If science and religion can coexist, why can't the people who back them?

Question

I'm both religious and a scientist. I subscribe to both 'God created the world' and 'The Big Bang occured 14 billion years ago...' and 'Evolution is the slow progression of species to adapt to change, periodically sped up by ecological incidents (ie, extinction and stuff like that)'.

In my opinion, science and religion break down like this:

God is Why
Science is How.

However, alot of people are telling me to pick a side. They want me to say science is wrong (and unfortunently for them, it's right more often than they would like), or they want me to say God doesn't exist/doesn't get involved (and then they cite science, which has no say in religion because science only deals in tangibles).

Why do religious people insist Science is wrong?
Why do scientists, who should only be dealing in tangibles (i.e., things you can test with the Scientific Method), insist God doesn't exist?

Why can't they understand the two are not mutually exclusive?

Answer 1

To me, science and religion require each other to coexist. The problem with both sides is a lack of communication with the other, or political differences.

Answer 2

Here is the problem. This is a quote from Lisa S' answer: "the theory of creation stated in Genesis and the bing bang theory tend to butt heads." The creation STORY Genesis is a STORY, not a scientific theory. It was meant to teach a moral lesson, not to establish a theory of how the world was created. Until both darwinists and creationists learn that, there will be an argument. I think you have to be stupid to believe that God made Adam and Eve and the Earth in 7 days. However, I think you have to be stupid to think that the universe made itself. Sure, you can preach the big bang theory to me all day, I'll believe it. But how did it happen? What set it off? What put the matter there in the first place? There must be some higher power, but creationism=what you tell a 5 year old kid.



I think it's very easy to believe both science and religion, just like you. If you believe in God, realize that he(or she) made the world through the big bang, evolution, etc. I have no religion, because most of them are stupid. I'd rather mow an old man's lawn on a Sunday morning than go stand in church for an hour waiting for it to be over. I believe I'm getting more out of helping people than going to Church.



Burrito, you just failed hard. Go talk to a priest, he will tell you that Genesis is just a story. Do you think any educated person would believe that Genesis is really the way that the world was created? To be on par with the bible, you don't need to believe god made adam and eve. That is a story written to express a deeper moral lesson.



Honestly, people are so stupid today, bibles should have this stamped on the back-

DISCLAIMER: THE BIBLE IS NOT A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL

Answer 3

In my humble opinion, the problem isn't that the people who back science and religion cannot coexist, the problem is that many people think that's the problem, and thus they feel the need to back one side or the other.



As humans, we have the natural tendency to lean one way or another in an argument, unable to see the truth behind both sides without reforming our own personal sense of logic. Some people say that the two cannot logically coincide, while others will say the only way to achieve logic is to look to every source and find the balance between them.



I believe God exists, that he made everything, and that the Bible holds the truth. But, I also know that not everything in the Bible should be taken for fact. Some things are mistranslated or misinterpreted or even just meant to be something like a story or parable. For instance, I remember someone once saying that back in that time, there wasn't a specified amount of time behind a "day". So, the seven days God took to create the universe could have been anything from no time at all, to billions of trillions of years (or whatever it is scientists say it was).



The way I look at it, if God had the power to create the universe and everyone in it, wouldn't he also have the power to set everything in motion at a certain stage of its own "evolution"? Kinda like starting a book part way through. It still has the history behind where you started reading, and if you look back you will find it. But, that doesn't mean you have read it all.



I also believe that there is a fairly good chance that the "Big Bang" did happen. But how did it happen? I don't know if scientists have an answer for that yet, but if they do, what caused that to happen? Science will always reach a certain point when it can no longer give answers, and that is where you absolutely must turn to faith (after all, can anyone think of a good reason for the mosquito to exist? =P). And without science, we wouldn't know how anything in our world works or why it's there. For many people it is hard to believe without knowing facts about the world around them.



So, the reason people can't understand that science and religion can exist really comes down to the people themselves. I know many religious people who believe science holds many of the answers. One of my friends had a came up with a great quote: "Science tells us what we can do. God tells us what we are allowed to do."



The problem with scientists who don't believe in God is that their religion is science, and that particular religion doesn't allow for an almighty being that created everything with a wave of His hand. On the other hand, there are some religious people that look at science as people trying to defy their faith by going against the Bible.



