Introduction
The historical relation between science and religion is long and has not been that cozy throughout history. The main area of contention is the view that both hold on the world whereby, as science tends to base all its explanations through empirical observations, religion on the other hand makes explanations on the basis of faith and divine revelation. However, science and religion tend to have a slight element of tangency in the issue of evolution as the basis of creation, but they differ when it comes to investigating the existence of mankind. In this case, science leans on physical nature of evidence that can be empirically established while religion dwells on morality and metaphysics. With the religion trying to preserve and hold on to the purity of beliefs it deems true, science tries to explain the unknown, to probe and prove that which is a mystery. Religion has for a long time belonged to the masses whilst science has long been associated with a gifted few who had a knack for pursuing a path of life that involves coherent thought and often arcane experiments and that which is out of the ordinary to the common man; hence it has always been appraised with suspicion. This paper will discuss the historical relationship between science and religion including the areas of contention and agreement between the two.
Differences between science and religion
While science in a way deals with the verification of truths into facts, religion seems to embrace the unknown, basing its argument on perceived powers. Basically, science embraces the physical aspects, coming up with convictions that explain the how and why of a phenomena (Luskin para. 2), the reason behind why things behave the way they do or what composes them while religion tends to adhere and base its existence merely on belief of the unknown, on that which can only be explained through allegory or allusion.
Difference between religion and science has had diverse effect on people. One of the most famous incidents where religion held sway over science only for religion to be proved as holding the false belief involved Galileo (Linder para.1). Galileo surmised that the world moved a round the sun, a statement the papacy vehemently opposed. The church then held the view that the Earth was stationary and the greatest of all heavenly bodies. Placed under house arrest, Galileo was forced to recant his views about the earth moving around the sun, only for religion to come to be proved as holding the false view in future (Linder para. 4).
However, not all religion has been wholly opposed to science. Manuscripts that have survived the ravages of time are giving researchers clues as to the beliefs the people held; to the possibility of a world long gone where man lived in far much advanced status than we do today and was wholly at peace with the environment and had sources of power, modes of travels to other distant planets and other feats that man can only dream of. Ancient Hindu texts called the Purana’s have an association with science that clearly lacks in Judeo-Christo religions and researchers have had to turn to these scriptures to get a better understanding. However, the society might as well be advanced technologically, but is emptiness within it that needs be satisfied or that needs be looked into, and this has called for the merging of the spiritual and the secular.
Religion can be said to be that which has acted as the check of scientific progress, determining at what stage the majority of mankind considers moral, putting in check ambitious plans that would otherwise have changed the order of things around the earth. Although religion, especially during the dark ages, committed atrocities in its scramble to convert non believers through conquest and conversion, religion has gone a long way to determine what can be done or should not be done. The protracted battle against cloning of human being can only be argued from a moral point of view, although advances in science have turned to try to explain the spiritual. Neotic science, which comes from the Greek word for intuitive knowing tries to address religion and science from a historical point of view, with science claiming religion is all about purporting a belief that cannot be supported with facts while religion slugging off science as arcane and going against the grain of what humanity is all about, steeped with outdated experiments and at times declarations that go against peoples beliefs.
Scientists believe that the earth is round, but selling this idea must have been a hard task for scientist. While science comes across as flexible and open to opinion and criticism and inviting room for clarification, advancement and collaboration, the history and trend of religion points otherwise. Religion has been steeped with controversy, seeking to eclipse the other beliefs, with branches of religion like Islam and Christianity seeking to destroy the presence of each other from the face of the earth and bringing untold suffering to the people. Science on the other hand has sought advancement through teamwork, with scientists exchanging views and ideas in order to arrive at a solution with ease.
Religion has clashed with science in that religion is less flexible than science. While science is universal especially on the truths and the fact about the earth and planets orbiting the sun, religion is dictated by diverse sects, beliefs and ways of life, social political structures and much more. With Religion tending to present itself in the diverse forms of the world’s diversity, then the consistencies of science have always been bound to clash with the fluidity nature of people’s beliefs.
