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The influence of science on religion
The influence of religion on science
The influence of science on religion
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Religion is a multifaceted-facetted progression, which is defined and understood in many ways; however the basic fundamental concepts of religion are shared emotional responses within a community of shared-value and likeminded members. Religion is a methodical dance involving history, message, faith, as well as reconciliation with natural science. The last step of that dance, reconciliation, is the perpetual stumbling block for many followers of many different religions. For many Christians, the biggest perpetual stumbling block for reconciliation is the theory of and proof for evolution.
Evolution is not the mere documentation of generational changes; it is a scientific story of the struggle and the progression of existence; religion is not just the documented belief structure and awareness, it is also a narrative of the conflicted development of life through an existential consciousness. Although difficult for some, understanding this paradigm allows one to live in harmony with both evolution and religion.
Literature Review
Embracing this paradigm has it challenges, its critics, and also conflicting internal dialogue. The challenges, criticism, and conflicts towards interrelating science and religion vary per person, per faith, and per community; for this research the attention is on blending Christianity and Science will be the focus. This focus will be investigating the historical acceptance, recent public, and education.
Although the general acceptance of science and religion is higher among other nations and belief structures, the Unites States recently currently has a very high concentration of public belief for religious creation stories that provide detailed explanation for the beginning of life; this concen...
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...s.org/news/2011-09-science-religion.html
Ryan, N. (2012, May 11). Science and religion are complements. The Tech. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N25/normandin.html
Townes, C. (2010). Universita Interdisciplinaire de Paris. The convergence between science and religion. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://uip.edu/articles/the-convergence-between-science-and-religion
Witham, L. (1997, January 1). Many Scientists See God's Hand in Evolution | NCSE. Many Scientists See God's Hand in Evolution | NCSE. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://ncse.com/rncse/17/6/many-scientists-see-gods-hand-evolution
Witham, Larry. Many Scientists See God's Hand in Evolution. Reports of the NCSE17(6):33, 1997.
Zimmerman, M. (n.d.). Background. The Clergy Letter Project. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from http://www.theclergyletterproject.org/Backgd_info.htm
Science and faith are generally viewed as two topics that do not intermingle. However, Andy Crouch’s work, Delight in Creation, suggests that there is an approach to both faith and science that allows support of scientists in the church community. There is an approach that can regard science as a career that can reflect the nature of God.
Humans have asked questions about their origin and their purpose on earth for eons. The Bible tells humans that God created them and explains their purpose. However, since the Renaissance, humanism answers questions about origins by naturalistic means and science has been redefined in the process. Most institutions of higher education and many individuals have adopted the naturalistic theory of evolution to explain human origin without considering its effects on faith. In contrast to prevailing thought at Goshen College, a literal six-day creation is foundational to the Gospel message. Combining evolution and Christianity makes one’s faith less logical and opens one’s science to new quandaries.
Haldeman, I.M. Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture. Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1909.
Evolution, otherwise sometimes called the “Devil’s hoax,” is a controversial topic that ignites a rather substantial reaction, particularly in Christian religious communities. Through the years, the heated debate over whether God or evolution is right has become a major breaking point for people of faith. Evolution suggests that God didn’t miraculously place humans in their present form on Earth and that the Bible isn’t the ultimate scientific truth. In this world, science is pitted against religious faith, suggesting neither can exist mutually with the other.
Plantinga, Alvin, "Religion and Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = .
Morris, Henry. "Where Evolution has Gaps, Creation Might Offer Answers – If we will Listen." usnews.com. U.S.News & World Report, 2 Feb. 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.
Science and Religion dialogue has been a bitter-sweet topic for many people over the years. The controversy is not only common between one sole community, but affects a variety. The beliefs held about these topics has the potential to personally effect an individual, whether it be positively or negatively. In the United States, we draw only a fine line between religion and science, often failing to realize that the two benefit each other in copious ways but are not meant to interpreted in the same way. Due to this perspective, people seem to be influenced to pick one or the other, when in reality we should treat both science and religion with the same respect and recognize that they are completely separate from one another, along with having individual purposes. John F. Haught, a distinguished research professor at Georgetown University, published a book titled, “Science & Religion: From Conflict to Conversation”. In it he evaluates each side, persuading the reader that the truth is that both realms may benefit from each other despite the differences emphasized. John F. Haught introduces his audience with four approaches on Science and Religion. Haught’s third approach, contact, is of major significance to aid in the response of: “Does Science Rule out a Personal God?”