While I don't personally believe in evolution, I don't deny that it could have happened if God had wished it to. After all, the only way we can know what truly happened is if God came down from Heaven and told us. Since that isn't something that is likely going to happen, we must content ourselves with theories. The "Big Bang" is a theory; evolution is a theory; Creationism is a theory. They all have "proof" to back them, but not enough for everyone to believe in one particular theory.



I could go on and on with this subject, but I think I have said enough. I hope my opinion was helpful and not way too long!

Answer 4

Many of the answers here and the way your question is worded seems to assume that the THEORY of evolution is a Scientific Fact. Since there were no humans to witness the beginning of the Earth, (or the Universe) we don't know how it happened, we can only conjecture based on what evidence we find. Evolution, and the attendant "millions and millions of years" is still only a theory and honestly, if you do a little OBJECTIVE searching, there is an abundance of evidence to completely destroy this theory and fully support the story of Creation and the Earth's relatively young age...



Science and Religion are not and should never be exclusive. I know a brilliant woman who was a firm atheist- until she went to medical school and realized how amazing the human body is.



I think some of these answers are correct about one thing, the whole argument thing has to do with EGO and strong opinions that "Must Be Defended".



The Creator needs no defense, He will be proven in the end.

Answer 5

Because It's like saying your a liberal Republican it just doesn't mesh at all with what I call Creatalutionism.

You can have it both Creation and Science though but please read until the end to see my reasoning by going through steps.

Creationism says that Man was made in the Image of God and judging by Text Adam was a full grown Man so therefore reason Dictates that Evolution could not have happened with God.

The reason for this is if you have ever noticed that the Bible has a way of going through steps with Generations.

So and so Begat so and so, it would be logical to think if evolution happened the Bible would have said God created a cell, the cell begat a creature that grew fins and gills, so on and so forth.

You cannot say that God made everything fully grown AND say that He made evolution the two cannot go side by side.

I knew a guy who said He believed in God and that God showed Him evolution was real but He had no idea what He was talking about due to the fact that He didn't know scripture or He would have seen that it doesn't line up.

I am sorry to tell you that you do have to pick a side BUT think about it this way, Science always Backs up God in every way.

I love science and God, because God created science for man to discover it is reasonable that we can have Both.

God created DNA which is a blueprint for our makeup so it's Something to think about.

Answer 6

I think you're confusing religion with fundamentalist religion and science with atheism. My husband is a scientist and all of his friends are scientists, and the vast majority of them consider themselves religious. In fact, when you look at how history and physics were developed in deeply religious (although not Christian) societies, long before the western world developed to that level, you can see that religion and science are not at odds. Only literalists insist that science is wrong, and in modern times, that's generally on the issue of evolution. As some previous ignorant (and I mean that as in lacking knowledge, not as a pejorative term) poster has made clear, some people confuse the idea of evolution with the idea that humans descended from monkeys, feel threatened by it, and assert it must not be true. This type of problem has recurred throughout history, such as when Galileo faced excommunication for suggesting that the Earth was not the center of the universe, and, eventually, in the areas where science can be proven, science does triumph over the erroneous teachings of certain religions. After all, the majority of people accept the idea that the earth is not flat and that it revolves around the sun, rather than the sun orbiting the earth- heretical thoughts a few hundred years ago. So, the two can co-exist. Can religious fundamentalism co-exist with science? No. Heck, study any type of religious fundamentalism, regardless of its "origin" religion, and you see that it can't co-exist with anything, because one of the characteristics of a fundamentalist religion is that people do not question. Therefore, science, philosophy, literature, art, etc.- they all suffer under fundamentalism. But, to confuse fundamentalism with religion is an error. When you eliminate fundamentalists from the equation (and most of the religious people in this world are moderates of some sort, not fundamentalists), you find that most religious people do believe in science. Furthermore, since most people use science in their everyday lives, you'll see that most religious people do believe in science. After all, even the people writing that evolution is a falacy are typing on computers, using the internet- using tools that scientists developed, and that are now part of everyday use.

Answer 7

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. – Einstein.



Religious people insist science is wrong because for most, science contradicts much of their religious beliefs. Because of this they have a couple of different options. They can either rethink their entire view of religion and faith by conceeding or excepting that their views may be flawed (and realistically, this is not an option), or they can take the easy way, and dismiss science as being wrong. To them, this is not the easy way, but the only way, and they use the bible or Qur'an as evidence. That is why they tell you to pick a side.



