In America- How is it that keen scientific temper and religious fervor co-exist?

Answer 1

http://www.tektonics.org/scim/sciencemony.htm

Dr. Francis S. Collins is Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He currently leads the Human Genome Project, directed at mapping and sequencing all of human DNA, and determining aspects of its function. His previous research has identified the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease and Hutchison-Gilford progeria syndrome. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

Collins spoke with Bob Abernethy of PBS, posted online at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/transcripts/collins.html, in which he summaries the compatability of fact and faith thusly:

“I think there’s a common assumption that you cannot both be a rigorous, show-me-the-data scientist and a person who believes in a personal God. I would like to say that from my perspective that assumption is incorrect; that, in fact, these two areas are entirely compatible and not only can exist within the same person, but can exist in a very synthetic way, and not in a compartmentalized way. I have no reason to see a discordance between what I know as a scientist who spends all day studying the genome of humans and what I believe as somebody who pays a lot of attention to what the Bible has taught me about God and about Jesus Christ. Those are entirely compatible views.

“Science is the way -- a powerful way, indeed -- to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective -- in fact, it’s rather ineffective -- in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other. And it is a great joy to be in a position of being able to bring both of those points of view to bear in any given day of the week. The notion that you have to sort of choose one or the other is a terrible myth that has been put forward, and which many people have bought into without really having a chance to examine the evidence. I came to my faith not, actually, in a circumstance where it was drummed into me as a child, which people tend to assume of any scientist who still has a personal faith in God; but actually by a series of compelling, logical arguments, many of them put forward by C. S. Lewis, that got me to the precipice of saying, ‘Faith is actually plausible.’ You still have to make that step. You will still have to decide for yourself whether to believe. But you can get very close to that by intellect alone.”

Answer 2

Beats the s**t out of me, but so it is.
It is really that America is a very very huge place divided up in different states.
Being that it is a place of many different views, cultures, tastes, etc., we breed all kinds, intellectuals, freaks, counterculture, puritans, traditionals, free thinkers, artists, just like many other western places for the exception that we are not nearly as homogenized as other Western cultures.
Also, you will not see the religious ferver in LA or NY/NJ , it is those rascally fly over states that tend to keep to their own and want a reemergence of the American 50's, where the (image of) pure, innocent idealism and the birth of consumerism came to being.
However, we can not turn back time, this is just their vain attempt.
We've got all kinds, a real melting pot.
The REAL irony is when you have many an American who somehow in their mind embraces both scientific temper AND religious fervor--- those are the people I find hysterical!

(for example: the scientist which river rafter man sites)

Answer 3

What America are YOU seeing? The one I live in is trying very hard to suppress scientific education and study. The religious fervor is winning here, first by trying to introduce Intelligent Design (creationism in fancy new clothes) into science classes rather than religious studies, where it belongs. The science field is failing all over this country... many other countries are pulling ahead of us.

Our leader is doing his best to send technology jobs outside our borders... that hurts the science field as well.

It's a sad atmosphere here for those who prefer rational thought and science over mythology and the supernatural.

Answer 4

I love science, it's my favorite! But I can love the God who made it even more. They aren't in conflict! God's creation screams a designer, a judgment and entropy that results from sin. There's no problems between science and the Bible.

Answer 5

We have the governmental framework that allows us to coexist in the same country. Freedom is a wonderful thing. We may get in shouting matches, but most of us realize that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.

By the way, many scientists find God in their work. Being a scientist does not exclude you from being religious.

Answer 6

Separation of Church and State.

Answer 7

You ever notice how sometimes people pump one thing up a lot bigger than it actually is in order to make another thing look smaller than it actually is?

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Answer 8

Pretty much two different sets of people.

Answer 9

Fundies don't become biologists, biochemists, paleontologists... the list goes on.

Answer 10

I agree with Tom.