God + science Why not?

Question

Is it power,fear,or IQ that stops people from equating the two?

Answer 1

At its most basic level science and theology do agree. They both agree that the world exists and that something caused it to be here. From there the ideas go in seperate directions.
Someday theology will accept the idea that is the basis of their own belief, that there is one creator who creates all. And science will acknowledge that just because something cannot be weighed or measured doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Theology/religon is based on faith, which is belief in something without having factual evidence. Science is based on weighing, measuring, logic etc. limiting itself to the phsyical universe.
The two viewpoints are inseperable. Example: If I take an aspirin to get rid of an headache, is it the aspirin that made it go away? (science)or my "belief" that the aspirin would make it go away (faith)that actually produced the result.
It is the "small-mindedness" that prevents each from acknowledging that both are valid viewpoints.
Your question tells me that you have great insight. You do not make the point that they are not both valid but only what stops people from acknowledging that.

Answer 2

Excellent question. I believe it is mostly fear that keeps people from equating the two. Pope John Paul II, in his monumentous "Thoelogy of the Body" explains that we (humans) are a combination of both animal and spirit. We are not only an animal, as other mammals are. Nor are we only spirits ( as are angels). We are a strange combination of the two. We have a problem in that we don't want to hear how God, from the spiritual world, tells us how to live in the physical (scientific) world.
Thomas Aquinas addressed this question in the 15th century by declaring that faith and reason are never truly in conflict. Indeed, he stated that faith and reason are both oriented to the same end, that is to seek the truth.
Perhaps an example is in order here. As a Roman Cathoilc, I believe that the church's teachings regarding sex are truths handed down from God through His church. In a nutshell, sex is to be practiced only between a man and a woman within a marriage. However, when I see an attractive woman, my animal nature kicks in, causing a desire within me to violate my marriage vows.
This is the reason that we try to separate God and science. We fear the demands God makes. We want to be free to do whatever we want in our physical world without worrying about any consequences later in our after life. We do this by denying the existence of God (atheism), by declaring that we can never know so why bother (agnosticism), or by simply making up new rules as we go along (the ordination of practicing gay clergy, for example).
Sorry for the short answer, someone could probably write a book on this question alone. Thanks for asking it.

Answer 3

More than 95% of all the scientists, living or dead, are very religious persons. So religion and science are never in conflict, really. SOME religious leaders and SOME scientists (such as the Pope and Galileo) may be in conflict SOMETIMES. But science and religion are basically the same thing. Just as the existence of God cannot be proven, no scientific hypothesis has remained valid forever. Certain general statements are true, but that is all. For instance, you could say that light travels faster than toilet paper most of the time, but you can't really prove that for all time to come. If toilet paper was turned into energy (light, for instance), the statement would no longer hold true. Of course, we don't possess the technology to transform toilet paper (or anything else, actually) into light, but nobody can prove that it will never happen. So, science is basically an atheistic religion.

Answer 4

People try to make it out like science is supposed to do what religion does; namely, give you emotional fulfillment and a moral code, which is quite clearly not the point of science. You aren't supposed to get a moral backbone from F=MA.

However, the basic principles of religous and scientific thinking are rather diametrically opposed. What does a scientist rely on? Proof. What does a monk rely on? Faith. Science's basic statement is, "Oh, really? Prove it." Religion tells you to trust and follow your heart, while science tells you to trust and follow your head. So the mindset each one encourages is the opposite of the other.

That being said, I've never understood why you can't study science and say, "This is how God's doing it."

Some religious resistance to science comes from the fact that science takes away some of the poetry and romance of religious texts. You say Poseidon is angry, scientists say it's just the pull of gravity.

My dad was raised by a minister who believed this, and if I were going to take a religious stance (I am agnostic) that's what I would believe.

Answer 5

I'd say fear. It's faith vs. doubt and most people can't combine the two because they're afraid of being wrong. You could be wrong to believe and disregard scientific proof. Or you could be wrong to believe in scientific proof only and find out there is a God. And since neither can be absolutely proved until death both believers and non believers have to decide on a lesser of two wrongs to find the right. Science plus God - Amen.

Answer 6

It's a two-direction problem. Some religious people reject (some forms of) science. If you believe that the Bible is fact, then certain scientific principals cannot be.

The other way, the scientific method requires the ability to set up tests and to disprove. Since you neither test nor disprove God, then it fails the scientific method.

If God could be tested, proven, disproven... then there'd be nothing to prevent scientists from exploring God.

Answer 7

If God exists, He has created everything, the spiritual world and the material world too, and in a not divisible way here on the Earth. So science and spirit are things we can't divide surely. One is the way we can discover and the other, the way we can well use discoveries. But in the meantime thought leads us to what we need to discover, and the science discovers the way to well realize it.

Answer 8

At the moment, it is impossible to test god hypothesis. You can believe or not but the existence or non existence of god can yet not be proved.
Scisnce aims to prove something. It is so different and not compatible with god

Answer 9

Science is the opposite of faith and without faith it is "impossible to please Him."

As the book of Hebrews says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen..." or "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see...by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible..."

Of course, as with everything in the Bible you need to take it by faith...

Answer 10

god is what even a child believe but science is what a great professorneeds thousands of experiments to prove not only believe!!!!