can you be a christian, a jew, or what ever and be a true scientist?

Question

I mean, religion is the belief that things were created by a higher power. But scientist believe in evolution. So can you be a scientist and a christian at the same time?

This question was not meant to offend anyone, sorry if it did.

Answer 1

I was just reading an article on evolution in a Catholic magazine. Official church teaching is that the God created everything but he may used evolution to do it.

Looking at it another way - God created a rational universe. Scientist are just trying find the rational laws He put in place.

Though some religions may insist on a literal reading of scripture, others see their scriptures as a spiritual guide rather than a science book.

And some may say that people who take things on faith are not being logical. However I have never seen atoms yet I believe they exist.

So in answer to original question - yes you can be a true scientist and person of faith.

Answer 2

Science and religion don’t contradict, only our interpretations of each.

The reason you’re asking, and the reason there is so much controversy is that science is self-correcting over time, whereas some of the more fundamentalist believers of many faiths require science to adhere to some biblical version. This is why it took 500 years for those same fundamentalists to admit Galileo was right.

There is no controversy over most science. The controversy is ONLY when science clashes with a rigid and fundamentalist view of something that was passed down thousands of years ago

This is such a shame, because now so many people feel they must make a choice between reason and faith and that just isn’t so.

Both science and religion have their own beauty and purpose.
Science is about understanding the way things work all around us in nature.
Religion is about ethics and spirituality it should be concerned not with science it’s self, but with what we do with it





I’m sorry, but I feel compelled to correct someone’s fundamental misunderstanding

A quick note to book_freak… to say “evolution is merely a theory” is a monumental misunderstanding of what a theory is… the word theory is not an opinion. Had you done a little reading book_freak you would never have said that.
Gravity is merely a theory (anyone who wants to say it’s a law let me stop you right now… go back and study)
Light is merely a theory
Magnetism is merely a theory
Electricity is merely a theory
Etc, etc, etc,

Answer 3

Well, actually, evolution is merely a theory, not a fact. Also, there is a lot of scientific evidence against evolution, and many scientists do not accept it as even being possibly true. Also, if you go back in history, many of the greatest scientists who made some of the greatest discoveries were in fact Christians.
Furthermore, if one looks at history, archeology, and even science, they all actually create a strong amount of evidence in favor of Christianity. If you want to see what I mean there is a book entitled "Reasonable Faith: The Case for Christianity" by Dr. J.L. Wile (a scientist, by the way).

To yeeooow: This is Book Freak. The person who wrote the above statement is a friend of mine and if you have a problem with what she had to say you can take it up with me. According to our beliefs, evolution is a theory that teachers are told to teach whether they are Christians or not and whether they believe that it is necessarily true or not. Just read the book that she suggested and see for yourself what we mean.

Answer 4

There seem to be 2 trains of thought going on here.

The Question specifically asks about people. A true scientist and a christian/jew/muslim/etc. However, people keep commenting on how both differing philosophies are correct. I disagree, but that's not the question. It is asking about people. That's fine if you believe one can believe in both. I agree with that. I've seen people believe in both. I'm friends with some of them. But can a true scientist be religious. No! They are conflicting ideas. If you are "true" anything, you must be completely to one side. I.e. A true liberal can't oppose abortion, otherwise you aren't a true liberal. You don't adhere to the extreme side of your cause, to be considered true. More to the point, a fundamentalist christian cannot truly believe in science. Sounds weird, but they can't. Not to continue to be true. They must follow the bible in the strictest form.

Also, the word theory in Theory of Evolution, is not the same type of "theory" as when people say "I have a theory on how something works". That is a hypothesis: Something taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation; an assumption. A theory is a set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested. You people seem to use it as a conjecture. Evolution isn't a whim. It has been observed on the small scale (time wise), esp. with the observation of microorganisms. And repeated.

And if you truly want to get your science education from someone who studied the bible in school, rather than a person who actually studied science (and hence qualified to give you answers about things in science), then next time you get really sick (like cancer), see your priest.

Answer 5

Religion is related to faith in a creed. Science is related to research and proof. If your faith doesn't collide with your work I think that you can be a religious scientist. There are many religious scientists. So it is possible to be a scientist and christian at the same time, even because the church uses science to check if miracles are true and related questions.

Answer 6

To my knowledge any good scientist who genuinely set out to prove that God and the Bible are false have become believers. Some of the theories that science is built on e.g. evolution are conflicting with the theory (and proven fact) of the Bible. So that is where the conflict lies. But the facts do prove that the Bible is true. There is a wisdom in knowing the difference what to write in a paper to pass and exam, and knowing the truth, and seeing the evidence testify to it.

Answer 7

well ok, I believe in god, and that god is the superior force that governs the world perhaps. BUT science is observing the world around you, the laws and the very fabric of the laws that control the universe and life. God and science are two non conflicting ideas. I love science for its proving power. Its all fact. This is how things are and thats it. But it builds one ach other. You cant know how to do exponents unless you first know how to muliply. same idea. God is just the excuse for how things came about since we dont have out own explanation yet. now the different ways in which god is believed in is how religion comes about. SO you can ahve a way to believe in god and still boserve the worls around you, without having the two ideas conflict

Answer 8

Absolutely!!!! Science is the study of the natural world. The same one created by God. As we learn more and more about it, the mysteries only continue to grow.

Now when you say Christian, do you mean a REAL Christian or the typical Jesus is my savior Christian? REAL Christians recognize that heaven is not a place but state of mind, that Jesus was an initiated divine being who taught that EVERYONE can be exactly like him in connecting to higher levels of being. That Life is energy (like physics) and this is the unifying principle in the Universe.

Answer 9

Rational religious believers understand that while God may have created the world, science still plays a heavy role in the day-to-day life of said world. Religious people still know about gravity, inertia, chemical reactions, etc and are able to attribute those things to "scientific" reasons. And there are some things that us humans will NEVER know for certain, for example, how the universe was created. Religion is solely about FAITH; Science is about EVIDENCE.

Answer 10

Ever hear of Newton, Einstein, and G. W. Carver?

Those who state that the basis of intelligence is found in the "theory" of evolution, live in a world of their own making. Why would such a nonsense thing as that determine what others learn and how they reason?

These people need a little understanding on our part. They've been taught this particular lie all their lives, and probably, really, believe it.