Science is less direct. Not all believers of science are atheists. For example, Deism includes both. We may never know how everything was created. Science is constantly finding new things.



I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. -- Stephen Roberts



The problem with this co-existance of God and science is actually quite simple. Religion. Religion is used as such an absolute and is unwilling to except change (unlike science, which is constantly changing).



Why should science only deal with tangibles yet Religion can deal with everything? The lack of proof against something is not proof for it...

Answer 8

I adore how you put that. It clearly wraps up all of my own thinking in such a simple way.



Obviously, I agree with you. However, I have quite the collection of science geek friends who think that my rational thought and intelligence somehow missed a spot since I still strongly believe in my religion. Perhaps it is their lack of an ability to see a bigger picture like others can. Perhaps the scientists merely want an answer and are not satisfied with the answer of God which they cannot 'prove.' I personally think that a few are too arrogant to think that their is someone above themselves in the hierarchy. I also know some religious people who think science is completely false and full of nonsense. Some, I think, believe that God's actions are too divine to derive from something man can learn about. Others may simply not understand or have been led to believe that science is out to destroy the idea of religion.



However, I cannot explain the actions and thoughts of other human beings. I just feel lucky to be one of those that understands the logic of the two not only coexisting, but working jointly towards the same purpose.

Answer 9

You're wrong. You can not believe in God and evolution, God did not make evolution.



Evolution can be defined as a change in the frequency of alleles in a population. In other words, there must be genetic variation from one generation to the next, the success of those variations being decided by natural selection.



I hope that makes sense, I really don't know a lot about it. What I DO know is that evolution requires populations of living organisms. Natural selection requires that the organisms within those populations must live and die.



According to the bible, God created animals, then he created man. This is very clear in Genesis, because Adam spent his time naming the animals. The only way he could name the animals is if the animals existed.



Adam was not naming microscopic bacteria and single celled organisms. He was naming fully formed animals.



To be on par with the Bible, you must believe that God used evolution to create the animals and the man. However, for that to be so, then trillions of living organisms would have had to live and die to get to the point of the narration in Genesis.



The bible clearly shows that death only came into the world AFTER the fall. The fall occured when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.



For your beliefs to be true, then the bible must be false. If the bible is false, then it cannot be the word of God. If the bible is not the word of God, then there is no word of God. If there is no word of God, how do we know there is a God?



Your beliefs can be corrected using this logic, assuming that you have a logical mind.

Answer 10

Deep Thought said it best

"the answer to life, the universe,everything is 42"



organized religion is the worst thing to ever happen to humanity

out of every war ever fought over 95% had something to do with religion



hypocrites is the reason why

they always have to be right and they're in it only for that reason



Truth is it doesn't matter if Science just cant find a higher power or it just doesn't exist. Just that your Faith or beliefs don't change cause of some hypocritically idiots that claim their religion is the "right" one.

most big religions can never co exist with science cause they see science as an alternative and takes away their power they hold over their followers

and always remember the greatest loophole in the bible

don't believe the word of man



but here's something you can believe

the biggest/richest organization in the world is the

Roman Catholic Church



Sounds like they're trying to make you fight their war

There is only one right side "YOUR SIDE" just because you believe in science doesn't mean you cant believe in a higher power

the bible contradicts itself almost every other line but your not suppose to question the bible



the church classifieds me as an atheist

though i do believe in "angels" "demons" "ghosts" and others entities

i do not believe in a existence of a god

my feelings my faith

but science has found most of the truth even though most of it is no where close to seeing it yet



but change is coming and not the fake Obama "Change"

don't lose your faith just because a hypocrite says you cant believe it

you shouldn't question your faith and never let anyone question it either

Answer 11

I’m not really sure if this is an answer. Below are some pieces of my blog that might shine some light on this question.



God doesn’t want sheep who blindly follow rather God would want someone who can question their own religious views without a guarantee of a definite answer to such questions yet still have faith in the grand design of life and the natural world. Look at the Bible, Genesis to sight an example; was it not God who gave humankind the ability to ask such questions, the ability to seek out and obtain then retain knowledge? If this truly was the hand of God at work you would do God a disservice to turn away from questioning the metaphysical.



To conclude: Without the mythology in religion we have no morality and without morality being or pointing to “good or bad”, “rite or wrong”, we have no reason to practice science.



Let the love of truth be lighted, let the truth of love shine clear.

Answer 12

Both religion and science are concepts born from man's insatiable need for dominance and control of a world and its inhabitants of which he knows spectacularly very little about.



