Agnostic.com

12 1

Can science and religion realistically be reconciled?

Hugene2002 7 Oct 20
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

12 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

No, they can never be reconciled. Slowly but surely religion is losing it's grip on humans and will eventually fail to exist. Whereas science will prevail as long as humanity

3

No.Science is the truth.Religion is a myth made up by man.

2

Not sure how that could ever be possible. These are two completely different schools of thought. Science is based on fact. Religion is based on.. well..we all know what that is.. so no.. I don't think it could ever happen.

0

Religion, properly thought of, gets at mythopoetic rather than literal truths.

There are unseen physical forces and there are unseen forces that stir our souls (psyches if one wants to speak in modern terms).

As long as one isn't silly enough to confuse the two different sorts of truths religion and science don't conflict.

1

I used to say they were two separate things, but I discovered they are the same in the initial approach. They both ask the same questions, but here is the divide, science won't answer with here is the answer until the evidence is in and when evidence is inconclusive or not available the answer is we don't know. Religions will always insert God to all answers unknown, and when the answer becomes known, they fight back and deny for a while and then move the goal post again.

1

The religious people I know believe that God flouts and manipulates the natural order of things for his own ends. That is, God is an entity that has control over the scientific domain and is therefore supernatural. This is the view put forth by the bible. On the other hand, scientists don't really concern themselves (yet) with a God phenomenon in their research. But they could. What usually clashes are the metaphysics, worldview and foundational premises of the two sides. Both are ambitious in scope, one is just more heavy-handed than the other.

2

The only reason why some people reconcile having both religion and science in their lives is that they cafeteria pick from their "holy" books. If you really believed that crap, you would never go to a doctor. You would sacrifice a couple of doves and pray. The Jesus character even preached against hand washing. Religion rears its ugly head and always has against science. A complete and absolute separation between state and church, would mean that science could explore and develop new and better ways for us to live, without religion stifling research based on their superstitions. Religion and science may be reconciled in the minds of individuals, but it has no place in the science classroom, the family planning clinic, or in the hospital.

2

The short answer is a resounding NO. They are diametricly opposed ways of thinking.

1

Here's a proposition. The religion of Animism regulates a set of practices designed to maintain sustainability of the foraging (gatherer/hunter) paradigm. This proposition can be tested for falsification or confirmation. Does this make Animism reconciled with science?

Here's another proposition. The biblical books Exodus to Deuteronomy, in addition to all the smiting and stuff, regulates a set of practices (specifically, infectious disease control, polycrop agriculture, and novel methods of increasing yield in fallow field agriculture. Again, this proposition can be tested. Does this make these four books reconciled to science?

It's the idea of an invisible and intangible deity that has trouble being reconciled to what we observe.

3

No, the two can never be completely reconciled. Some scientists who consider themselves Christians simply choose to act as though there are areas of thought and belief to which scientific evidence and proven facts do not apply.

4

I do not think so if the religion accepts things as fact based on belief/faith alone and offers no verifiable evidence for claims made. This does not mean that all people who are religious are incapable of accepting science; but, on some level, they have to compartmentalize things and engage in some mental gymnastics to reconcile the two, imo.

4

I don't see how. To me, religion is the antithesis to science. There are parts of religion that aren't completely bad, as in Catholic scientists, who actually do real science. But at some level, religion just can't be one with science. Their core belief is not based in fact or evidence.

It is sort of ironic though that the church was the original incubator for science, so that religion actually created it's own downfall. Who says there is no poetic justice in the world?

Exactly. The church scientists are digging the hole deeper, as the priests are trying to climb out. They are making negative progress...

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:1896
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.