Religeon or Science? What do you believe in?

Question

Religeon dictates that God created man. Science has proven that man evolved over time. At school, i had to learn both religeous studies and Science, but both contradict each other - which one is right?

If God created science, who created God? I think you'll find that Man created God, which is strange because God was supposed to create Man.

Answer 1

Hi King
I believe in science and evolution.
I also believe that god does not exist as a physical entity, but as a state of mind! x x

Everyone keeps saying that evolution can not be proved!
Listen to yourselves! Gods existance can not be proved either!

Answer 2

God (and all religion) are ideas formed from primitive and "backward" behavior, caused by an individual, or society, being unable to understand how and why certain events happen. These superstitions are then passed on via parents and other authority figures to children who absorb and believe what they are told. As these ideas are not purged from a child's mind (as are ideas of the tooth fairy and santa) they mature with the child and become "fact" once they become an adult. This leads to another generation learning these "facts" and so they spread (Richard Dawkins made popular the concept of a meme, or mind virus, to explain this).

Once an idea has become fixed in the minds of enough individuals, it can become part of a society and generate new variations of the individual ideas. This leads to a meme becoming part of a society and then culture. Some memes can be so strong in a society that they lead people to attempt to destroy rival memes (see the Crusades, 9/11, Iranian position on Israel etc.).

Basically, religion is a concept developed from a monkey brain not being able to grasp why certain events happen. It's all down to a primitive idea or way of thinking.

Now that my little rant is over, my answer is Science. And when I say science, I mean real science, like Physics, Biology, History and Maths, not stupid little psudeosciences like sociology or psychology.
Anyway, if you want the right answer, choose Science.
If you want an answer that makes the universe seem so completely pointless that all life must be so precious and special, choose Science, because all other answers just make us worthless.

Oh, and just in case you're worried about believing in a "theory" like Evolution, Theory in scientific terms means idea that is well developed, has evidence for it and has stood up to all other possible hypotheses. An hypothesis is an unproven idea but many people mistakenly have the belief that they mean the same thing (on a side note, in the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once More With Feeling, the song "I've Got A Theory" really should have been "I have developed a hypothesis".)
God is a hypothesis.

Also, no scientist believes in Intelligent Design. Only pundits, Sociologists, Politicians and Psychologists who have no understanding of science believe it should be taught.

Answer 3

Religion, notice the spelling, and science are not mutually exclusive. A Roman Catholic Priest named Georges Lemaître who was also a physicist and astronomer developed the Big Bang theory in 1927.

If you think about it the words, "let there be light" and "then He created the heavens and the Earth" and the creation of life are strikingly similar in sequence to the more detailed process described in the Big Bang theory.

Science has not proven that man evolved from anything. They have offered a logical argument along with evidence that they say, most likely illustrates what must have been man's evolution. They have not connected all of the dots and the evidence is subject to interpretation. Evolution is not a fact. It is a theory that has not yet been proven but, as the Pope says, it has some merrit. You can choose to believe in it or not.

"I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details." - Albert Einstein

Answer 4

Religion is a combination of stories, passed on from generation to generation. Before the days of scientific discoveries, people believed what they were told, because there was little else to base their judgements on. Religion is created by man to try to understand the world, and to teach good practices to the masses. Would a reasonable person need conclusive evidence to believe in a religion? Would the reasonable person fill in the gaps with devine intervention?

Science is based on observations of the real world, interpreted by mathematics to provide a reasoned understanding of the universe (not just the world). Are the laws of physics unbelievable? can a reasonable person still fill in the gaps with devine intervention, when most of the gaps have been filled by science?

Science is conclusive. Religion requires faith.

Answer 5

i personally believe in science as it has been proved by fact.not to say I'm anti religious and if some has a believe that's fine.as i believe in science.also we seem to be forget history here we know roughly what time the big religious books were wrote and there is a large gap from man being on the planet to when "god" became wrote about .before that there were lots of "gods" before they got capitalised and became one or two.i think i was a case of humans asking how self were we came from and a mystery man or force was the best answer at the time as we didn't understand and lets face some people cashed in on this and still do.

Answer 6

You have set a false dichotomy. It does not matter what I believe, as the truth does not need my belief to be true and the truth will be true whether I believe it, or not. It does not matter if people do not believe in the scientific findings of today; science is not a belief system, it is a method for arriving at approximations of truth. Religion is based on belief, supported by faith and can not froward any evidence for being true. As I said, a false dichotomy. Religion is myth and dust; science is the reality, supported by evidence.

Answer 7

They only contradict each other when taken literally. Religion works on a completely different level and therefore if God created everything, he also created time. That would mean that he works outside of time and therefore his creation time bears no relation to our perception of time.

Science is constantly changing and is now showing very esoteric tendencies.

Answer 8

Definately not science, because it is without a moral consience. Just look at what is happening in the field of medical research. Science only answers the questions that it asks. Religion is about faith. You have to remember that man invented science because he has self awareness, and has developed an enquiring mind. Maybe Gods contribution was to give man a soul, even though he may have evolved over millions of years.

Answer 9

Science has theorised, not proven, that man has evolved over time. Neither side has the complete truth because both can be argued against.

There is no scientific reason to say god, whether nature or a higher energy, did not make man and for that man to evolve over time. So both could statements could be true.

Answer 10

they only contradict one another if you take the word of the bible too literally

it is possible to have faith in God, AND acknowledge that the science method seeks the truth only

and sadly, a lot of religious people believe that science sets out to disprove God, which is quite untrue, what I mean is, if you can't prove God exists then how can you DISPROVE God? See, there's some logic in there somewhere lol

just to add, I don't believe in one being right over the other...merely that, one is a set of beliefs (a moral guide if you like, when used wisely) and one is a set of theories based on factual evidence that never stagnate


note: why ever I got thumbs down I don't know lol but anyway, note that there is a difference between having FAITH in God, and then literally believing everything in the bible word for word. I believe what is written in the bible to be a guide on how you should live your life and how you should be with others, morals if you like.

I agree somewhat with social science lady

what I wrote above doesnt necessarily mean that I'm religious by any means, I merely believe that the two can co-exist as long as people remain open minded to the truth. Having faith in a God (whosever God you believe in) can be comforting to people...however, it only becomes dangerous when people start taking it to extremes.

Answer 11

Its basically true - mans accepted scientific knowledge and the Bible, if taken at face value, are mutually exclusive.

The key difference is that nothing is really certain in science. In religion everything is black and white.

Its amazing though how many people cherry pick the bits of both sides that they like.