Most scientific knowledge as we accept it today is very recent (the last 300 years or so); religion, probably man's first attempt at explaining the universe he finds himself in, is very old.



Since people generally resist change unless they can benefit from it, it seems to be a given that there will be conflict. Unfortunately, too many people are unable to think outside the box, and new ideas then become a threat to their "existence" or to their "power".



In much the same way one religious section of the population disclaims another, and publicly vilify it, they attack "science" for it has many "believers", seems to be in opposition with what they adhere to and may also be considered a religion of sorts.



Creationism, if looked at factualy, shoots itself in the foot by using contradicting verses and two different accounts of the beginning of the universe. I have heard many explanations, but really!



Similarly, what was accepted as popular science as little as 100 years ago, is now considered hogwash.



Maybe it woud be best if we started to accept that the only surety we have is change. And that there may just be a completely different "answer" out there to what we currently believe is the "TRUTH".

Answer 13

There is a time in life where religion was predominant and people lives their lives under the principles of religion unconditionally.Nowadays the situation has changed and science has entered the scene.These scientist are working for the benefits of the one-eyed religious people who are unfortunately hypocrites and full of ego and cannot accept the contribution of the science.That's why science and religion are coexisting well under the table whereas the problem is over the table where there can't be any backing.

Answer 14

Last week I watched a movie, War of The Worlds, from 1953. As the aliens were first discovered to be a disagreeable lot, a minister set forth with bible in hand. Someone said to him that these creatures were not human, and the preacher replied that because these aliens were more highly evolved, they would be closer to the creator. As you can see, this huge rift has been fabricated by the liberals to discredit the faithful. We had come a long way since the Scopes trial, but the liberals needed Christians to appear to be ignorant stooges so they could easily win any abortion debate. It's all bogus. The first Christians I ever met that believed that evolution never occurred were the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I thought that was odd. Then one of them gave me a brilliant book offering proof that evolution was a fraud. I still have the book, and it is brilliant. So, brilliant minds can disagree.

Answer 15

The problem is the religious ideology of conversion. Scientist will not kill you if you don't believe in evolution. This need to convert others to your religion or kill them is what is driving the Jihad in the Muslim religion. I also know it exist in the christian religions, however instead of killing you, they just use social black mail. Would Obama have been elected if he said he was none other than Christian in the US, I don't think so. The point is the Catholic church wants everyone to be Catholic, the Baptist church wants everyone to be Baptist, and the Muslims want everyone to be Muslim. When it boils down to it it is all about the human ego and the need for power and the abuse of that power. Science just wants the truth no matter who it pisses off. Personally religion and the power it can weld in society over people scares me. The dark ages are called the dark ages because that is when science was force to hide, and religion ruled. Scary times indeed. Imagine a world were no one believed in an after life, where they respected this life knowing it was there only one. I think there would be far fewer people willing to blow themselves up. Religion does disrespect this life in my opinion in order to promote the idea of a second perfect life. Whereas to study science is to adore this world and life and desire to know what is real not imagined.

Answer 16

Here is my Small town southern view on this. The devil is trying to pull you away from God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants you to believe that every thing is by chance, and that God didn't do it all. Here is a quote from Genesis 1:



'First God made heaven & earth 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. 6 And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." 7 And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.'



Read more here



url=http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp





That is how everything was created, not by some Big Bang. Don't believe that man came from some monkey, don't believe that it all started out by chance.

Answer 17

because religion cant be proved, it can only be described as something mass numbers of people have faith in. Science can be proved, you can test it, experiment with it, theorize with it. The fact of the matter is that even though religion has existed for some time, you cant prove any aspect of it(yes jesus existed, but did he do anything). its like the story of the little boy catching a 3 inch fish turning into a 10 foot fish in the end. Science is hands on factual stuff, and if it turns out to be wrong its revised.



-you can tell a scientist is wrong by handing him the facts with proof

-you try to tell a religious man he is wrong, you'll end up going in in circles until one of them gives up



So here is your answer, humans in general have a need for everyone to have a unified general beleif, and when a two different groups get together, they have the tendency to "correct" one another and set them on the right path. We get frustrated, and so we dont get along.

