A lot of people seem to think that science and religion are simply incompatible with each other. I think this idea really stems from taking too literal a view of any religious writing, though the Bible is the most commonly cited here in the U.S, and then realizing that science as we understand it says that many religious stories simply couldn’t have happened, or that they are very unlikely to have happened, depending on the story in question. If you take the view that a religious text is a history book, then this is very difficult to reconcile. This is one way people come to perceive a divide, and I think it is also the major root.
What if there were no books detailing these religions though? What if religion simply boiled down to belief in God? For some people, religion simply is a belief in God and a relationship with him, without the baggage of any particular belief system. In this case, there really is no incompatibility. You see what science has to say about the world, and any other beliefs you have can be shaped around our current knowledge and the areas we have yet to learn about in a scientific manner. One thing that is certain is that science in it’s current state can not prove or disprove the existence of God. It can’t even study the possibility. So belief (or disbelief) in God won’t contradict current scientific knowledge. That doesn’t mean such a belief is scientific, it just means that such a belief, if true, wouldn’t necessarily mean science is wrong.
There are other areas in which beliefs aren’t contradicted by science, because science can’t study them yet, and may never be able to do so. The afterlife is a big example. Another example is moral values. It’s hard to study the afterlife when you’re still living, though perhaps it will be possible in the future. And moral values aren’t something you can simply study by cause and effect. While you may be able to observe the moral values people hold, you can’t study what values people “should” hold just by observing reality. They’re constructed by people (or perhaps handed down by God). It seems very unlikely for them to be hard coded into reality like the laws of physics.
So, when it comes to the existence of God, the existence of an afterlife, and determining moral values, scientific knowledge does not currently contradict religion, and there is no evidence to say it will in the future.
As far as religious stories go, yes, science does contradict some of those. However, the stories could be metaphorical, or intended to convey some kind of lesson rather than to be taken literally. Also possible is that the miracles described in various religious stories did actually happen, but for some reason no longer happen so blatantly today. It’s also possible there’s another explanation that we simply can’t see from our human perspective that let’s everything work out, though I find this the most unlikely explanation. My view is that the stories ought to be taken metaphorically and may have something to teach us. In this sense, there is no contradiction, though there certainly is if you take the stories literally.
However, I think that in truth, it’s very easy to reconcile religious beliefs with scientific knowledge. You just have to think a little, be willing to make a few concessions on the end of religion, and understand the limitations of science while understanding that science being limited doesn’t make it wrong, just that it only covers certain aspects of reality, unless an objective, physical world truly is all there is.
Related Posts:
- Science Is Not a Religion
- Religious and Atheist Debates
- On Theism and Atheism
- Finding My Beliefs
- Speak Up
Tags: Religion, Science, Spirituality