What's the difference between faith in science and faith in God?

Question

Those who reject God and believe only in science can explain only some of the mysteries of the Universe via science. Then why is it that they think that ALL of the mysteries are ultimately solveable? To put it another way, how can their faith in science be justified when science hasn't explained many phenomena any better than organized religion? (They seem to have as much faith in science as believers do in God!)

Answer 1

I think the lessons learned in science are of paramount importance in understanding the wonderful nature of Gods grand creation, and I'm so tired of listening to imbeciles who
try and tell you that believing in science means you don't believe in God.

Answer 2

Throughout history, science has tried to determine what this universe is, how, and (more importantly) why it is the way it is. Science takes in all available data and tries to make the most sense out of it. Sometimes the scientific answer is not correct, and when that is realized and the proper solution is proposed, science adapts the new facts.

Religion, on the other hand, has determined without any evidence or fact finding at all, what the nature of the universe is, how it got here, and the why is simply because God said it. When we as humans, using every developing technology, find and can prove the facts, (particularly the ones that refute religions explanations), religion refuses to budge.

I would gladly put my faith into science, which is willing, nee designed, to adjust to new data, than some man's interpretation of what he guesses God said. While there are MANY mysteries that science has yet to figure out, we don't try to explain those mysteries until we've gathered enough data to make an educated guess.

1. Until Copernicus, we believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus came up with evidence that disproved this assumption and science adapted to the new information.

2. A hurricane pretty much wipes out a major city in the Southern region of the U.S. Religions viewpoint, it was because there were a lot of immoral people there. Science provided hard facts that the overall climate change produced a situation where severe hurricanes were likely, predicted the path of the hurricane as well as the relative strength upon land-fall, well in advance of all of that happening. Who has misplaced their faith?

Answer 3

Science doesn't mean proof. Science is the knowledge gained by observing the universe. You don't have to prove that your god exists. You can go on believing because that's your right. I know that there's no proof that your god exists because I'm sure if there was I would have heard about it by now. I don't believe in a god because there is no hard evidence or proof to support the existence of a god and because I do just fine without a god, so I have no reason to believe in a god. I can't have faith because I think that faith is irrational, but I also think it's great that you acknowledge the fact that your belief is in fact based on faith because many religious people are still slaving under the delusion that there is evidence or proof to support the existence of their god.

Answer 4

There is the verse in hebrews that says "faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."

but them according to the dictionary faith is defined as:

firm belief in something for which there is no proof (merriam webster online)

depends on which definition you are using

in science there is proof of certain mysteries of the world. They start out as theories and are rigourously tested and tested.

I do not reject God ( I consider myself a diest) however I do accept science, because if the explination that is given cannot be proven, it's altered and then changed accordingly for the sake of science and explination.
Faith in God means believing in something that you cannot see and cannot prove. I believe everything was created, whether or not we evolved from tiny bacteria or were created from the dust as the bible says.

But regardless which you believe, they both lack one thing......where did it all come from: for the beginning of the universe from science, where did the chemicals come from?

For God, if created everything, where did he./she come from?

Science explains so much because of the rigourous testing, and when the method of the experiment is used by different people and they all end up with the same answer then it is reliable. It breaks things down and describes why rather than "That's the way God made it."

Science may not explain all the mysteries of the universe but if you think about it, neither does God. You only think he does. He doesn't give you a reason why, he just gives you a source so to speak. Science gives you both. Also considering that man has only been discovering things and explaining things for such a short period of time in relation to the time of the universe, I would say we're doing pretty darn good.

BTW the sky is blue because the atmosphere that surrounds our earth absorbs most colors of visible light, scattering blue light making the sky blue. On the moon the sky is black because it has no atmosphere.
my point here is, even if God designed it this way, he gave us a means to understand why he did it. That is something great and wonderful and shouldn't be scoffed at or dismissed.

Answer 5

"how can their faith in science be justified when science hasn't explained many phenomena any better than organized religion?"

Because religion says "This is the word. This is all there is worth knowing. Any idea that puts this religion in jeopardy will be shot down in a panic. Ask no questions, demand no answers, because it's all taken care of for you. Just believe."

Science says, "We don't have all the answers, we may never have all the answers. But we will never stop looking for them."

As I've said before, science does not require, nor does it desire faith. It rejects faith, because faith marks the end of inquiry.

If I had faith in evolution, and then evolution were to be proven false, I would still be pounding my copy of "Origin of the Species" and insisting that since it was written in this book, it must be true! *That* is faith, and no self-respecting rational person has faith in science, because the very nature of science demands that we keep an open mind to the evidence presented about the world around us.

Answer 6

I am an atheist.

I do not have faith in science.

I have trust in science. This is a crucial difference.

Faith would be accepting what any scientist says without question.

But science is not like that. It is possible for me to build the equipment and repeat any experiment a scientist has done and get the same result. I do not do this because there are a lot of scientists out there already doing this for me.

Any fraud is quickly exposed. Cold fusion, Piltdown Man, the more recent stem cell lines in Korea have all been exposed by other scientists trying to repeat the experiments and checking the facts..

I would suggest that you do some serious research into the scientific method and how science works. There is no faith in science. It has shown itself to be self correcting and very reliable. Hence I have a lot of trust in it.


To say god exists just because science has not explained everything is a poor argument, an argument from ignorance.

300 years ago people thought that lightning was directly caused by god. Science at that time had not explained it. Today we understand exactly what causes lightning, and can make it ourselves in the lab. What does that do to the god of 300 years ago?

What will you do as science fills in he gaps, and explains the previously unexplained? Your god will get smaller and smaller until the gaps disappear and you god with them.

Until then I am quite happy with the position of "we do not know, we are trying to find out."

Answer 7

I don't think that all of the mysteries of the universe are necessarily solvable.

However, I'm curious, so I'm willing to make the effort.

"To put it another way, how can their faith in science be justified when science hasn't explained many phenomena any better than organized religion?"

Because organized religion hasn't explained _any_ phenomena, while science has explained many of them. Science has an excellent track record, while religion is batting exactly .000.

Answer 8

Simple, faith in science can change, i.e. in The God Delusion Dawkins tells the anecdote of a professor that after 15 years of teaching that the Golgi apparatus did not exist, changed his position because of the EVIDENCE of a visiting professor. Science has explained many phenomena like waves and planetary motions, but it is unfair to say that science has to prove everything right now or it is false. Finally, if an x-ray detects a broken bone, would you deny it because it is base on science. Everyone believes in science because it makes PROVABLE assertions that can be discarded if they are false.

Answer 9

Science has been successful in providing answers to things that were once thought inexplicable and beyond our comprehension. Let me ask a question: With regard to the things that are still not explained by science, at what point is it appropriate (if ever) to stop seeking to understand and explain? I think the only appropriate answer, from a scientific perspective, is "not yet". If scientists had listened to religious opponents of science who said "Don't try to explain it. We have the answer already. God did it." our understanding of the natural world would be so much the poorer.

Answer 10

Science cannot explain all the mysteries of life. For example, evolution explains only the how but not the why of life on earth. There are many devout followers of God who have no problem reconciling this with Science because the two seek to answer different questions.

Answer 11

You don't understand what the word 'faith' means. Faith is believing in something that doesn't have any evidence. Science HAS evidence, so it doesn't need faith. It CAN'T be science if it requires faith.

I don't know if science will be able to answer every question of the universe. But science is certainly doing a better job than religion. Science is answering many questions; we still don't know a lot in the broad scope of things, but we know a lot more than we did. Religion is answering... what exactly?