Answer 18

Well, it's not as if the religious or scientific communities are in agreement amongst themselves. There are tons of different religions with different ideas of how things were created, and continue to work. And those are divided into sects, of people who argue the small details. In the scientific community, while most religious-based doubts have little support (the denial of evolution, for example) there are always great battles going on over theories, hypotheses, and other aspects and details.



Beyond that, both sides tend to have an arrogance and feel a need for militancy in defending their points.

Answer 19

What I would like to know is how someone is truly religious doesn't believe God capable of creating something such as evolution or scientific reactions. If evolution is an amazingly efficient system of creating life forms to fill every single one of natures niches on an ever changing globe how could anyone who claims God omnipotent not claim it as his brilliance??



As far as scientists are concerned in my opinion it boils down to massive egos. Whether they lost faith because they feel that they can calculate and measure all and therefore don't need a god or they have suffered a great loss and wish to believe that that no god would allow such - it's ego.

The first is simple enough, man wants to believe that nothing is greater than he and therefore he doesn't need a god. The second part to my ego reference is to say that we often choose to see life only from our individual perspective rather than to take into account God's greater plan that is larger and longer than all of us.



Clearly I believe in God. I believe that not only are they not mutually exclusive but that science would not exist had God not created it nor would man have been able to discover and understand it without Him giving us that capability.

Answer 20

People are idiots. I completely agree with your way of thinking. I believe in evolution, but I believe in God at the same time. I guess I should elaborate on my first sentence. People are very close minded. Most are anyway. A scientist has most likely been introduced to science first, or has heard a more persuasive argument on science before hearing one on religion. I think which one they believe more strongly in is the one they heard about first or best. This argument goes for both religion and science. Although there are some people who prove me wrong here, most prove me completely correct. Scientists and religious people who believe strongly in their religion or their work will go to any length to prove what they believe in, even if it oversteps their boundaries. Scientists who fight against God simply want everyone to think the same way they do, and it goes exactly the same for religious people who fight against evolution. It's their nature, their ego, and the way they were raised. I truly hope this helped.

Answer 21

Basically, people like to be right. When faced with being unable to change another person's point of view, people often become insulting.



I have been called unintelligent and uneducated for not believing in evolution from one species to another (not a duplicated theory, therefore by the rules of science itself, not valid). However, I do believe in adaptation (also, most mutations fail to survive so there must have been an astronomical number to account for all of the changes credited to evolution).



I have personally seen miraculous things, but some others merely discount them as happenstance.



And please, if you are going to reference a scriptural story, get it correct. There was no three inch fish that changed into a ten foot fish in the Bible.

Answer 22

because people are brought into this world and handed a set of beliefs and rarely do their parents encourage them to question them and discover truth for themselves. I agree with your "opinion" statement that God is Why and Science is How. I think it is amazing the discoveries man has made into the ways that God has created. To me, it makes God all the more Glorified. But it is easy for people to hold on to one or the other. It's much harder to hold onto both, because there are some inconsistencies, and people tend to throw things out they can't reconcile in their mind. What questions can science answer that religion can't, and what questions are there that religion can answer but science can't? that would be an interesting question too.

Answer 23

Here's my answer and I will try and keep it simple...

We are spiritual humans, just what the heavenly father ordered

and created, but by a physical manifestation. We are futile

and little in our area to reason and bring the two together.

Those days during the 'Witch Hunt" messed this up long ago

b/c they wanted to control the people. Anyways, GOD

is supreme creater and developer, right!!! WA-LA, the cells,

the universe, the herbs/plants, babies growing in bellies is the proof he has given to us by the way of science and mathematics that anything can be done, to heal, to solved, to understood, and to create. In church we say, " Let everything that have breath praise the Lord"! He gave us all the breathe of life. We are result of that manifestion thru physical energy. Along with a universe that contains atoms and molecules that are equivolent in some way to the nucleus of our genetical cells. Our supreme being knew we just wouldn't accept anything, so he gaver us the proof long ago in what we call a "cell". It is a mystery or science in itself, one he created. Whether if you believe science more than God it doesn't really matter. One will never exist without the other.

Answer 24

Science is easy to see and experience, God isn't. Scientific based minds can't understand how someone can be so blind to logic and religious based minds can't understand how someone can't have faith. As a defacto atheist when I really think about God the whole idea just seems crazy. It's just probability. God makes no sense at all. I welcome any argument that makes God even remotely plausible. Faith doesn't count considering I can say that I believe there is a tea pot orbiting the Sun and I have faith in it. Unfortunately this won't end before humans go extinct.