The information presented in evolution studies must be viewed with an open mind since there is no definite proof or law of evolution. The dilemma boils down to science vs. religion. God has been our creator since beginning of time, but the discoveries of recent science are sudde...
In conclusion, it is possible for science and religion to overlap. Although Gould’s non-overlapping magisterial claims that creationism doesn’t conflict with evolution, it doesn’t hold with a religion that takes the biblical stories literally. Moreover, I defended my thesis, there is some overlap between science and religion and these overlaps cause conflict that make it necessary to reject either science or religion, by using Dawkins’ and Plantinga’s arguments. I said earlier that I agree with Dawkins that both science and religion provide explanation, consolation, and uplift to society. However, there is only conflict when science and religion attempt to explain human existence. Lastly, I use Plantinga’s argument for exclusivists to show that such conflict means that science and religion are not compatible. It demands a rejection t either science or religion.
Barbour, Ian G. Religion in an Age of Science. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990. Print. (BL 240.2 .B368 1990)
ABSTRACT: Curiously, in the late twentieth century, even agnostic cosmologists like Stephen Hawking—who is often compared with Einstein—pose metascientific questions concerning a Creator and the cosmos, which science per se is unable to answer. Modern science of the brain, e.g. Roger Penrose's Shadows of the Mind (1994), is only beginning to explore the relationship between the brain and the mind-the physiological and the epistemic. Galileo thought that God's two books-Nature and the Word-cannot be in conflict, since both have a common author: God. This entails, inter alia, that science and faith are to two roads to the Creator-God. David Granby recalls that once upon a time, science and religion were perceived as complementary enterprises, with each scientific advance confirming the grandeur of a Superior Intelligence-God. Are we then at the threshold of a new era of fruitful dialogue between science and religion, one that is mediated by philosophy in the classical sense? In this paper I explore this question in greater detail.
...eveloped, and especially during the Enlightenment, God and religion were relegated to a lesser role because it was thought that science could explain everything. Now, though, the farther we plunge into science, the more questions we find that can only be answered by religion. When science and Christianity are both studied and well understood, especially in the context of their limitations, it is possible to integrate them, or at least for them to complement each other, in my view of the world.
Since the 1800’s, the influence of Darwin’s theory of evolution has been taken into thorough consideration and repetitively debated to whether human biological development evolved from chimpanzees through out time along with the idea of how all life on earth came to existence. In fact, this theory has struck such a high level of controversey that it primarily became a crucial idea of intellectuality discussed within the West and around the world. Science and relegion have been the greatest factors which have shaped and mended values and ideas of western societies, essentially making a lasting impression on human history. Most writers and theologians believe that science and relegion are ideaologies which condradict one another and carry no common connection. Within the last few centuries, many reasons have been developed and expressed towards the idea of having to seperate both factors into different categories. For example, when church leaders decided to attack the theory of evolution, they began to come up with absurd statements on scientific issues which they were in no position of qualification to declare. Theologians have become attentive and very cautious when differiniating between scientific and relgious queries due to the acknowledgment that severe conflits and made up assertians have been and can be inflicted at any given situation. On the contrary, in Islamic beliefs, science is very much a major participant and is linked firmly with relegion rarely causing any conflicts or controversies and has also been the world’s religion for decades which proved most resistant to Darwinian evolution. In order to understand what the problem is, overlooking the actual controversy in which religious interest apperantly condemns scien...
Stenmark, Mickael. How to Relate Science and Religion. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.
Ian Barbour introduced four models to establish the relationship between religion and science in his book, “Religion In An Age of Science”. This included the Conflict, Separation, Dialogue, and Integration models. The dialogue model in particular describes the methodological parallels that exist between the two paradigms. In this model, both science and religion are areas with significant knowledge of the unive...