God and Science - are they compatible?

Question

I notice on Yahoo Answers some people answer genuine scientific questions with answers such as 'Because God made it so...' etc. This seems to indicate an unwillingness for religious people to accept science as being a worthy pursuit.
But cannot religion and science co-exist peacefully? One of the greatest scientists in history, Isaac Newton, was a devout Christian. He considered his scientific investigations as a form of praise - an effort to get to know God's creation in more detail. To him, the phrase 'because God says so' would be blasphemous.

I guess the question is - what's your opinion?

Answer 1

Yes they are becoming incompatible.
If you believe in some creator who caused the existance universe but has taken no further part, I suppose you could reconsile God and Science. However this seems like woolly thinking to me.
If you believe in the God/Gods of one of the major faiths you are faced with the religious orthodoxy of the 'Word'. You can't have God without the establishment that surrounds Him/Her/It. If you try to you'll be a heratic or the founder of a breakaway sect.
God/Gods were a useful construct to explain the inexplicable during an early period of human cultural evolution. Science developed out of a human need to explore intellectually these unknowns and it developed mostly within religious establishments. It is worth noteing that in many cases the religous establishment has ended up declaring such study heresy until the establishment itself was proved overwhelmingly wrong.
It has been mentioned that Newton and others were deeply religious, but to be a professor at Cambridge during his time you had to have taken at least minor orders in the clergy. If you wanted to work at a prestigious research establishment and teach you had to toe-the-line. This is not that much different to those restricitions placed on academics studing under totalitarian/religious regemes today.

As science has grown up it has become more intellectually challenging and this has caused it to split further from religious dogma.
Many modern scientific ideas have proved a challenge for non religious people but for those who profess faith in the word of God it has been a step to far. Look at the statistics in the US that tell us that a very large proportion of the population believe God created the Earth as it is described in the Bible about 6000 years ago. This is an outright denial of EarthSciences, Astrophysics and Biology
These people burn science books! How long before its scientists?
By the way when did you last read about scientists having a religious book burning party outside a school or university?

For most of human history free thinkers have been persecuted by those who profess to know the mind of God. It is time we grew out of believing in divine interference in our activities and started to take responsibility for what we are, our actions and our stewardship of this planet.

Answer 2

The concept of God should not be incompatible with science.
However, if you ask, Is religion (religious organizations) compatible with science? then I think that certain religious organizations vehemently oppose science since it undermines their hold over their followers and challenges their authority.
There are other organizations which support scientific findings as well as utilize them to 'prove' their beliefs. However, we must remember that the concept of God is a belief and science is the pursuit of 'Empirical' proof. (That is what is based on logic and a step by step approach to discovery and checking and re-checking their findings).
I guess it also depends on what you define to mean 'God'.
Is 'God' to you what religion implies such as the 'Creator of all'? Or is it more elusive such as a the original energy. Is it an entity?
When it comes to cosmology, it could be said that when we try to figure out the origin of the Universe we delve into the realm of religion since there is no way of proving anything.
So, I don't know if I helped but I think you may want to restate your question.

Thank you for reading

Answer 3

Yes, science and religion can co-exist peacefully.

Many Christians (and other religious believers) have no problem with science. Science helps explain a few of God's mysteries. Science amazes many of us, and in some actually strengthens the faith.

Many scientists feel the same way, that science merely helps explain the mysteries that God has put before us.

Some belive that God and scienec can not exist without each other. I might not take it quite to that extreme, but I do belive that science is there to help us understand this vast universe that God has created.

Answer 4

Sure they can. Aside from Isaac Newton, Euler, D'Alembert, Galileo, the Bernoullis, Cantor and various others were also very religious people. Often times they claimed their advances in science and math were a result of inspiration from God. Science explains a lot, but even science requires some faith; it's not perfect. Science cannot explain why the world exists, or what proper morals are, these are the domain of religion.

I am an agnostic, but I've always considered religion to be the first instance of science, or a proto-science if you will because a good part of religion tries to explain the natural world. The explanations are silly in retrospect, but the purpose was the same as science: to explain the natural world.

Answer 5

Science is the investigation of the natural world. The concept of god assumes a supernatural world, which has never been observed and cannot be tested. Thus, they are complete opposites.

Yes, Newton was religious, as are many good scientists today. But their religion does not give them revalations into science. No matter how they manage to justify those beliefs to themselves, they are not compatible.

Answer 6

Depends on the Christian and depends on the degree or strength of their faith. Some people want to out right ignore everything that is presented to them, this doesn't matter if they're Christian or not... some people just can't be taught.

I say it depends on the strength because in order to accept a lot of what science means you have to be willing to question what you have come to accept about the nature of things around you. Of course I think I'll end this question by begging another question, Can Logic & Faith Mix?

Answer 7

yes, very compatible
Newton is a good individual example, but even institutionally so many great research universities are religious institutions. I think they use similar reasoning to yours in their mission statements, i.e., to know all of creation.
Then we can discuss the "creator," but first discover what is here.
I would suggest a wonderful book called Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Anne Dillard, sort of a cult classic now I guess. Won a National Book Award for non-fiction in mid-70s, just an awesome read, and a very good exploration of this topic of opening our eyes, on an everday basis, to all that is here.

Answer 8

A complex way of putting the question. The direct answer is that it depends on the god involved. If the purpose of god in a person's mind is to protect that person from change and to enable that person to control others, then that person's god will not fit well with avenues of intellectual exploration.

If a person's god is personal and private, and is a god that tends to stimulate intellectual growth and openness of mind, then the two lines of though--scientific and spiritual--can be quite compatible.

Answer 9

Yes, I really do believe that science and God are compatible. We who believe in God also believe that He created the universe. Which includes all the exisiting laws of physics and mathematics.

I really like what aviophage says, and also Matthew Stewart, yyyyyy, Bryonie and Pfo.

And if I may add my 2 cents' worth,...

Understanding science and investigating the universe and all its workings is like looking at God's handiwork. Where's the incompatibility?

Answer 10

Of course they are compatible. We have seen great improvements in human life during recent years and the more distant past; this is because we improve when we question things. That's why we need opposites, challenges, contradictions & even conflicts of interests.

God is the 'embodiment' of faith, whereas science is the embodiment of knowledge by proof. Since the two are opposites, and we need opposites, I say they are not only compatible but necessary.