What are your thoughts on the affects (positive and negative) of religion on science.?

Question

Sciences like medicine, physics, astronomy, mathmatics, etc.
do you think the world as a whole would be more or less advanced without religous bias/opinion?
Any Theist or Atheist opinion is welcome and wanted.

Dont get me wrong. I know that some of the world most respected men of science were also men of god. And I have great respect for them regardless of their religious afiliation

Answer 1

Religion and science are independent of each other. Religion is faith based. Science is based on verifiable evidence and repeatable experimental results. Religious doctrine is considered "truth" if your church poobah says it's truth. Science is subject to review and endless scrutiny. Some religions may send you to hell for questioning them. No scientific principle is ever considered valid just because somebody says it's valid.

Answer 2

Religion has a very positive effect on science. Islam urges us to study, research, and work hard to improve, learn more and seek knowledge. There is no contradiction between science and religion. What sometimes seems to be contradiction happens when science has not reached the accurate piece of information yet (eg earth is flat, round then oval - it has been stated in the Quran ages ago that the earth is oval)

The Quran also states that scientists are those who fear Allah the most. This is because they know how powerful He is, how sophisticated everything He created is, etc.

Peace

Answer 3

I think that the search for and acquisition of religion is a deep-seated commonality in every single person in this world. A world without religion is primitive and completely un-human, I believe. Whether you are agnostic, atheist, full-blown Christian, etc., there is still the idea of God in your mind. Simply, religion is part of who we are, regardless of it's factual accuracy and relevance to the things we consider to be "known" (science, math, whatever).

Because it's, dare I say, human nature, it contributes to our advancement culturally and scientifically.

Secondly, since sciences are tested theories, I believe religion has no effect on the hard facts. That's not to say religion does not have an effect on the dissemination of those facts (which may be the answer to your question... politics control education, and religion is uncomfortably close to government).

Answer 4

It's generally a spoken dictum that those who practice "true science" will be those who eschew narrow dogmatic views of how reality *must* be... And through the last century, popular culture has been taught that it is always the "religious folk" who are consistently guilty of this.

However, I see signs that this same sort of orthodoxy has taken its grip such that no discussion of the merits of any idea suggesting that the universe is something more than mere matter-in-motion is allowed to take place without heavy punishment and professional isolation.

Answer 5

I think it's important to be guided by a basic sensibility other than pure profit and advancement. The question whether science is serving us or we are serving it is important. But to be arbitrarily constrained because of politics or power is not the answer. Perhaps the individual scientists' own conscience and sense of ethics is a key to keeping science in service of humanity.

I just noticed the word 'conscience' has interesting implications, made up of 'con' and 'science'.

Answer 6

The separation of science and religion is a pretty recent phenomenon.

Newton for example wrote more about religion than he did about math and astronomy. To him (and most other scientists) the search for truth was a discovering of Gods work.

Answer 7

Check with the Quran.
There is a Book by a Frenchman called Dr. Maurice Bucaille titled, The Bible, the Quran and Science. Try to get a copy.
Today's scientists know the Quran is from the Creator.
Jacques Cousteau also commented on this with his marine research.

Answer 8

detrimental by using fact faith is used to regulate the a lot besides as suppress any and all varieties of social and scientific progression. besides faith has been and could continuously be used to persuade people to commit atrocities. in basic terms look on the Crusades, Inquisition, Salem witch trials, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Heavens Gates, WBC, 9/11.

Answer 9

religion has done nothing but slow down progress. colombus would havbe landed on the moon and armstrong on pluto had it not been for retarded religous folk.

Answer 10

some scientists may be Christians