I just watched "Contact" for the second time...

[arib]

... and I'm forced to wonder:

Why do so many scientists, as well as many religious figures, see science and religion as diametrically opposed to one another?

I mean, I'm a fairly religious person, and science is something that's very important to me. In some cases, scientific acheivements don't adversely challenge my faith, they help me define it.

I'm sure I have more to say, but I'm tired right now. SO, I'll open the discussion up to you, my friends. What do y'all think?

Comments

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

Book recommendation: 'Calculating God', by Robert Sawyer. Entertaining, thought provoking and well-written sf novel revolving around the scientific/religious 'dichotomy' (fairly spoilerfree description: the protagonists are a human atheist, and an alien whose more advanced science incontrovertibly pointed towards the existence of a creator).

My personal theory is that the scientists and religious people who disagree so strongly both believe in an essentially limited deity. I see nothing about the universe that precludes the existence of God, and I do not believe in a creator whose very existence is challenged by our explorations into the universe around us. And "there are some things man was not meant to *try* to know" is just silly - if we really weren't 'meant' to know something, it'd be inaccessible.

[avram]

Book recommendation: 'Calculating God', by Robert Sawyer. [...]

Ack! I've just gotta jump in here with an anti-recommendation. I read Calculating God last year because it was nominated for a Hugo (I later found out that Sawyer agressively campaigns for the Hugo among his fans; the number of people who nominate for the Hugos is small enough that a small number of devoted fans can get a lousy book onto the ballot), and thought it was one of the worst novels I'd read in a long while. It's got about as much intellectual depth as a mediocre Start Trek episode, and there are points where the author just stacks the deck to get things to come out the way he wants. I'd never read anything be Sawyer before, and after Calculating God I'll never read anything by him again.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

Hmm - definitely not Hugo material, but I thought it was a good book nathless.

Cons: Yes, he does stack the deck quite a bit, and there is a jarring note of human chauvinism in the way that our hero intuits the solution to a mystery that more advanced alien scientists were baffled by. Also, there's the occasional imbalance between philosophy and plot advancament. And Sawyer is frequently facile where he should have intorduced some depth. But...

Pros: Sawyer's writing style is imho not just readable but enjoyable. The book got off to a slightly shaky start, but once he hit his stride it carried itself along very nicely. It was didactic when it needed to be without being annoying, which is rare. The issue central to the book was sufficiently intriguing and rich that it *was* worthy of having an entire novel devoted to it, although I do admit I'd have liked to see someone more 'thoughtful' handle it. But on the whole it was a very entertaining read, and did manage to make me think. Overall, I'd put it on the plus side of the balance sheet.