Reformulated: Do you think that there is room for BOTH science and religion in the world that we live in?

Question

Or do you think that we have segregated ourselves into groups between which the tensions only seem to be increasing?

See: Thomas Aquinas and Ibn Rushd ( see my previous post if you wanna know what these guys were about: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Asx2YkhoTXyaJkSDlAViSLPsy6IX?qid=20060727210334AAU4STX )

mathcore321x. In my previous version, i said that "if the proof of science is 'reason' and the prove of religion is 'faith'" I got slammed for it. So I didn't go there.

Answer 1

There is room, but it will be difficult for scientifically minded people to understand religion.

Scientific people tend to want evidence or some proof. An alignment, for example, of observations and theories which is congruous and predictable.

Religion, on the other hand requires people to make a decision based on litte or no evidence. The equation seems to be: we are here, things are unexplained, therefore the explanation is that some power we don't understand created us.

Interestingly even this is not that controversial to scientists. Scientists also have no answer, and are not saying there is no god, they are just saying that at this time there is insufficient evidence to come to that conclusion.

Therefore nonbelievers do not have to explain themselves, they have not made any assertions at all, and therefore do not have a place in the debate, except to make the point that the religious believers do not have any right to impose their beliefs on us, especially when the beliefs are so tenuously based on their own faith.

Finally, I make the point about god above only in respect to A God, not any specific god.

In fact even if creationists are correct, that does not necessarily make any one religion correct. In fact it makes either all of them wrong or, at most, one of them right!!!!

So don't get too excited.

Prehaps the biggest problem I have is that all of the rules attached to religion were made by man, not by god.

Finally, if we really did have a benevelont and omniscient god, then what the hell is he doing? Why is the world not doing so good. Throw us a freaking bone here!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

Personally i believe Medicine and Science are the New religions. Think about it in the past when people had problems they went to God in prayer, now its the doctors office. The doctor has become the confessor, and pharmaceuticals have become communion. What god "can't" answer, Science or your doctor can (or in the very least he can prescribe something for the symptoms).

As far as religion goes... I'm with Joseph Campbell on this one, 3 of the 4 major religions of the world are in the process of dying? Why? because these 3 religions have committed and are still commiting major attrocities against humankind. Attrocities which are in God's or Allah's or Yehweh's name. Science is one up on religion in this regard, an attrocity in science will quickly be forgotten IF some type of good comes from it( i am not saying this is right, just stating the way things are). The best example of this is the human experimentation that took place during WWII, how many scientists were prosecuteds for war crimes? How many scientists were quietly and quickly relocated to research facilities within the allied nations post war?

Answer 3

Science is a method of thinking. It can quite happily coexist with religion - if religion is willing to accept questioning and give qualifications. (qualifications: like, expanding on what you've said to make it more eaisly understood. See example.)

There is only a problem when a religion says "You may NOT question, you may NOT seek answers..."

Otherwise, science and religion have no quarrels. All science is is the product of the thinking in scientific methord. Not evolution, gravity and string theory :P

Many scientists start with an idea of how they think things are going to go. That could be religion. But it must accept that if there is evidence to the contrary, a scientist will accept this and come up with a new hypothesis...

Which could cause a few problems ;)

Answer 4

I believe Science as open system with changes is compatible with Theology (Science of God), both seek the truth and justice. Science needs real evidence and Theology is based on metaphysical evidences that are hard to prove if there is lack of faith and hope. But science needs faith too for instance the astronaut who never went to the moon and has faith there is a moon.

Many Scientists were believers in a god or gods, they respected someone superior because they were humble enough to know that science is limited and no scientist can create life or create a sun or a star or the human spirit.

Many Universities started with monks and religious people who accepted some doctrines and dogmas, science has no dogmas because its dynamic, new truths, and in Religion God is perfect and absolute.

Answer 5

Think back twenty five years, to Iran. The Shah was being ousted. He had brought his nation, kicking and screaming out of the bronze age, and into a Super-Industrialized world. Science was the source of that change, but war was the vehicle. And then the pendulum reversed, much to his dismay.

There was a popular book at that time, Future Shock, by A Tofler. The theme of that book seemed to be, change is accelerating, and people react by clinging to more stable, dogmatic lifestyles.

This forum, the internet, and America in general are examples of where change can occur peacefully. I would seem that those who resist change in this site, are defined as 'fundamentalists'. I will close with a lyric from that time, by Neil Young;

What a field day, for the heat...
A thousand people in the street...
Singing songs, and carrying signs...
Mostly say, "Hurray for our side..

It's time we stop, children, what's that sound?
Everbody look what's coming down...

Answer 6

True faith and true science are not at odds, but complement each other. In some parts of America there does seem to be groups which try to separate out (the Right insisting that faith always trumps science, with the Left seemingly embarrased that faith still plays any part in enlightened people's lives).

Answer 7

Yes, always have been. Only people not smart enough create the tension and confusion between the two yet those same people who mock science go to the doctor for laboratory checks and medicine, ride trains and planes, watch tv, play xbox, and take office in a high-rise building.

Answer 8

Religion = Faith
Science Requires Evidence
Faith = The belief in something for which there is no evidence for.

There will be religious scientists but there never will be religious science.

Oh but that wasn't the question. Well apparently there is looking at all the Science and Religion coexisting.

Answer 9

Faithful Catholics are taught that Faith needs Reason, and visa versa. Pope John Paul II wrote and encyclical titled, "Faith and Reason." In it the Pope states that there is a harmony between the two. There are also many other scholars that have greatly hellped BOTH science and religion.

Answer 10

There was an article in our Sunday paper written by a biologist who used to be a life-long Atheist. After much soul-searching and research he has become a Christian (15 years) and believes the two can co-exist. I read some of it and it was interesting.