Science and religion
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Science and religion represent two views of the world. While some say these views can be complementary others regard them as mutually exclusive.
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[edit] The relationship between science and religion
[edit] Christianity
Historically, the relationship between Christianity and science has been difficult. Many ideas, such as the idea of a heliocentric solar system, such as people like Galileo, were suppressed to an extent by the Church. The Church did eventually, however, decide that science was okay because it dealt with a different sphere of knowledge than religion [1]and that it could be used to understand more fully about 'God's creation'.
[edit] Islam
In the middle ages, Islam was very encouraging of science, helping the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates and their successors be at the forefront of scientific (and mathematical) advances. However, Islam in general took a turn towards anti-science fundamentalism centuries ago[citation needed].
[edit] Bahá'í
A central teaching of the Bahá'í faith is that science and religion are interconnected. Since Bahá'ís view God as unknowable, the only way they can understand "him" is through what "he" created. (Bahá'ís don't believe God has a designated sex, but it's apparently degrading to refer to god as "it".) This also fits in with a second pillar of the faith, the evolution of the world. As more discoveries are made, the world changes.
[edit] Modern fundamentalism
In the modern world, the principal opponents of scientific progress are the fundamentalist sects of several religions. Although many educated theists do, in fact, accept theories such as evolution, many others who are more literal in their reading of their "holy books" believe it to be false.[2]
They have attempted to support their view by much grabbing at straws, for example, (refuted) claims of evolution violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics,or so-called irreducible complexity. They construct arguments like "the Bible says that the first humans were just like present humans", then go off into a long circular argument. Evolution has not been disproved yet, but is possible to disprove — that is, if evidence were found against it, which it has not, the theory would be modified, or even discarded — see 'Disproving Evolution' for details.
[edit] Creation Science
The term "Creation Science", coined by modern fundamentalists in a bid to get their theology and mythology taught in science classes, is an oxymoron. Creationism is not science.
[edit] Science vs God
God is often said to be "outside of science". Now, while this is all well and good, it results in the nature of "God" being outside of rational inquiry. The fact that "blind faith" is the basis of religion is quite contradictory with that of study and proof, and basically the scientific method. This is not to say that a person cannot be a scientist and theist (though among modern scientists the number of theists is a minority[3]), as many theists, in fact, view science as the "Study of God's Creation". While this definition contradicts the scientific method somewhat, it is often used by theistic scientists, and people in debates about science and religion.
Due to the claim that God is supernatural, any investigation into God's (or Gods') nature(s) is outside the realm of science, and potentially outside the realm of any form of human inquiry. Since science only addresses phenomena that can be consistently observed and tested, any pursuit of knowledge about supernatural entities can only be considered unscientific.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Science and Religion From the NSCS
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ See e.g. the encyclical Providentissimus Deus (18.11.1893), §18: "There can never, indeed, be any real discrepancy between the theologian and the physicist, as long as each confines himself within his own lines, and both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us, "not to make rash assertions, or to assert what is not known as known.""
- ↑ Living proof is here.
- ↑ Leading scientists still reject God