denied permission to publish his manuscript claiming that people have existed before Adam, and that Chaldeans can legitimately trace their civilization back 470,000 years.

Answer 7

It is like this...if science proves the existence of God, then they will peacefully co-exist. If science proves God does not exist, there will be hatred. It all depends on what science can or cannot prove. Religion loves you if you are on it's side, but hates you if you are dissentful.

Answer 8

I don't believe in religion based on blind faith but one based on experience and experiment. As soon as you relax the requirement for the Bible to be taken literally science and religion can coexist happily.

Answer 9

No religion has constantly worked to slow or disrupt science. From Galileo to evolution to stem-cell research, religion actively works to either deny solidly proven theory, or to impose "moral dilemmas" where none should exist.

Take stem-cell research. Bush is threatening to veto the pending legislation that will allow stem-cell research on stem cells from in-vitro embryos THAT ARE GOING TO BE DISCARDED. He says such research is "immoral". So, we can throw the embryos in the trash, but we can't use them to cure disease. Got it.

Answer 10

Can anything, ever co-exist peacefully alongside religion?