Which shaped human history more - science or religion?

Question

some say science & inventions- stone tools, the wheel, industrial revolution, some say religion - missionaries, the crusades, the arabs & islam. please comment.

we, borg pets have only science & technology to advance us.

Answer 1

Religion shaped history but the future belongs to science-the end of organised religion is near.

Answer 2

Avoiding the temptation to give the answer with a long, drawn-out, dissertations, I would have to say - Science. Now I will give some quick points to explain it.

Science is the practice which leads us to solve problems, expedite duties, and explain the world around us. We began shaping and being shaped by science the first time someone picked up a stick and used it as a tool. It continues to this day.

Religion began is a similar way and for similar reasons. One of the primary differences is that religion is fairly static, and does not change often to suit new situations. It also does not offer reliable proofs to the things that it explains.

Human beings, being dynamic and inquisitive, have always accepted scientific advances readily. Religion has usually been spread through some form of fear, need for social change, or outside pressure for conversion.

Both technological and religious differences have been the cause of wars (a huge 'history shaper'), so lets call that comparison a draw.

Overall, science has and will continue to be the shaper of humanity because of the rapid acceptance, while religious influence continues declining in modern times because of cultural resistances and a reduced list of phenomina to explain.

Well, I tried to keep it short.
O.o

Answer 3

In a sense the answer is really "Neither"...

Human history is recorded by people with a bias that is inevitably politically or financially influenced regardless of the expressed bias - so what is written is never what really happened. That said; sometimes the influence of a scientific advance has enabled history in a very basic way - for example it would be difficult to record history without an alphabet or a written language or a technology like stylus and clay or papyrus or a printing press or a computer.

Answer 4

I would say science has shaped the controlled evolution of mankind and has given us many things to advance our history even further. Such as sewage pipes, cars, the internet, space travel, cybernetics, genetics, education, physics, engineering and millions of wonderful things. If it was not for religeon (aka christianity) we would be 800 years more advanced (or perhaps more) because the dark ages would have not occured. I feel religeon has (with the exeption of Shinto and Mahayana Buddhism) tried to block science, and even tried to hold science back. But to no avail, they cannot withstand the truth of logic forever. Religeon however aside from holding history back and causing wars, and confusing people with lies, does give people hope. I do not feel religeons like christianity, islam, hinduism, new age stuff will die in the next 200 years, but become more about helping people and organized religeon will begin merging with science and come to the understanding that God is infact a symbol. Prayer and Meditation are technologies amongst themselfs that can relax people and focus the mind, I think areas of science like neurocomputing and theoretical physics will begin to advance the symbols people use to focus on. Because when we pray we are just going into a trance and tapping neurons. Their is alot about the human brain we do not understand. However I go off topic. I feel that while religeon has been dominant for a long time (because many people are still very primitive and need to incorporate diety into their world view) in the upcoming centuries science will understand so much more that current religeous beliefes will seem very silly, and the world will become far more enlightened and stop holding on to archaic concepts. Their was a time when people who were sick were thrown into the ditch, and if you were in a coma you were considered basicaly dead however christianity changed that and started opening up hospitals and teaching mercy and compassion. However now the tides are turned and christians act more like the pagans of old. With things like stem cell research, christians are trying to block invaluable data that could save lives, while scientists are trying to help people. As well as heart transplants and blood transfusions are considered heresy by christian institutions like the Jehovas Witnesses. This is because christianity has devolved into a bizzare apocalypse cult. Praying for the end of the earth, rather than trying to make it better like they once did long ago. Science is the truth and the way. The faster people start realizing this the better.

Answer 5

That would be a tough call... religion has shaped culture, art and society profoundly for centuries. Science has shaped technology and our entire culture even more profoundly, but for a briefer period of time. I'd say... primarily religion, but most recently science due to a paradigm shift evolving over the last 100 years.

While I am an atheist, one cannot deny the impact of religion on the world.

Answer 6

Science and religion can be compared to the wings of a bird.

Unless they are equally strong humanity can not reach the heights it is destined to attain.

Religion without science falls into superstitions and science without religion will end up in the self destruction of humanity.

Answer 7

I believe that it was a combination of both. I believe that religion kept the people unified and science made their lives easier. Also I believe that they are both here to stay and to continue to complement each other. Now I do have to say that there are Bad pastors that run some congregations and are in it only for the money that it brings in. And we all know that there are some rouge scientist out there that are also in it for the money. So with all things being equal I would still have to say that the both of them are needed in the survival any society...............

Answer 8

Religion has caused more wars throughout history, as it continues to do in the present. While science has had it's destructive side, it has had many positive gains for the evolution of mankind as a whole.

Answer 9

Religion. There have been a lot of wars and other historical events due to religion... look at Great Britten in the last hundred years of it's monarchy...

And to the guy who says "The end of organized religion is near..." that's not true... there will always be some sort of organized religion... Atheism itself is an organized religion.

Answer 10

Thats a really tough question. I think the development of science had the most positive effects, and religion had the most negative effects...I mean considering all of the wars that broke out over religion, and people that died.