Answer 25

Because Americans (& possibly Westerners in general) like to create false binary oppositions. Since there is a subset of people out there who like to believe that Evolution (which is then conflated to mean Science) is not true based on their fundamentalist Christian beliefs (said beliefs are then conflated to mean Science), they then frame the conflict as Science vs. Religion, which becomes an opposition that requires one to "take a side" between the two polar opposites, neither of which have clearly been shown to be either opposing each other or mutually exclusive.



Its a false argument, which allows for all sorts of wonderful things like voter drives and victimhood claims.

Answer 26

I completely agree with you.



I think something must have created all this. I mean, a Big Bang has to come from somewhere, right?



I am also a Christian-Science believer. I do not like these radical scientists and religious people telling me that they are only right.





We have a lot of proof of science now, but we are only at the tip of the iceburg.

Answer 27

The answer in my opinion: Religion and science base their realities on two totally different means of seeking their own reality and further truths. They run on parallel, non-intersecting planes. When people begin to draw the two together in order to reach a desired result, conflict emerges as one perspective takes priority over the other. Conclusions about science that are made using religious deliberative means will not create a logical scientific result and vice versa. Therefore each should be approached within the scope of its own methology and care must be taken not to try to use one sphere of thought to support the other.

Answer 28

Hello. I'm thirteen, here's my opinion:



I'm a believer. I believe in Christ, and yes, I believe that God made everything. I also incline to science, yet, I pick the "religious" side. I agree with you that "God is Why. Science is How." , it's just that, when it comes to the biblical explanation, science flunks. No offense. But hey, some scientists even before believe in God, like Sir Isaac Newton.



And, about the people who back them who can't agree, maybe it's because of their opinions.



About picking sides, I suggest don't pick. Maybe because you're tied to both.



That's what I think, personally.



God loves you:)

Answer 29

One thing I might say is that concept is not given the priority over notion.



Two quotes: "Philosophy should always know that indifference is a militant thing. It batters

down the walls of cities and murders the women and children amid the flames and the

purloining of altar vessels. When it goes away it leaves smoking ruins, where lie

citizens bayonetted through the throat. It is not a children's pastime like mere

highway robbery." : Stephen Crane



He who dares not offend cannot be honest: Thomas Paine



"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but

I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands

right, stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.":

Abraham Lincoln



"Tolerance implies a respect for another person, not because he is wrong or even

because he is right, but because he is human." - John Cogley Source: Commonwealth,

24 April 1959

Answer 30

Scientists base all of there information off of facts; things they can test, results they can file. Many scientist don't believe in God mainly because we can not study religion in a factual way. We can choose to believe or not to believe, but we cannot make a pie chart comparing the options in order to give us some statistically correct answer. I am no scientist, but i do know that theories constantly change until we have some factual evidence that they are true or false. Until we find the cold hard facts transforming our theory into a law, there are just as many scientists against it as there are scientists advocating it. Since we have no factual evidence regarding religion in one way or another, religion remains a theory. Something you can choose to believe in or not.

Answer 31

people who are open minded can believe in both religion and science. however people who take every word in the bible literaly will have issues with believeing in both. according to the bible the earth was created in seven days but scientists know the earth took hundreds of millions of years to form, so right there is the first problem. im an anthropology minor and in my human origins class there was one student who was a hard core christian, every day was a debate in that class. in my own opinion i think people should just be able to believe in what they want and not be asked to choose a side; but sadly most people dont think like that.

Answer 32

well religon is the total belief in something with out asking why.."surrend yourself to the power of god."

how ever science is to find reason.

and yes people have found there own ways to mix the two but the main thing is.... and this coming form a scientist and im not to religous. the main thing is science is split if you look at relitivity and quatum theory they say TWO difrent answers tot he same question. BUT BOTH ARE correct. so science is in a state of uncertanty at the same time it is sure. as religon gives a straight answer. not all religon disagree. the pope has swallowed his pride mainy times to say that science is right such as with capernicus and galelao. sorry about spelling

Answer 33

yes science and religion coexist its just that some insist in evolution of things rather that creation by God. The Bible says ALL things was creayed by Him. He was the beginning of all creation. Scientists are just trying to rediscover what God has created,

Answer 34

I think your question is looking for a wrong answer. I believe both do coexist. Science and religion are both different entities. Just as are those who back them. People just so happen to have a trait science and religion can't. And that is passion.

