Science vs. religion (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, February 22, 2009, 12:19 (5549 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George has referred us to a website containing various articles discussing whether science and religion are compatible. - Thank you for this. The collection is packed with quotable lines and topics for further discussion, and I was especially impressed with the generally moderate and conciliatory tone. - Laurence Krauss says: "Religion is simply irrelevant to science." I think that's right. Science must advance without any preconceptions theist or atheist. But I don't think science is irrelevant to religion. Once science has established something that is beyond reasonable doubt ... e.g. the comparatively late arrival of humankind, long after other forms of life ... religions only damage themselves by denying it. The damage is particularly evident when, for instance, the religious allow slavish devotion to ancient and unreliable texts even to interfere with the advances of medical science. - I would argue that religion and science are perfectly compatible, so long as religion is not used to twist scientific facts, and science is not used to promote claims that it cannot substantiate. I suspect that everything scientists uncover about the nature of life and the universe, no matter how far back it takes us, will eventually come up against an impenetrable barrier. The intricacies may all be the result of a bizarre accident, or they may have originated through some intelligent force, and scientists will never be able to prove which hypothesis is true. I was particularly impressed by David Everett, an atheist, who writes: "When scientists believe that they are marching towards Truth in some platonic sense, they are behaving religiously and not scientifically." While the religious can create havoc by condemning beliefs different from their own, scientists have a responsibility to recognize the limitations of their own knowledge and to accept (as many clearly do) that there may be other ways of finding personal truths. I'm with Howard Gardner: "I'll settle for mutual tolerance, though I prefer mutual respect."