Why do some atheists think that a Christian has to choose between their faith and science?

Question

Catholic Christians don't believe that we have to choose between the two. We have our faith, and we have many Catholic scientists today and through the history of science. The Catholic faith combines faith and reason in a perfect balance of doctrine.

Answer 1

They cannot comprehend Faith. Even though Darwins Origin of Man theory takes an aweful lot of faith to believe.

Answer 2

Or you can just look at the facts and see that scientists got it wrong so many times over the centuries and then found out later that they were wrong.

Look at the population data. The world didn't hit one billion until 1800 AD. Then 2 billion about 1930, 3 billion about 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1999.

If you take this expoential growth backwards, even at the slowest pace possible and give for all known catastrophes and plagues, you still can't get it to stretch out past 3500 BC, which would coincide with the flood and we know about the 1600+ years before that to the exact time.

DNA has proven recently that we can trace our ancestry back to a "hypothetical" Eve. Someday, scientists will see the big picture.

Answer 3

I don't think you "have" to choose. I think it's difficult to ride the fence. Ken Miller is a Catholic biologist who argued against intelligent design being taught in the schools in Dover, Penn and was instrumental in winning that case.

The problem I find with believing the Bible and accepting evolution is that in order to accept evolution, you have to look at the creation story as either symbolic or allegorical.

Some will say that the days were not 24 hour days, and that God used evolution to create all life, including humans evolving from apes. They'll say that humanity has been around longer than 6,000 years... they'll agree with everything that science holds true.

The problem comes in with the geneaology. There's a geneaology covering about 6,000 years from Adam to Abraham to King David, and all the way to Jesus... so, when does that ancestral list it stop being symbolic and start being literal?

The only answer I've heard to this is that the Bible is not infallible. Well, if it's not infallible, then how do you decide what to believe and what not to?

To me, it just takes way to many rationalizations. But it's not my worldview, it's yours, so whatever you can come up with to rectify the two is entirely your own business. So long as you accept science, I'm happy.

Answer 4

Why do some Christian think the same thing? They have chosen between the two and made the wrong choice. I didn't choose between religion and science. I chose between a myth and truth. Do you Christians believe it is all about science for Atheist. My belief has nothing to do with science It has more to do with reality. Carbon dating is where you take all those little carbons and count them until you come up with a number then you multiply by the age you believe the object to be then you divide it by itself. Of course I'm no scientist so that's my theory. Kisses Betty.

Answer 5

Because faith is unreasonable when it comes to metaphysical entities such as god and souls. Sure we can have faith about things that we see repeat, like the sun rising everyday or your ability to cross a street safely, but its not reasonable to conduct your entire life a certain way because of a supposed metaphysical entity.

It used to be reasonable since people had no understanding of how the world works, and they explained things with lots of metaphysical entities. Eventually, most of these disappeared since science has explained other causes for what happens in the universe.

Its not reasonable to continue to have faith in something that doesn't seem to exist in the real world...we are not constantly tripping over the ghosts or "souls" of the dearly departed, and there aren't powerful beings wandering around casually violating the laws of physics that need to be explained.

Answer 6

I think the answer is quite simple. It is a great deal easier to erect the straw man stereotype that is the big dumb redneck Christian, and knock that over instead.

Doing so is a lot easier than actually having to admit that some Christians aren't quite so easily dismissed.

I wonder how many realize that the scientist who did the fieldwork that essentially proved evolution was a Catholic priest? (I speak of Gregor Mendel.)

Answer 7

The Catholic Church is better than American Evangelicals, but let us not forget that your Pope condemns condom use in AIDS-plagued Africa. Science says it would save lives. Is this not a conflict?

Faith, by definition, is acceptance without evidence. Science, by definition, is the advancement of truth on the basis of evidence.

You live in a weird double-zone, where you believe both. Even when they conflict. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it appears to me to be a "partitioning" of the human mind between reason (science) and unreason (religion).

I simply do not to partition that way.

Answer 8

If you're going to believe a lot of what the scientific community has found, you will have to disregard parts of the Bible. Either that, or you have to choose to believe the Bible as more of a symbolic story than factual account. And after what the Catholic church did to Galileo, I think it's a bit hasty to make such assertions as you have.

Answer 9

You can reconcile faith and science..but only if you are intellectually dishonest. The Bible clearly insinuates that the universe is around 6,000 years old and science definitely refutes that. Also a world with the Bible god in it would look totally different than the world we see here. You would see that prayer works for example and it clearly doesn't.

Answer 10

Your "Catholic scientists" are busy circumventing excuses to prove your religion. The church has failed time and time again when it comes to science. Yet you all blindly follow what is in front of you. There is no amount of scientific evidence that can change your mind is there? so im not gonna bother........