Answer 35

I am an Atheist, but I agree with Stephen Jay Gould's idea that science and religion can coexist when treated as two completely separate entities that exist in what he called "non-overlapping magisteria". They are not related in any way, like you said (religion asks "why", while science asks "how"). I personally do not believe in God, but not because I believe that religion cannot coexist with science.

Answer 36

the theory of creation stated in Genesis and the bing bang theory tend to butt heads. therefore, people feel they need to pick sides.

they should be thought of as two different theories. or find a way for them to work together.(i.e. some people say god was the energy behind the big bang etc)

there will always be a curiosity and the human race will always want to know the answers to the questions of our existence.

Answer 37

They have limited thinking. I think science needs a moral compass. Science is not inherently bad or good, it is how it is used. People need to have a consciousness. Some religious people strictly believe the bible to be truth and may think science threatens it. I believe in God but I don't not believe in everything in the bible like Adam and Eve.

Answer 38

Socially accepted, perfunctory belief and behavior based on the progression of the paradigm for each group since both were viewed by governments and religions as mutually exclusive.

Answer 39

Religion and science do coexist with people believing in God and evolution etc. I feel its a spectrum like conservatives and liberals. You have both extremes and the moderates

Answer 40

science for the most part will actually not deny god but rather say that he isnt needed.

and religious people for the most part are very gullible when it comes to that kinda stuff, and the reason in my opinion is that they have no answers to some of the questions so they feel threatened so they have to deny science.

i myself being a strong religious person i am very comfortable with science in general, i see nothing that they put forth that contradicts my believes.

i suggest people to search for "rabbi arye kaplan" a ultra orthodox rabbi who was a scientist, he passed away years ago and in his books he is very comfortable with science as well.

Answer 41

I really like your way of thinking. Pope John Paul II says:



"Science can purify religion from error and superstition.

Religion can purify scince from idolatry and false absolutes"



As long as Christians believe God created all things, you can believe in evolution. We just have to remember that He put His hand in and gave us souls because that's the important thing.

Answer 42

wow. someone who has the same beliefs as me!



i liked how you said God is Why and Science is how. I, too believe that God created the Big Bang but science pretty much explains everything else.

Answer 43

Because PEOPLE are involved that's why.



Both Science and Religion are people-made constructs.



People (i.e.humankind) are one of the less successful experiments of Mother Nature;



Religion is one of the less successful experiments of People.



They will never play well with each other.

Answer 44

Because the science people are hung up on a need to think they're smart, and putting down those who contradict them is gratifying. And the religious people don't have true faith - they're filled with doubt, that makes them rabidly defensive.



Maybe not all of them, but most that I've encountered, have those issues.

Answer 45

Everyone believes in the Logos.



They just differ on the subject of whether it's alive.



As for coexisting - they more or less do. Athiests & Believers may trade barbs in R&S but when was the last time they were on opposites sides of an actual hate crime.

Answer 46

Albert Einstein said "I, at any rate, am convinced that He [God] does not throw dice."



Faith is the human ability to believe in something that cannot be proved.



Science is the land of proof.



We rectify this dichotomy by understanding that God made the universe, and we "discover" His design by discovering the details that give us the knowledge of the world around us.

Answer 47

the majority of americans believe as you do. don't lose hope. when we learn evolution in school and still recite the pledge of allegiance with "one nation under God" then you can know that coexistence is possible. tradition is the factor to blame on both parts. science and religion are both centered in old ways and are inflexible. glad to see you can accept both. now you must come up with your own answers

Answer 48

They do co-exist , they just indulge in a lot of self righteous bickering. If you want to know why science and religion don't bicker it's probably only because they can't talk. If you want the people to not bicker, I'm guessing that that's not human nature. Ce la vie. I admire your ideas.

Answer 49

You have those in religion and those in science who work hard to study or to believe in what they have learned and because of that they are hard believers in their areas of study or belief. Then you have the followers of each. Yes there are those who sway either way depending on the company they are in or even the mood they are in. Not everything is written in stone !

Answer 50

Well, Im sure there are people on both sides that can't understnad the other.

BUT THERE ARE MANY MORE who completely understand how religion and science can coexist!!! Many religous people, many scientists.

Answer 51

Has anyone considered the probability that God created evolution, and that it was Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin who first realized that?

Answer 52

My belief is that Science is the way towards explaining life's mysteries, and God is the convenient excuse a lazy person uses to explain life's mysteries.

