Instead of conflicting ideas, how do Science and Religion work together or compliment one another?

Answer 1

My desire to understand the world and the complexity of life stems from my desire to further understand God who created life. It is because I have a desire to understand the amazing vastness of the universes that I study cosmology. I study physics to understand what I believe to be, a perfectly designed world that was created to sustain life (based on constants that seem to be "fine-tuned" such as the carbon-to-oxygen ratio produced in stars). Biology and biochemistry help me to understand the hows of my body and my belief in a loving God helps me to understand the Why's.
For instance, my understanding of cells and genetic defects helps me to understand why I have to undergo chemotherapy (at age 22, no less! :) but science doesn't help me to deal with it. It's only because God shows his love day by day that I can keep up the fight. Science is great. God gives reason behind the knowledge and it fits. Faith allows you to see the things that are usually clouded by a humanistic mind.

Answer 2

They work together very well. If scientists several centuries ago had believed the Bible they would have found that the earth was round.
In the book of Job there is a description, according to the King James version, of a Hippo. However the animal is described as having a tail with the strength and size of a cedar tree. Some hippo! The rest of the description seems to show a dinosaur. The Bible is not intended to be a science text book, but scientific discoveries do not contradict the Bible. Over the centuries there have been scientific theories that have contradicted the Bible, but time has shown the Bible to be right each time.
The question that people fight over now is the evolution question. Many scientists believe the Bible version has more scientific backing to it than Darwin's. However they are not exactly having the microphone handed to them! A bit like Galileo and Copernicus who went against the scientific wisdom of their day.

Answer 3

We should remember that the Bible is not primarily a science textbook. It reveals a different kind of truth from that revealed by scientific methods. However, it does sometimes say things that have to do with geology, archaeology or other sciences. In such cases, does it harmonize with what scientists say? Consider just four (4) examples.

(1). In the book of Psalms we read: “He has founded the earth upon its established places; . . . with a watery deep just like a garment you covered it. The waters were standing above the very mountains. . . . Mountains proceeded to ascend, valley plains proceeded to descend.” (Psalm 104:5-8) Do mountains really “ascend”? And are they sometimes submerged in the sea?

The Book of Popular Science says: “From [earliest] times down to the present, the perpetual process of building and destroying mountains has continued. . . . Not only have mountains originated from the bottom of vanished seas, but they have often been submerged long after their formation, and then re-elevated.”

(2). In the first verse of the Bible we read: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) At one time scientists hotly debated whether there even was a beginning, or whether matter had always existed. In 1979, though, Time magazine stated: “Most astronomers now accept the theory that the universe had an instant of creation. . . . The Big Bang theory sounds very much like the story that the Old Testament has been telling all along.”
Also,pointing to newer information, astronomer Robert Jastrow explains: “The essence of the strange developments is that the Universe had, in some sense, a beginning—that it began at a certain moment in time.” Jastrow here refers to the now commonly accepted big bang theory, as noted in Chapter 9. He adds: “Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same.”

(3). In the days of Noah, the Bible says, a great flood covered earth’s highest mountains and destroyed all human life that was outside the huge ark that Noah built. (Genesis 7:1-24)
According to the The Saturday Evening Post- "The astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same" noted: “Many of these animals were perfectly fresh, whole and undamaged, and still either standing or at least kneeling upright. . . . Here is a really shocking—to our previous way of thinking—picture. Vast herds of enormous, well-fed beasts not specifically designed for extreme cold, placidly feeding in sunny pastures . . . Suddenly they were all killed without any visible sign of violence and before they could so much as swallow a last mouthful of food, and then were quick-frozen so rapidly that every cell of their bodies is perfectly preserved.”

(4). The closer the Bible is examined, the more astonishing is its remarkable accuracy. As noted on pages 36 and 37 of this book, the Bible gives the stages of creation in the very order science now confirms, a fact hard to explain if the Bible were simply of human origin. This is another example of the many details in the Bible that have been confirmed by increasing knowledge. With good reason one of the greatest scientists of all time, Isaac Newton, said: “No sciences are better attested than the religion of the Bible.”

Can you trust the Bible? If you really examine what it says, and do not simply accept what certain ones claim that it says, you will find reason to trust it. Yet, even stronger evidence exists that the Bible was indeed inspired by God

Answer 4

I don't believe that science disagrees with religeon, only with the narrow tunnel vision used to interpret religeon. The Bible was written to be understood by the people of the time, so it was written very simply. It said that god created the universe in 7 days etc, so bible thumpers insist that this is in conflict with evolution. If interpreted more literally it does not rule out the scientific theory. I cannot believe that all the complex interdependencies in nature; the fact that the universe looks the same at a microscopic cell level as the huge universe looks, circles revolving around other circles etc, I can't believe this is random. It is not accidental the way everything interacts, there is a guiding hand in evolution and this is my definition of god. Evolution is creation, it just took longer than the god freaks will admit.

Answer 5

Both can help explain our universe and the wonderful way it works. The laws of gravity , thermo dynamics , and others are all unseen forces that keep everything in harmony. The Bible says That God hung the earth upon nothing. It describes the water cycle. The Mosaic law contains rules that were thousands of years ahead of their time in preventing disease. The Bible itself says that a day to Jehovah can be as a thousand years,2 Peter 3; 8. , so the 6 creative days were obviously not 24 time periods. Many artifacts confirm Biblical and historical events.

The problem then is people's different beliefs and philosophies that contradict the evidence, not the truth itself.

Answer 6

they can never complement each other or work together unless science becomes stagnant and doesnt evolve according to new findings. If science doesnt eliminate old theories and advance to new ones it would be worse than a religion who is stuck in time . Both need to accept change and that is how they can work together by accepting new findings and the change occuring in the world , they have something in common though : both teach intolerance to new ideas.

Answer 7

Science and Religion work together and compliment each other in only one way. They are both man-made institutions that have surreptitious motives to separate the human race and hide the truth that we are all One and that the ultimate goal is to return to the Source. Divide and conquer.

Answer 8

Actually not only do they have conflicting ideas but they are totally opposites ideologies. Science is not about faith or being right. Religion is about being in control by controlling truth.
Here is a decent piece that explains about science better.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/truth.html
It is not long or complicated.

Answer 9

Religion looks at scientist and laugh. It was considered a certainty that the simple elements were immutable. This was an assertion based on thousands of years of experience., but nevertheless it was false. Men of considerable intellect were sure that the atom was indivisible and that man could not fly to the moon. These, who had the overwhelming experience of mankind on their side, erred. How many chance do scientists have to get it right?

Answer 10

They cant , Religion and the Word of God don't even compliment each other ,But science has finally caught up with the Word of God