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

seems pretty obvious to me

[(Anonymous)]

the basic thrust of science is that something has to be proven, to be observed...the main basis for religion is faith, you believe in something that cannot be proven or observed...pretty much sets them up from the start as opposites...that, and all the religious wingnuts out there try to pull "intelligent design" out of their collect asses and claim that it is on par with evolution...the more you look at any religion with a critical eye the more you realize it's all fairy tales designed to make people behave and to make them feel better...the world would be much better off without religion

[gingicat]

Interestingly, cthulhia asked a similar question recently (in a protected entry, or I'd point you to it). She had written a personal ad and said "no athiests," by which she meant, no-one who specifically denied the existence of God. She asked people what they thought, and in the ensuing discussion, I made the following replies:

Reply A:
P: Is there a word for something along the lines of "highly spiritual atheist"? :)
(Other than the catch-all of UU, that is.)

Me: Agnostic, perhaps. I'd describe my dad as a Jewish agnostic -- he doesn't believe in God, exactly -- at least, not the miracle-working God of the Torah -- but he does believe that a minimum of Jewish observance, particularly the family-centered things, are important.

Reply B:
L: i think there are people who use "science" as if it were just the opposite of "religion". but the world just doesn't break down that tidily into yin-yang pairs. there are *some* religions which are anti-science -- for instance, ones which say "you gotta believe the words in the big book, even if the data goes the other way"; this doesn't sit well with a scientific epistemology in which you gotta deal with the data, come hell or not.
but a lot of actual scientists i know (not dilettantes, working-type folks) are quite religious, and even religious in the gnostic, left-temporal-lobe-type way i think of as *really* religious. they look at the stuff of their work, and they see what's sacred there.

Me: Indeed, and Einstein wrote some amazing things about God -- all the books are packed, or I'd go find an appropriate quote.

I agree with you, and with L (who has a PhD in neuroscience), personally.

[rosefox]

Where did I see a quote recently about creation and evolution? Something along the lines (heavily paraphrased) of "I don't understand how anyone who professes faith in the Christian God can believe that He would create entire strata of fossils simply to mislead us--or that He wouldn't be capable of creating evolution".

I have been known to say that the words "always" and "never" are, to me, proof of the existence of God. I find it unimaginable that by chance a universe could have come about where something could always be true, or never be true. What an extraordinary thing it is that in base 10, 2+2=4, no matter what else is going on in the entire universe! Contemplating things like that touches my soul and makes it thrum as though part of a greater harmony.

[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.