Are religious people aware that science has never claimed to know everything?

Question

If you believe in God, do you also happen to accept that science is a _process_ - one with no acknowledged 'finishing point'? Do you understand that science, by its nature, never claims to have 'all of the answers'?

And that a sentence like 'science creates more questions than it answrs' is not only completely true but an example of what is good and honest about science?

Just wondering...

Answer 1

Some scientists and a good many atheists don't come across as agreeing with that. I've seen statements here and elsewhere that assert that science has disproved God, or disproved ID, or proved that the earth is so many years old.

Is no one else old enough to remember science meaning "what is known"? How we define what science even _is_ may be part of the problem.

I'm fascinated by some of what science has to offer. I'm put off by those who say, "believing what we can replicate or substantiate now is predicated upon believing what we have postulated about how it came to be so." I don't buy that.

I really dislike Richard Dawkins. And it's not because he's a scientist, but because he looks at Christianity with that "I can't decide whether to simply dismiss you, slap you, or throw up on you" smirk. IMO, he's also terribly passive-agressive. In all fairness, I might like him even less if he were a Christian, spouting off at non-believers. He's the sort of scientist who makes it seem that science claims to have all the answers. Na-nah, na-nah, na-nah.... (insert raspberry here.)

If he were twelve, it would still be impertinant, but it might also be a little cute. As it stands, not so much....

Answer 2

Absolutely. There is no good reason why people that believe in God cannot look to science to explain the processes in which things happen.

Two conflicts seem to be re-occurring in society:

1. Those that are ground in their religious beliefs that reject scientific studies because they believe these studies are at odds with a literal interpretation of Biblical story of creation.

2. Those that put unquestioning belief in the results of modern science and fail to see just how much we fully don't understand about the universe.

Science and spirituality, from my perspective serve two completely different purposes:

Spirituality is more concerned with how I should live my life, what is morally right, what is morally wrong, how can I be fulfilled, etc.

Science is more concerned with physical processes and phenomenon.

Answer 3

No, nearly everyone jumps on unknowns. Back in the day people assumed God held the earth up, that is was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth.

They do the same today. We have no evidence to support what happened before the big bang, therefore, you can still makeup whatever the hell you want to.


Science is about the persuit of greater understanding of everything. Creating more questions is simply a part of the process; as such proves that your understanding is at a higher level.

Answer 4

Hey ed,

i don't necessarily believe that Science and Religion are always at opposite ends with one another. When we see some of the complexities of life in science, it points to an intelligent creator. So while some scientific theories are at odds with religious beliefs (IE: Creation vs Evolution), i thinks its unfair to assume that people with religious beliefs are opposed to science.

Science leads to questions- but in seeking the answers we may find that there is an intelligent Creator behind them. After all God created science and even the Scriptures testify that just by looking at creation we can see that God exists.

Science has many wonderful things- and has done much to improve life on earth (thank God for biologists, chemists, doctors)...

Hope that helps,

Nickster

Answer 5

It is only some "scientists" who claim to know everything (and who probably deep down think they are God themselves) that keep on holding up science as the explaination of all things and keep on citing scientific theories to disprove the existance of a God outside of themselves.

Science to me is just a discipline that seeks to know and use natural and predictable laws to help mankind. Also, applied science was made to be more useful than pure science which doesn't have any immediate or obvious use.

Answer 6

In many cases, apparently not.

It's one of the great ironies of the dispute between science and religion, that the religious have so many people convinced that it is the _scientists_ and not the religious who have a problem with arrogance in claiming to know everything. That's exactly backwards: scientists are in general well aware of their limitations, while the religious so often make bold claims to know things about which they really know nothing.

Answer 7

Yes I do.

Neither does religion .

This Hymen of creation is one of the oldest surviving records of philosophical doubt in the history of the world.

“ Then even nothingness was not, nor existence.
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?

“Was there were neither death nor immortality,
Nor was there then the torch of night and day.
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.
There was that One, and there was none other.

“At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
All this was only illuminated water.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
Arose at last, born of the power of heat.

“In the beginning desire descended on it—
that was the primal seed, born of the mind.
The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom
Know that which is the kin to that which is not.

“And they have stretched their cord across the void,
and know what was above, and what was below.
Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.
Below was strength, and over it impulse.

“But after all, who knows, and who can say
whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are latter than creation,
So who knows truly whence it has arisen?

“ Whence all creation had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not ,
he, who surveys it all from heighest heaven ,
he knows – or may be even he does not know.”

The translation is obscure. This Hymen is from Rig Veda.

In this wonderful hymen poet states that world arose from the warmth(Tapas, later usually meaning asceticism) and then rather regretfully admits that he is not sure of this hypothesis, and suggested that even the God does not know the truth.

Answer 8

Yes, of course. If this was not the case, there would be no ongoing scientific research. I don't know of any religious person who thinks science claims to have all the answers to everything.

Answer 9

You are right on! I am religious, and I really enjoyed my science classes! I have no idea why people put religion and science against one another as if they should be mortal enemies. It's all a quest for truth and knowledge, just with different methods of obtaining it.

best wishes.

Answer 10

Agreed. No one can possilby know all things. All we can do is look at the evidence to get to the truth. Science in itself is a good and useful tool for humankind.

I just believe there are people who believe they have the market on science and self appoint themselves as the spokesperson(s) for science, when they really have an agenda to push their worldview.