This is honest interest - Science and Religion?

Question

Well, I am atheist... not sure how I got to this conclusion but it took me about 13 years... the only things i can belive in are things i can feel and prove and religion doesn't enter in this group for me (probably for my incapacity to immagine it or having fate)...
anyways my question is: how does religion see scientific discoveries? is it like rejection or more like " god had a guiding hand over it"? i know its a generalization to talk about "religion" but I would like to know different points of view... i'm really curious... the more i learn about sciences the more complex it gets and the more i struggle to immagine anything capable of "creating it"...

thanks

Answer 1

Dr. Francis S. Collins answers much more eloquently than I could, so if you don't mind, I'll put in his words:

"As the director of the Human Genome Project, I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan.

I did not always embrace these perspectives. As a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, I was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics and chemistry."

Answer 2

Um....I'm not exactly sure all branches of science are honest. Just take a look at the drugs/chemical products that get approved for use that are later to be found out they're worse that the disease. If there's money to be made, science can be corrupted almost as easily as religion is. And, religion is corrupt because of money -- selling salvation is a big business with more cover-ups than the drug industry.

Answer 3

As you noted, it is a bit of a difficult generalization, since religious people have such differing views on science, ranging from total acceptance/fascination to the belief that fossils are a tool of the devil put on Earth to force humans to question their faith (yes, seriously...). Full disclosure: I'm agnostic and work in a scientific field.

But, at least in my experience, the majority of religious people actually take something of the coin's flipside to your reaction: the more they learn about how complex science gets, the more they can't understand how anything other than a sentient force could be capable of "creating" it. Different perspectives I suppose, but I think most religious people take nature and science as further proof of the glory and divinity of their respective gods, and this is the only way I can explain the devout scientists I run into every once in a while... as in the one comment above, it's possible to see religion as a "companion guide" to science, full of allegory and whatnot.

As for those who more literally interpret religious mythology... I'm not sure how they can reconcile their view with science. But (again, in my experience) most people are a little more flexible.

Answer 4

As a heathen, I don't see a contradiction between my beliefs and science, because the ancient stories are myth, metaphor, cultural symbolism, and wisdom . . . NOT SCIENCE TEXTBOOK CHAPTERS. :-)

Science explores what it explores, studies what it studies, learns what it learns. The questions it answers are about *how stuff works.* My folkways answer questions like "how do I relate to the world around me?" and "what is praiseworthy?" and "what is important?" . . . few, even at the time the stories were first told, took them literally, despite the smug 19th C twaddle about "superstition" and "primitive people explaining natural phenomena." Some did, yes, but we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the complexity of thought apparent in the stories themselves . . . at any rate, I've never quite understood why xians are so committed to characterizing the teaching stories every OTHER culture as "just myth" and the ones of the ancient Hebrews as "literal scientific fact."

It's a nonsensical assertion, and the effort is largely pointless . . . what *difference* does it make? I understand my world was not REALLY created from the body of a giant by Odin and his brothers, but it doesn't stop me from believing in the godhs of my ancestors, and the wisdom of the folkways centered on them.

At any rate, as long as people are posting links . . . this one's a beaut, and on topic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89jt7zJzkNQ

Answer 5

One could claim the complexity demonstrates the need for a designer and creator.

Some religions cannot stand the light of scientific discovery and facts. The discovery of the earth and planets revolving around the sun is a good example. The Catholic church suppressed this truth and the people who discovered and documented it.

Yet it is religions that did this, and not God. People who claim to be religious who can't see past their own noses.

Answer 6

The total knowledge that we have of the universe is probably quite small, yet you assume by faith that the universe will continue to prove itself orderly, despite there being no scientific experiment or method that has proven so. For me the universe is orderly, because light, knowlege, and wisdom are characteristics of the God who made it.

I can believe in Christ and still believe in, even love science. There are many, many who feel this way today, and even more who have felt this way in the past. (see the links). Believing in God is not an obstacle to scientific pursuits, nor is not believing in God some sort of evolutionary progress in the intellect of man. God made the universe, along with all of its laws. There is no conflict between God and science.

Answer 7

As a Christian, I believe that science only proves the nature of God. The more that science reveals, the more awesome God becomes to us.

I think just the opposite of you, the more complex it gets the more I'm convinced that it could never have been left to chance. There is no way that all these coincidences could have just happened...someone had to be behind it all.

There are many, many scientists who believe in God. One of the priests at our parish was a NASA scientist. He was raised in an atheist home and worked for NASA for years before becoming convinced of God. He began to seek him and was led to Catholicism and ultimately the priesthood.

Here is a scientist who recently talked of his belief in God
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/collins.commentary/index.html

Answer 8

Evolution is a religion-not science. If you ever get over this obstacle you will be able to see more clearly. Most scientist "believe' in evolution-this does not make it true or science-its just a belief with no facts to back it. A good website (that many people hate) is www.icr.org that is the Institution for Creation Research. All the scientist there have legitimate Ph.D's and all the credentials. Some are quiet famous. If you start reading their "impact articles" you will see what I mean. I do not know how educated you are, technically speaking. But if you have a science degree you can understand them. I can understand how many people are not ready to believe that a God created everything-but it is a struggle for me to accept that so many educated people swallow evolution-but fail to check it out. They just blindly believe it.

Answer 9

I can suggest an excellent book that might help you. I don't recall the author, but the book is "God, the Atom, and the Universe." In it, an atheistic physicist attempts the disprove the Bible using only scientific fact. The book deals with the exact subject of your interest. I believe it is out of print, but google it or check EBay. You will find it.

Answer 10

Interesting. The more I learn about the sciences and the more complex it gets, the more I struggle to imagine it all "just being here".

I don't believe in religion, but deism makes rational sense to me.