Essay, Research Paper: Science Vs. Religion

Religion vs. Science Speech/ProjectBy Inessa Bezbrozh*************************************************************INTRO.************************************************************* The religion -- science debate has been going on for quite a while now. There are many opinions and many reasons. I have read many articles about this debate and I have reached my own opinion. I think that as we enter the 21st century we still need both religion and science. Let me try to approach this backwards. Can we have neither religion, science, nor both?*************************************************************NEITHER SCIENCE NOR RELIGION ALSO HAVING NO SCIENCE************************************************************* If we do have neither science nor religion, what would we have? We are humans, and one of the most outstanding characteristics that humans have is the need for explanation. This is why research is being done continuously to learn something new. We must know why and how things happen. We always want to expand our knowledge of our world and beyond. The two disciplines are concerned with different aspects of human experiences. Science deals with the impersonal encounter with the physical world. Religion deals with the presonal encounter with the ONE who transcends us. Science and religion use different methods. Science uses testing to prove truthfullness or untruthfullness of a hypothetical idea. Religion uses commitment of trust. The two ask different questions. Science asks How? -- by what process do things occur while religion asks Why? -- for what purpose does this occur? Even though these two questions are different, the ways we answer them must have some kind of a relationship. We know that the Universe did not spring into life ready-made a few thousand years ago but has evolved over a period of 15 billion years from its fiery origin in the Big Bang. This, however, does not abolish the belief that the world is God s creation. There are also hints of God s presence which come from our scientific knowledge. The actual way we answer the question How? points to the question Why? and science by itself is found unsatisfying. It is absolutely impossible not to have either of the two because if we don t, what would we have? People cannot simply give up their belief no matter how detailed the scientific explanations are. When they know how things happen they will want to know why. Almost every society, tribe, or other group of people that has at least religion. Even the most distant groups of people believe in some kind of a supreme Being. In fact, people always needed some kind of Supreme Being, to whom they attribute power over their destiny and whom they obide, serve, and honor. {{{Darwin considers the feeling of religious devotion to be highly complex, since it includes love, complete submission, dependence, reverence, gratitude, fear, and hope for the future.}}}
Science, on the other hand, came from curiosity and need. Some of the earliest people observed themselves and nature to learn about healing. They needed to cure infections and poisons that they inevitably were hurt by in the wild. This was vitally important, and as they began to understand more about themselves they became more interested and still are. People also had to plant crops so they had to be able to tell what the weather would be like on the next day or season. Before they understood how changes in the weather affect their lives, they still wanted to know what the weather would be like, but because they could not understand changes in the weather, they had no other explanation than to believe in different Gods of what we now know as natural phenomena. (for example they believed in Zeus, God of thunder and lightning and other Gods)*************************************************************RELIGION************************************************************* We all realize that we need science as we enter the next century. Let me try to prove to you my reasons for the need of religion. I already mentioned that even the most uncivilized of the societies in the world believe in some kind of Being or power. But it is not just the uncivilized societies. How many times have you seen a family pray when one of the family members becomes seriously ill? Actually, it doesn t even have to be a serious illness -- just listen to yourself. What do you say when someone sneezes? God bless you regardless of whether you re religious or not. So the need to believe comes from a fear of death or suffering. People are very afraid of the things they do not know. This is why so many people believe in the afterlife. Omni gave out questionnaires to about 6 thousand people all over the United States and most of them believe that some kind of afterlife exists. But to believe in afterlife people need some explanation for it, so the supreme Being provides for all their hopes and thoughts. Regular science cannot explain afterlife and cannot comfort people with anything but this: Everyone will eventually die (which is hardly comforting).I d like to finish off with a quote by Bernard Lorengan: God is the all-sufficient explanation, the eternal rapture (amazement) glimpsed in every Archimedean cry of Eureka The search for understanding, which is so natural to a scientist, is, in the end, the search for God, the search for the answer to the question WHY? This is why science and religion must be friends.