In his article on Buddhism and Science Verhoeven (para.1), says that modern science led to a great divide between reason and faith and western religions suffered great setbacks and people started looking up to Buddhism, the reason being that it (Buddhism) embraced science as being within its sphere of belief. The issue of Darwinism may be viewed to have brought a crisis to the Judeo – Christo religions and affecting the creation belief; Darwinism has the alter effect on Buddhism. For instance, what was questionable in other religions was found present, appreciated and elevated in Buddhism.
Modernity has brought about great advances in technology and with information being available at the click of a mouse; people have come to question the viability of religion and to question the authenticity of God. Through research and knowledge easily found in books, people have come to be intimate with nature, learning the secrets behind what was treated as mystery and attributed to the invisible powers. Well, while this has opened a whole new school of thought on who really God is, it hasn’t watered down mans belief that there is a super power that is running things here. In the ancient times man has had the quest to understand and prove, through the injection of science which was hitherto seen to counter religious beliefs, the Mythical and mysteries surrounding human life in relation to spirituality and science (Maniktala para. 5&6). This aspect has seen religion and science closely teaming up to speak at least in a similar angle although the chasm between the two remains.
Science, bound to treat each item as an individual has always been in conflict with religion on this especially when it comes to experiments that touch on reproduction. Religion over the years, unlike science, has not practiced what it preaches, for example, the taking away of lives in supposedly holy wars committed by believers against their enemies. From the Muslim Jihad to its prototype the Hebrew Herem, Idinopulos goes on to argue that the conflicts between science strives to lengthen and sustain life and he faults even the Christian Faith Tabernacle Church based in the United States that does not believe in partaking in any form of modern medicine. This is reason enough that regardless the advances in culture, crude religious beliefs will render smooth sailing relations between science and religion to remain just as a dream.
Areas where science and religion tend to agree
Religion and Science have gone hand in hand in some aspects. However, the powerful new views of that advances in science that went against the beliefs of the religious leaders would often lead to inquisitions. Perhaps the earliest known allusion of the religion working in cohorts with science is to be found in issue of creation with the view that complete society could only possible through evolution, both physically and in the mind (Brooke 16). Christianity, arguably the largest and most diverse religion on the face of the earth, holds on to the belief that the world, based on the creation theory, is less than 10,000 years old. Scientist on the other hand, with carbon dating and other arguments, say that the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and that its through evolution that man really came to be, something that the ancient Buddhist religious texts seem to collaborate! Although Buddhists critique the scientific methods and validity of knowledge derived from science, they don’t however discount the benefits arising from scientific research (Nakasone para. 3&11), and to some extent agree on holistic view in matters of environmental science and biotechnological advances. Were it that religion speaks with one word on issues, science would be hard pressed to challenge its authority.
To take a chronological view on the historical view at how different religions have related to science we have to go back to the ancients religions. The ancient Egyptian had conducted matters of state and religion as one, with the head of state, the pharaoh, being the divinely appointed ruler of the Egyptian. There were high priests who conducted the ceremonies, and with Egypt being a place of many gods’ appeared in many forms. The close relationship and respect between the religion and science saw to it that Egypt prospered, with the pyramids hat have come to be associated with this period standing royal to this say. Religion and science seems to have come out to build this lasting impression, the pyramids, built for religious purposes as a passage to the other world and being works of great scientific feats that still baffle mankind to-date. That the pyramids are flawlessly built and lie along cardinal lines of the earth and universe tells us that he Egyptians were a highly evolved people who combined religion and science to reach levels of innovation we can only dream of, an innate understanding of the world as it is and how to utilize the power the world has. This close collaboration between religion and science that gave rise to great innovations is reason enough to suspect that religions that tend to curtail the development of scientific progress actually sound a death knell for human development.