Answer 53

But some people are dogmatic and insist that the two views are incompatible. Yet they HAVE to be compatible.

The CREATOR established the laws of science by which the creation exists and operates.

SCIENCE is the body of knowledge about the creation and how it operates. Contradictions occur only through ignorance or prejudice.



Religion is too broad a subject. Religion is about the things people value most. Many people are religious who do not believe in Deity, but they devote themselves to higher causes (politics, sport, art, etc).



I believe the context of the question is regards man's perceived contradiction of faith in Deity and faith in science.



I am a believer. I believe in Deity and in science.



I believe in Deity and that Deity has revealed Himself to man through scriptures.



I am a man of science and earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Houston. Five years later I earned a Master of Divinity degree from a major seminary.



Twenty four years later I am a lab technician in a major Oil and Gas Research and Development Lab testing and evaluating cutting edge technologies.



With those credentials as a man of science and a man of faith, I declare that I see no contradictions between scripture and science.



I read about perceived or constructed contradictions (such as between evolution and creationism), but find such conflicts to be unfounded or misconstrued as propoganda for other purposes.



The atheist says their is no god so their can be no creator.

The fundamentalist says atheists are wrong so there can be no evolution.



Scripture (Genesis 1) says the cosmos was created from chaos, and in a moment of time at the behest of the Creator, light came into being (the Big Bang?), and the world began to take shape.

Life began in the sea: vegetable, then animal; aquatic life then land; from simple to more complex. This is the same pattern arising from Darwin's studies some 4000 years after Moses wrote the Book of Genesis.



Where contradictions seem to occur, I believe that they exist only in our minds out of our misunderstanding, ignorance or prejudice.



Scripture is true. It has God as its source, and truth as its content without mixture of error in what it affirms.



Science is true. It has God as its source and truth as its content in what it can prove.



Most arguments on this topic stem from the position of faith.

Are you a believer or not? Do you believe in God or not?

Do you believe all that is came into existence by chance, by random selection, etc?

Where did the stuff for the Big Bang come from?



I believe it takes MORE faith to NOT believe in a Creator than it does to believe in Him.



I remember a lecture given by Dr Bill Tolar called "Chance or Choice"?

He is a man of science, too, and a theologian. He identified and had us to consider 10 things that had to happen in a particular order for life on earth to exist as it does: (the mass of the earth, distance from the sun, tilt of the axis, presence of an atmosphere, presence of water, presence of carbon, development of rna and dna, etc). To believe that it all happened by chance and random selection, one accepts that theory based on the 1 in 10,000,000,000 chance. That is like flipping a coin heads or tails 10 times and coming up heads all ten times. That is a leap of faith. It is far easier to consider that all this happened by choice through the activity of a Supreme Being, Deity, God.



But some people are dogmatic and insist that the two views are incompatible. Yet they HAVE to be compatible.

The CREATOR established the laws of science by which the creation exists and operates.

SCIENCE is the body of knowledge about the creation and how it operates. These so called contradictions occur only through ignorance or prejudice.

Answer 54

the question is flawed. some of the greatest thinkers of all time were also some of the most religious. most scientists and priests agree: God is why, science is how.

Answer 55

I'm sure most of them do coexist. But coexistence wouldn't be as big in the news as a war or something that costs lives.

Answer 56

In my opinion the "Big Bang theory" is true, and it happened when God spoke it into existance. "Let there be light" he created the heavens and the earth.

Answer 57

Unless your a fundamentalist, extremist etc, they both can and do exist.

Your talking about very broad topics that are not as closed ended and simple as they are sometimes made out to be.

Answer 58

Is this a trick question?



God is Why,

Science is How and

I am Who

Answer 59

Interpretation or application?yin or yang?use what work's for your succsess and be blessed!as for people:people "say",people "do",and people "say they do".two things are lies!for you who believe,god has already answered this in his word.for you whom don't ,see him in the line of interpretion.also wisdom after the fact,is not wisdom!can't change your mind in that line.which are you?

Answer 60

I love you, (generaly speeking).

You can't pick a side.

I agree. God is Why. Science is How.

Answer 61

egotisim and the thought process that we all are right. it is sad. there are those of us who are capable of both, it's just hard to find the needles in a haystack.

Answer 62

i go with both. life began somewhere somehow and evolution is what got us to this point

Answer 63

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Answer 64

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