Why do most religions fear science?

Question

Please don't try to tell me that they don't or you will prove yourself ignorant. Does anyone remember Galileo who was almost put to death because he challenged the superstitions of the Church. The more man progressed science the less man needs religion and the superstition that goes with it.

Answer 1

In my honest opinion, I think it's because even inside the hearts and minds of those who have the deepest of any faith, they fear that science will ultimately disprove the existence and impossibility of any god, therefore rendering their lives as pointless. It's holding on to the dream, at all costs.

Answer 2

So then you are saying we have not evolved or grown in wisdom since Galileo's time?
I don't think seeking understanding of a world built on physics and containing the laws of science put in by GOD. No, I think if you look around you, what man needs to understand more IS the law of GOD. That is not considered superstition except by people who cannot look beyond the science itself to see the BIG picture, one that includes GOD.
Man fears that which he cannot understand. In Galileo's time, they did not have the same understanding. Today, it seems there are many who cannot understand religion so therefore are fearful of it.
The more man progress in science, the MORE he needs religion...not the superstition of those who fear it.

Answer 3

Two notes, most of the major religions have supported science but all have had bad episodes. I would point out that the discoverer of the Big Bang was a Catholic priest and likely did not win the Nobel due to anti-clericalism rather than merit.

However, there is a natural conflict in the methodologies of science and religion. Religions make affirmative statements about the world that become in most religions, static statements. For example, all Christian churches frame their affirmative statements on either the apostolic tradition (which includes scripture, stories, song, artwork, beliefs and practices), or on a combination of scripture and the founder's beliefs. In Islam, it is the Koran.

In any case, this freezes the message. This is positive, but it creates a special problem that is easy to illustrate outside religion.

Imagine you froze either Darwin's Origin of Species as revelation or the Principia by Newton. Both are wonderful documents. They are both also wrong. The Principia forms the basis of all college calculus books just a Fibonacci's 13th century algebra textbook is nearly identical to all modern algebra textbooks. Darwin's Origins is less so as biology has moved well beyond Darwin. Newton is less so in that we have expanded the knowledge set on optics and gravity and matter. Worse, if you get away from the Principia and look at Newton's matter theory, it was terrible. Not terrible for then, but horrendously wrong for now.

Science did not freeze those documents as truth, rather it used them as starting points. It questioned them and found the mistakes. We are still finding the mistakes today, but we still teach Euclid's work as an entire high school class, even though it is just a special case.

Even atheists have superstitions, it is just that religion encourages it by the attitude it holds toward mystery. Mystery is to be revered rather than taken apart and turned into knowledge.

Answer 4

Not all religions fear science and not all religions believe the earth is only 6000 years old. In fact, many scientists have come to believe, through their studies, in intelligent design. In the first two or three verses of Genesis is the key to understanding the earths age; according to some. And the Bible does not say how long Adam and Eve were in the garden: It could have been billions of years. Paul Davies: "The laws [of physics] ... seem to be the product of exceedingly ingenious design... The universe must have a purpose". If you want to delve further into religion and science, here is an interesting web site: God And Science.org
Not all Christians are closed minded dummies...

Answer 5

If you're talking about Christianity, why do you say 'most'?

Science and religious practice have long gone together. The uses of herbs -- and psychology -- in healing, astronomy for figuring ritual / ceremonial dates, etc. The druids made good use of the pairing. A lot of our understanding of the physical world, and the mathematics we use to get our brains around it, come from the science developed during the heyday of Islam. (That they've fallen away from that has more to do with history than religion.)

Judaism is quite comfortable with science as well. Buddhism and quantum physics get on so well, it's like they were made for each other.

And so on.

Religion isn't the enemy of science. The Catholic Church used to be. Today, it's Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals.

Answer 6

The reason is most religions are false. They are based on theories of man and have no substance.

The Bible on the other hand, points out there is a true religion based on the Bible. It has no fear of science since science proves the Bible.

Here is the deal. Sometimes science has just not caught up with the Bible. For a time, science thought things found in nature were too rtandom and offered nothing of value. Now, there is a special division of the US Patent Office for "natural patents" I believe is the name, a database for nature. It is for all things existing in nature that scientists and engineers want to copy like shark's body for plane design or hairs on insect legs that hold them upside down. Like I said, catching up.

It is for each one of us to find that true religion and shove the pretenders out of your way.

Answer 7

Religion and science are two sides of the same coin. Right now religion has a lock on the "god thing" and they don't want
to share. If you'll listen to a christian discuss intelligent design
and it's complexities you'll see God is also a pretty good
scientist. Maybe more of a scientist than religionists want to
admit.
Humankind needs both sides of the coin to progress,no side is more important than the other. Both sides produce good,
and both sides produce great evil when unchecked by the other.

Answer 8

i do not think Sanatan Dharma had put any rational scientic thinking man to death or any form of punishment. There is no history of that in Hinduism. Even those who criticized the faith were accepted as good companions so that it benefits the humanity.

As for Semetic religons, you are right. They never tolerated any comments against thier holy books. For them science has to conform to the holy books, or else you wil have to pay with life.

As man progress with science, these religions are feeling the heat and are in a hurry to propogate falsehood through propoganda. so they take a scientific facts and say that this has been mentioned in thier scriptures and so on.

i tried to compare the few religious verses and the scientific facts, i found that ordinarily it agrees with the religious verses. but the real meaning of these religious verses were entirely different from the scientifc fact when you start to dissect it and understand it properly. these verses were said in context to an entirely different situation and not realated to anything scientific. most of them were hand to mouth living conditions.

and it proves that these charlatans will do anythng to undermine science to glorify thier scirptures.

Answer 9

Will all questions ever be replied ? nicely not in my time . in many situations while a query is replied it brings up an entire new set of questions . that's a in no way ending cycle . the version between myself and each Theist I certainly have ever met is. I stay my existence treating my fellow guy as i might want to be taken care of . not via fact of a reward of going to Heaven or concern of going to Hell if i don't persist with this easy code of ethical habit . yet via fact that's in basic terms the main suitable element to do . Does it ask your self you that an Atheist desires no motivation to steer a ethical existence ? different than having admire for different human beings. there's a 0.33 sort of Atheist myself secure . hear to what you suspect inform you what he believes . observed by ability of intellegent communication . ending by ability of agreeing to disagree. If perception in a larger skill gets you throughout the day then by ability of all ability do it . Peace

Answer 10

Galileo had no quarrel with the Bible. Instead, he questioned the teachings of the church. One religion writer observed: “The lesson to be learned from Galileo, it appears, is not that the Church held too tightly to biblical truths; but rather that it did not hold tightly enough.” By allowing Greek philosophy to influence its theology, the church bowed to tradition rather than follow the teachings of the Bible.

All of this calls to mind the Biblical warning: “Look out: perhaps there may be someone who will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.”—Colossians 2: