I believe in a healthy blend of Science + Religion - Anyone care to disagree or argue their point?

Question

Is there any reason why science and religion can't be blended together beautifully?
Science is based on fact. Everyday science is making new discoveries and coming up with in-depth ideas/theories about how everything works, where we came from, and where we are evolving physically as well as mentally.

But, science can't answer everything. At least not yet. There's still those pesky questions such as:
1. Is there an afterlife?
2. If so, what is it?
3. If not, well, is that it? What happens then?
4. Purpose of life?

Life without purpose almost seems pointless. Why do something without reason? I admit, most religions get carried away and try to control people, not to mention their incredible stories that they claim to be factual. But where would we be without a little guidance and self control?

So, why not let science continue their never-ending quest for the unknown, and let religion do what it was meant to do: Make us want to be better people and help each other out.

?

Bongernet:
Can you imagine the world if we didn't have any "mind control cults"? Can you? Try to imagine it for a moment. Mankind having zero regret for anything they do because there's zero universal consequence for anything that do you? We would be running around like unstoppable barbarians doing whatever we felt like. So as much misery you think religion caused throughout history, imagine how much misery we'd have without it.

Answer 1

I agree with you 100%. Hooray for common sense!

Only I would add that religion also has its quest for the unknown. Sometimes science's unknowns and religion's unknowns overlap, but mostly they're seeking out different things.

I believe that science and religion could complement each other very well if their adherents would stop bickering like little spoiled kids long enough to listen to what the other is saying.

Answer 2

I'm glad that you at least consider science as compatible, but you say that science does not answer questions like:

1.Is there an afterlife?
2.If so, what is it?
3. If not, well, is that it? What happens then?
4. Purpose of life.

If have never seen religion answer those questions with any validity or proof. How can it? Who has seen an afterlife? So what should we base a belief in it on? As far as a purpose to life, I find plenty of that without religious BS, tyvm.

atheist

Answer 3

Jimmy Carter was asked a question on "intelligent design" and he answered in the same way as you. I have to disagree. If you call yourself a fundamentalist Christian, you simply have to say I reject sciece because it conflicts with the bible and vice-versa.

The only possible exception is if you take the scriptures very alegorically - similar to fairy tales with a moral. I think in this case, you probably won't be a true believer.

Answer 4

I agree with you and gave you a star for your question. I have to say I believe in God. Not religion. Science is taking away my faith. I understand science. I am full of questions that cannot be answered on religion.

Answer 5

Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan have a nice book called "The Quantum and the Lotus", B. Alan Wallace has a new book out that's similar in discussion between science and Buddhism, and HIs Holiness has one as well. In plain English, we keep our minds open and interdialogue as often as humanly possible.

_()_

Answer 6

Science is great while we are all using training wheels, but at length it is found to be wanting, and so we outgrow it as our guide and move onto higher thoughts. For awhile there is a blend, but then a separation.

Answer 7

I completely agree with you. If things can be proved by science I'll go with that, but for the rest of questions, I rely on my faith for the answers. If during my lifetime science can prove what happens (for example) in the afterlife, I'll have no problem believing it's true, no matter what my faith may say.

Answer 8

Wow, I completely agree! It's too bad that most will never agree on anything, especially such a controversial subject such as beliefs.

Answer 9

I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a theist, and I accept scientific discoveries as well, like the formation of the Earth, human evolution, plate tectonics, etc.

They do not clash, they harmonize.

Answer 10

Yes, I agree with you. I think the best way to find god is thru science. Lets make this easy and use process of elimination ok? We have 3 major religions in the world: Islam, Christianity, Judaism.
Before anything we have to be honest with ourselves. Looking at the world we know that man could not create anything like this. And out of all the planets in out solar system, How did we end up in the one that we could only survice in? How is nature so perfect in that the world is in perfect order with every possible topic ofd disscussion? There is an obvious creator which is god right? So now back to the 3 religions.
First Judaism- this religion only accepts those that are born jewish, you may convert, but you'll never be one of them and it takes many years to study and be accepted etc....that doesn't seem fair if we are all equal in god's eyes. They beleive that they are the chosen ones. Next!

Second- we have christians who believe that jesus has died for our sins etc...and he is god, son holy ghost etc...And we go to a reg. man (priest) to forgive ours sins What? I thought u were already forgiven for your sins thru jesus....no need to go on.this sounds already sounds like not the religion for me.

last- Islam- many don't know about this religion, so I'll give you a detailed description after the brief summary

-You are born free of sin
-you and god can communicate together without the need of a priest.
-there are 5 important things that god asks of you
1- to believe that there is only one god and that Muhammad was the last prophet.
2- pray 5 times a day
3- to give 2.5 % of money per yr to the poor (not the church)
4 -make a pilgrimage to the house of god in mecca (built by Abraham and his son ( and only if u have the $ and health to go)
5- to fast in the month of ramadan

that is it- all of these mentioned above, benefit the human soul and all of it makes sense that these pillars came from god's command and not a man's to corrrupt.
Think about it? If u were in the kingsdom of god and were there to witness the beginnning of man- Wouldn't you think that the first simportant point would be to belive in him alone ?

ok now let go into what muslims believe-
1- god created adam and eve- they were both at fault and were then sent to earth ( many just blame eve) .

2-we believe in many prophets like abraham, jesus, moses, Noah etc..

3-believe in the virgin birth of mary and jesus
4- To convert - it shouldn't take many yrs to convert to a religion- in islam you just utter the words of I believe in allah and mohammad is the last messenger
5- You might wonder were allah comes from ( it is the proper name of god and it doesn't have a gender or cannot become plural.
6-Jesus was not crucifeied as it was made to appear that way thu another man. His spirit was raised to the heavens and will come back to earth and live out the remainder of his time.
7-we believ in the holy books that came before the koran like the gospel, torah, injeel but were corrupted by man's hand sowe do not honor those books from today. God promised that the koran would be protected from this, so back then they memorised the enitire book and was passed on this way until is was eventually placed in a book.

-the torah foretold the coming of the prophet"ahmad" which is mohammad.
-mohammad was an illerate man and he was given versus of this book thru the angel gabriel (jibreel) thru the course of 23 yrs. Back then they thought the world was flat and had a mentality that was in the dark ages. The reason I mention this, is because the koran tell us about the science of this world like mountians, oceans, rain systems, conception etc... this simple man could have not gotten all of this info on science and health and conduct of a man etc... with his mentality. we only discovered these things in the last couple hundred yrs. How could people have known 1400 yrs ago about the ocean from the top down to the bottom floor and all the colors and that some bodies of water are salt and some are fresh and they do not mix. or lieing comes fromt eh front of our brain which they recently discovered or that life is given to that embro at a certain period, and that matches up with science today. I could go on and on...........
-we believe in heaven and hell and many many other things that makes sense for us.
think about the way you feel on sundays when you leave church. good right? you probably have god in ur heart for hours afterwards and you'll be less likely to commit a sin? well for muslims when we pray 5 times a day , it always keeps us on that natual high, so do you see why god has commanded these pillars on us??