"Science changes. God doesn't. We should trust religion."?

Question

((Paraphrased from a pamphlet I was handed))

What do you think of this argument? What does it mean that science changes? Why is an unchanging religion praiseworthy?

Answer 1

Thank goodness science changes. It avoids the ludicrous mental contortions you see theists going through to corroborate their Bronze-age beliefs with modern scientific discovery. Fear of change is just that - fear.

Answer 2

Before I answer the first question, I think the second ought to be addressed.

Q: What does it mean that science changes?

Look at what scientists "knew" of the world fifty years ago, and the hypotheses that they used. Are all of them still valid? The Stanley Miller experiment sure isn't, and none of Darwin's claims have been substantiated by the fossil record. The Java Man turned out to be a fake. Haeckel's embryos ALSO turned out to be fakes. So what scientists knew to be true fifty years ago is COMPLETELY different from what's "known" now. What's going to happen in another fifty years?
Science has done the world a lot of good, but it's also done us a disservice. How many people still believe the things that were proven to be fakes as fact, simply because the scientific community doesn't want to admit that they've made mistakes?

Even with this information, I don't think that's a good argument. Science is about discovery. It's about learning to explain how the world was made, how life came to be, and how things work. It makes sense, then, that it would have its failings.

I don't think religion is praiseworthy because it's "constant." There are other reasons to choose "intelligent design" over the theory that it was a matter of chance. At this point, NO new information has disproven the possibility that the universe and life itself had a creator. That might change in fifty years, or a hundred, but there's no way to tell. Considering the advances we've made medically and technologically, one would think that we were an enlightened enough society to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the universe and life itself had no creator. But it hasn't happened yet. Maybe it never will.

Answer 3

Science does change. It is a great thing about it that it is capable of saying 'we were wrong'. The entire scientific method is dependent upon being able to prove a theory wrong and then correct or scrap it from looking at the new data.

Newton was wrong, Einstein was more accurate. At some point we will probably find that Einstein was wrong in some detail.


Religion has a very hard time accepting new facts. It is inherantly dogmatic and resistant to change.

But if we trusted religion rather than trusting science then:

We would believe that the world was a circle (not a sphere, a circle)
We would believe that PI =3.0
We would believe that bats were a form of bird and that hares and rabbits were ruminants.
We would believe that the earth was the center of the universe, and that all objects went around it in perfect circles.


Science changes to accept reality. Religion has a very hard time doing that. Reality is what reality is. Which would you want to trust for the next moon launch, or your upcoming surgery?

Answer 4

The answer is simple: Religion is not God.

Religion is a *human* reaction to God. As a human act ... religion is fallible, and religion can (and does) change.

Even if God does not change ... *religion* does. Go back 300 years and Western religion was dominated by the Catholic Church. Go back 1000 years and the Catholic church was a *very* different organization (as much a political power as a religion). Go back 2000 years and Christianity wasn't even born yet ... and our Judeo-Christian ancestors practiced a form of traditional Judaism that even modern Orthrodox Jews would find harsh.

So this is the trick those pamphlets are always trying to pull. Claiming to speak for God. Claiming that their particular brand of religion is as eternal as God is. Every religion in the world makes this claim ... and all are easily shown to be false ... the result of a religious history that is as changing and evolving as the wind.

The difference between the way science changes and religion changes, is that science changes by *consensus* and religion changes by *authority*. Scientists review each other's work, criticize it relentlessly, and slowly a consensus emerges about what the evidence says. Religion changes only when the leaders say it does. Thus religion changes in positive ways in the hands of good leaders ... and it changes in bad ways in the hands of bad leaders. Religious leaders are human, and many are repeatedly shown to be fallible, or corrupt, or hypocritical, or just burdened by mediocre minds or morality. That is not an indictment of God ... that is an indictment of those religions (those leaders and the people who follow them without question).

Do NOT pit science against religion ... religion will lose! (The Catholic church learned this the hard way when it pitted itself against Galileo and the Copernican theory.) This is because religion does NOT speak for God.

Answer 5

Unchanging religion ??????? Religion has been in constant change ever since the stone age. many many thousands of "gods" have come and gone. The sun, lightning, the sea, everything was a "god" at one time.
All of those hundreds of gods have evolved into Christ, Allah, WHVH, Krischna, Rama, Vishnu, and all the others.
If religion doesn't change, where are all the Druids ? What happened to Baal ? How come we never hear of Woden any more, except for his name in the middle of the week ?
Science changes as new material is found. We can't know how much more there is to be found or learned. Science is on-going, endless.

Answer 6

"For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. " Malachi 3:6

Modern science has a funny way of being quite fickle. If you look at how old they thought the Earth was 100 years ago compared to today, it would appear that the Earth has aged 40 million years every year! Sure, scientists say, we have to keep revising as new information comes in, but after a while they start looking like the "boy who cried wolf". They will begin to lose their credibility. Also, the last 200 years have seen numerous hoaxes passed off as fact by the evolutionists; this has drastically harmed their theory to the point that they can't be trusted anymore. We now immediately question any "new evidence" that pops up, plastered onto the front of National Geographic as the Holy Grail of science, and then it turns out to be a hoax as well. Most of the so-called "evidences" for evolution are either hoaxes, outright lies, or misinterpretation of real data.
God says that He "changes not". So far, science has proven the Bible to be quite scientifically accurate, and it has been so for thousands of years. Why compromise a perfectly good Bible with a dumb theory like evolution that doesn't even have any solid evidence to support it anyway?

Answer 7

I believe the statement "Science changes. God doesn't. We should trust religion." is false. My first impression is that the person making the statement is equating God with religion which is incorrect right off the bat. Then, is the person making the statement is indeed equating God with religion, the statement is false because religion constantly chnages therefore God changes as well. Each person, each culture, each generation, etc. interprets their beliefs differently and has a different way of expressing them. Religion is constantly changing and new religions are constantly being formed. The majority of Christians today, for example, are not the same type of followers who supposedly lived during Jesus' time.

Answer 8

An unchanging Religion is praiseworthy because God's laws and Morals do not change with public opinion, they give us a timeless guide on how to find true Peace and Happiness.

Science is evolving, new things are discovered all the time, Religion should not be afraid of Science though, it is not a bad thing.

One just should not replace the other.

Good Luck and God Bless.

Answer 9

Science adapts as new information becomes available. And don't tell me religion doesn't adapt to the times. According to the Bible, slavery is ok and I can sell my daughter. I can kill someone if they work on Sunday, etc...These things are not still ok today, so the religion has adapted to the times. God may not change, but religion is one of the farthest things away from God and those who are the most "religious" are the farthest thing away from how God would have wanted you to live your life.

Answer 10

Religion does change, just take a gander at the history of religions...EVERYTHING changes, that is the only one unchanging fact...and science changes too...so maybe we shouldn't get all hung up in this debate....

Answer 11

science changes because scientists find new evidence for theories, they do not deny any possibilities and they are not afraid to question, science moves forward while religion is in the old times - it hasn't changed a bit since people created it and that's not what modern progressive society need