Don't you think is an oxymoron to say that you are a scientist and a religious person?

Question

... or to say that you are an intelligent person and religious?
How can someone that have studied biology, genetics, botany, zoology, etc believe in god?
They sure need to grab the books again...

Answer 1

Yeah, its hard for people to think that this is life and when you die, thats it. People don't want to beleive that. Most intelligent people who have actually taken the time to learn about our universe know that science is much closer to the correct answer than religon is. How can an all knowing boogie man that appeared out of no-where make everything but can't prove his own existence to us.
Religon is just a conveniently easy way to answer everything to the ignorant.

Answer 2

No, I don't see a contradiction between science and religion at all. In fact, I am a very devout person and a scientist.

The scientific method is a process of making guesses about how the world works and then trying to disprove those guesses. Most of the time you have a hypothesis and then design an experiment. If the experiment works out, the hypothesis is supported, but there is always the chance that your hypothesis can be proven false later on. You can only "prove" something by showing that all other possible hypotheses are not true. This is a virtually impossible thing to do. Therefore, science is a good way to try to learn more about the world, but it is a very slow way, and scientific ideas are continually being replaced with new, better ones.

In addition, there is an additional possibility in many scientific fields that the basic assumptions on which the entire field is based might not be true. In that case, ALL of the work that the field is doing could be garbage. I have identified some such ideas in my own field, linguistics, for example.

On the other hand, the truths that we can learn directly from God and the teachings of prophets are true already, so this is a much faster way to learn about something, and the information you get is sure. It's not going to be replaced tomorrow.

In other words, scientific investigation and religious study are both ways at trying to discover truth. It's just that their methods and speeds are different, as well as the quality of the results. My church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, encourages its members to find truth by whatever means it is available. In other words, we consider that all truth is part of our religion, including truths about the nature of the world and the things on it.

Please be careful in the future when you make statements about how religious people aren't very intelligent, or how good scientists can't possibly be religious, because it's pretty apparent that both are possible. Just about everybody can name at least one well-respected scientist who believed in God. You only run the risk of making yourself look less intelligent and less in-touch with the world when you do this.

Answer 3

Dear Jose,

I have yet to find anyone who isn't a religious person. The content of their belief systems vary, to be sure. They may not all have a formalized religion, but they have unproven beliefs which they hold mentally and base their lives upon. Being religious is not strictly limited to people that believe in a god.

I am confident, Jose, that you are also a religious person. Or are you going to tell me that you can prove everything scientifically that you believe? Let's take an example, since you mention biology, genetics, botany, zoology, etc. Many people claim that life in the form of self-replicating organisms arose by natural processes out of non-living chemical material. Do you believe this? If so, could you prove this happened, or do you just take it as a tenet of your religion? Can you tell me what the happy conditions were to produce such a result? Have self-reproducing living cells been reproduced in the lab? Can you even show that it is even mathematically probable for such a cell to form out of any particular chemical soup? Now perhaps you don't believe that life arose in such a manner, but many atheistic religionists say that it is so. If it did, a scientific person should expect to see the proof, rather than accepting such an amazing claim on blind faith.

Answer 4

No, it's not an oxymoron. The scientific method allows no way to PROVE scientific theories like evolution or the Big Bang theory - you can only DISprove them. So a belief in an intelligent Creator is just as reasonable as a belief in no creator. Many people have looked at the intricacies of the universe, biology, chemistry, geology, physics and have decided that there is no way this all could have happened without a designer (including Darwin, I might add).

What you're really saying, if I'm reading your question right, is that religious people can't be intelligent if they believe in a Creator. But if you ask me, it takes more faith to believe the universe and all that is in it (us included) came into existence WITHOUT a Creator/Designer.

Try this - throw a deck of cards into the air and see if you can get them to form any creation other than a pile on the floor. Oh, sure, you might get two that happen to stand up together, but you will never get a house of cards - and that's what this world is - a beautiful house of cards, kept in its fragile balance by a loving, intelligent Creator.

Answer 5

We will disagree here.
Even though I am a non-believer, I do know religious scientists. Obviously they don't share the narrow literalist view of God that seems so popular in this forum.

They have no problem with evolution, DNA, the Big Bang theory, quantum physics, etc. Some of them (e.g., the incredible paleontologist Mary Schweitzer), actually see all these truths as absolute evidence of a "great God." For one thing they understand how much more there is to know. And they laugh at the idea that the brains God gave them are being used by the devil to come up with "untruths" - penicillin and evolution are both from Him.

Answer 6

God created both science and scientist. Even the trees of the field clap their hands for God. The mountains quake before him, and the oceans roar at the sound of his voice.
Newton believed in God, and knew that if God so chooses he could remove gravity and the world would be gone. Newton said that many of his discoveries proved that there is a God who had a master plan, and created the universe. He also said a lot more about God and how his studies proved God was the creator of the universe.

PS. there is an interesting book that deals with religion and science. It is fiction but based on ideas thrown around by scientist. It is entertaining as well.
"The Monster" by Frank Perretti.

Answer 7

Jose, there is plenty of room for being both a creationist and an evolutionist. You don't have to agree that the world was made in 6 human days, but all you need to do is look around at the science. There must have been prior intelligence to have put what we see into motion. There is too much organization in nature verses chaos to believe that it all came about by chance.

Answer 8

OMG, there are plenty of people who study science and yet still have room in their lives for religious faith. Some of the most intelligent people in the history of the world have been fervent believers.

Science and religion are not mutually exclusive, my friend. A scientist, whose life's work it is to unlock the secrets of the universe, can postulate the origin of these secrets. Some scientists (and perhaps yourself, as well) attribute the elegant order of the universe to natural forces; others attribute them to God. This question is not one that is answerable by science, but by philosophy.

Answer 9

If you had done your research, you would realize that many branches of Christianity do not interpret every word of the bible literally (word for word). Many people are still religious but believe that the book of Genesis ("Adam and Eve" and the world being created in seven days) was written for its life lessons and not necessarily as historical fact. In fact, these creation stories were written long after the Exodus (Escape from Egypt occurred. "Evolution" is not a good reason to not have faith.

Answer 10

Creation Evidence Museum in Glenrose TX, led by its Founder and Director, Carl Baugh, Ph.D., has excavated eleven dinosaurs (Acrocanthosaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, etc.), 475 dinosaur tracks, 86 human footprints, 7 cat prints, and other fossil remains - all in Cretaceous limestone. Excavations were professionally documented along the Paluxy River and various other international locations.

Among museums this entity makes a unique contribution, demonstrating that man and dinosaur lived contemporaneously.

Answer 11

Lol..my grandmother used to be a member of the Christian Science Church in the late 1800's, early 1900's.

That said, I personally think it is possible to be both, but not perhaps possible to follow scriptures or religious writings literally. You need to look at the overall ideas and use those you can accept. I'm not a literalist.