Science and Religion

Science vs. Religion

The Ancient Greeks had a proverb: “The unexamined life is no life for a man” and, remembering the proverbially wise and humble Socrates, “It is better to be Socrates discontented than a pig contented”. In the Seventies there was a popular light-hearted book in which the characters were seeking the Answer to "Life, the Universe and Everything".

Most thinking people realise that there must be more to life than “What shall we eat? Where shall we live? What shall we wear? For even the Pagans seek these things (cf Mt 6:31 – the Sermon on the Mount). At the same time, there has been a steady, though uneven, increase in our knowledge of the world through the centuries. Until about the 18th Century it was taken for granted that Religion – knowledge of the Things of God and of Right and Wrong – was unified with Science – the study of God’s Creation. In more recent years there are many people who have an uneasy feeling that the two are in conflict, and that Science is the winner, that there must still be a God, but who don’t know how to fit both together in one’s head.

In fact there is no conflict between true science and true religion.

It might help to look at it this way. We can learn a lot about a person by looking at the house he has built. Also by the kind of garden he keeps. Now Creation is God's own House and Garden. Physics and chemistry are like the study of His palace; biology is like the study of His Garden. Many scientists believe in a Creator simply because of the elegance of the Natural Laws that are seen to govern the universe. And we can learn about someone by talking to him directly. That is like Religious Studies. This is not to say there are no problems: we do not understand everything either about the Universe or about God Himself (obviously). But there is no need to think we need to keep two ideas in our head – science and belief in God – that do not agree and cannot be reconciled. Unfortunately there are those who say that we ought to do just that.

It is worthwhile to glance at the current tussle between Evolution and Special Creation. See https://sites.google.com/site/catholictopics/theological-issues/evolution-as-religion

The Other Side