Another ancient religion that seems to have greatly complemented religion and science to great levels of civilization is the Mayan Empire. Situated in what is today Mexico, the Maya people’s exploits are still a scientific wonder to the current world. Religion seems to have been as deeply ingrained into the people as science was. The human sacrifices the Maya people are said to have made were not for a god; they were not wholly devoted despite the great civilization they are credited with. Even touching on the great City of Atlantis that pundits say is the last vestige of a civilization that was there before us, science and religion seem to be driving further apart instead of complimenting each other. The Mayans had calendars dating back over four hundred years yet they lived in the stone age and were using more than seventeen calendars and were able to calculate the earths length or revolving around the earth almost to faultless decimals yet they were deeply steeped in religion is a modern wonder (Arguelles, Jose 18). Moreover, the little known Dogon people of Mali in West Africa have knowledge about the cosmic make up second only to that of the Maya. The religious ceremonies that accompany the ways of this highly gifted people are another pointer at what science with religion can attain, especially in relation to how the Dogon view the issue of Sirius star (Benest and Duvent 1-4)
Perhaps Christianity faced the greatest test of time, and still does, appertaining to science shattering some of the beliefs it held as fact, and having to embrace science as an integral part of human development and go hand in hand with the changes that were all along inevitable.
Religion and state have often ganged up to control the advances of science, gathering strength in numbers to control that which is new and threatens to usurp the status quo and to destabilize the equilibrium of the order of things. Scientific knowledge that seemed to change the nature of belief among Christians was not only received with skepticism but also seen as an insult to the God and Christianity as a whole. Thoughts that abounded to the tune of lightening and thunder were the result of demons and the after effects of such natural happenings that science came to explain were put into question and its was not a walk in the park for scientist to prove their discoveries often faced with hostile religionists who often than not, took their religions as the only truth to be adhered to. Natural calamities that were attributed to the workings of God, brought about by plagues which spread due to lack of proper sanitation aided by infancy in scientific development, or high mortality rate in children was generally accepted; all these could have been averted by science and were not enthusiastically accepted by the Christians (Robinson para. 16).
Conclusion
In conclusion, science seems to be the path to the future. Religion, from whatever angle one looks at it from seems to be immature, like it needs time to decide on what it really wants to be. The thousands divisions of religion, with sects springing up each day, major religions having cracks as to what they really are all about and religious fundamentalism coming to the fore of things, dictating the relations between nations, like the west and the middle east countries disqualifies religion as the way forward. Where religion is irrational, science steps and where religion speaks in different voices, science displays a united front, speaking in unison, in one voice the world over. Where religion comes across as a competition for who has the most acceptable beliefs or who can gather the most fervent believers, science is all about the collective good for humanity.
Modern science, as opposed to religion, can now claim more miracles than religion can. From medical advances where even the most intricate and delicate operations can be made and lives which if left to the power of prayer would perish are saved, the balance that science brings to ease mans daily encounter with nature, making life easier and worthier to live, the plaudits belong to science.
Works Cited
Brooke, John H. Science and religion: some historical perspectives. Cambridge University Press. 1991. Web.
Benest, Daniel and Duvent, J.L. “The Dogon and the Sirius Mystery.” Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 299, 1995 pp. 621-628. Web.
Linder, Douglas. “The Trial of Galileo.” The Trial of Galileo. 2002. Web.
Luskin, Casey. “Intelligent Design Theory and the Relationship between Science and Religion.” Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center. 2010. Web.
Maniktala, Rakesh. “Spiritualism, modern science and ancient history.” Science Mysteries. N.d. 2010. Web.
Nakasone, Ronald Y. “Buddhism, Contemporary Issues in Science and Religion.” Buddhism, Contemporary Issues in Science and Religion. 2010.
Robinson, B. A. 2003. “The conflict between science and religion.” Religious Tolerance. Web.
Verhoeven, Martin. “Buddhism and Science: Probing the Boundaries of Faith and Reason.” Religion East and West, Issue 1, 2001. Web.