Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Supernatural elements in literature
Differences and similarities between religion and science
Science vs religion
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Supernatural elements in literature
The “War” of Religion and Science Due to Their Similarities and
Differences
Samantha Pavlakos
Ms. Smith
Period 6
English Term Paper
March 13, 2000
Outline
Thesis: In the book Phantoms, Dean Koontz relates the “war” between religion and science through the defeat of a supernatural being. I. Religion
A. Similarities to science from the theological view
B. Differences to science from the theological view
1. Why they are different from the theological view 2. How to overcome there differences from a theological view
II. Science
A. Similarities to religion from a scientific view
B. Differences to religion from a scientific view
1. Why they are different from a scientific view
2. How to overcome these differences from a scientific view
III. Supernatural
A. World view of the supernatural
B. How the book uses the supernatural to show the
“war” between religion and science.
For many years, there has been a so-called “war” between religion and science. religion is a powerful worldview as is science.
Many people around the world believe in the existence of both religion and science. Unfortunately, the conflict between the two is partially due to the fact that they are so similar yet so different. Both religion and science expect a person to rely on information that is sometimes unexplainable. In the book , Phantoms, Dean Koontz relates this
“war” between religion and science through the defeat of a supernatural being.
There are many different religions that fill this world. Religion requires a person to believe that some events are unexplainable, and that a person should just believe because God, or some other figure wanted life to be this way (Hall 26). A person is expected to believe without a foundation of reason. This relates to science because theories are reasons that have not yet been proven. A scientist expects for a person to believe a theory because it is a reasonable explanation, even if it is not a proven explanation.
Scientists have been accused of saying that religion is only a belief, and that there is a scientific explanation for everything, but if this is true, how come all things in life cannot be explained (Hall 27)?
Hall says, “Science cannot explain how a man can survive something when it is impossible to survive.” But can religion explain this?
According to a theologian, a person who studies religion, there is an explanation. Hall says, “God has a plan for everyone. It is almost like a outline of life. If you are expected to do something before you died, the nothing will stop you.”
There are also many things in religion that are unexplained.
How can a man rise from the dead?
There are some theories that science cannot prove. Science explains all of the logical and natural things in life through observation and experimentation. Religion explains all of the spiritual and mystical things in life. Religion is the belief and worshipping of a supernatural force like God. Jane Goodall is an outlier in the science industry. She believes in God and is also a scientist. Most scientists are only agnostic or atheists. Scientists only have one viewpoint. They only think logically and try to prove the existence of things. Religious people believe in a higher power that created everything and control everything. Jane Goodall has the perfect philosophy. When science is the only “window” someone bases their life on, there are drawbacks because there are a lot of things science cannot explain, logically. When religion is the only “window” someone bases their life on, there are drawbacks because there are a lot of things religion cannot explain, spiritually. When a person bases their life on both science and religion, more mysteries are answered. When both science and religion is part of a person’s philosophy, there are no drawbacks because they either support each other’s claims, do not explain each other, or supports one but not the
For the long time, human are curious about the relationship between science and religious. They are only represent personal thinking and do not exist contradictions. When Bellhop asks Goodall about her new ideas, she talks her new thinking about evolution God creates human beings. She tells the story that “ the biblical description of God creating the world in seven days might well have been an attempt to explain evolution in a parable”(Goodall 150). Goodall is a zoologist and a scientist. All she depends is according the data and the formal information which shows up on books of Internet. She supposed to think and observe logically and sanely. However, she believes in God and finds her own “outsight” through the forest which the data can not provide her. In addition, not only Goodall, but also many scientists are Christian and they all believe God creates people. God is their spiritual sustenance to express their emotion. However, they still do the the most rigorous job and contribute to the society. Goodall uses her own experience to prove that science and religious are “mutually exclusive”. Indeed, the coexistence of science and religion could help the society developed. In Goodall’s opinion, she also thinks that “ it honestly didn’t matter how we humans got to be the way we are, whether evolution or special creation was responsible. What mattered and
The history of opposition between science and religion has been steady for about half of a century. As early as the 1500's, science and religion have been antagonistic forces working against each other. Science was originally founded by Christians to prove that humans lived in a orderly universe (Helweg, 1997). This would help to prove that the universe was created by a orderly God who could be known. Once this was done, science was considered by the church to be useless. When people began to further investigate the realm of science, the church considered them to be heretics; working for the devil. According to Easterbrook (1...
As said by Yale professor of psychology and cognitive science, "Religion and science will always clash." Science and religion are both avenues to explain how life came into existence. However, science uses evidence collected by people to explain the phenomenon while religion is usually based off a belief in a greater power which is responsible for the creation of life. The characters Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's novel, The Scarlet Letter, represent religion and science, respectively, compared to the real world debate between science and religion. Roger Chillingworth is a physician who is associated with science. (ch. 9; page 107) "...made [Roger Chillingworth] extensively acquainted with the medical science of the day... Skillful men, of the medical and chirurgical profession, were of rare occurrence in the colony...They seldom... partook of the religious zeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic." The people of the Puritan community traveled across the Atlantic for religious reasons, and because men affiliated with medical science did not tend to practice religion, they rarely inhabited this community. Chillingworth, falling under the category of "skillful men of the medical and chirurgical profession," would not be expected to reside in this community. The narrator through emphasizes this with his rhetorical questioning, "Why, with such a rank in the learned world, had he come hither? What could he, whose sphere was in great cities, be seeking in the wilderness?" These questions demonstrate that it was so strange for Chillingworth to appear in this community because of his association with science. Perhaps, the phrase "with such rank in the learned world" could yield the narra...
Stenger, Victor. J. 2007. God: The Failed Hypothesis—How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist. New York: Prometheus Books.
Within the novel, both science and religion are created in an attempt to discover some type of truth about the world by the inventions made within them. The main character takes us through his research, in order for
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 lack of conflict between science and religion arises from a lack of overlap between their respective domains of professional expertise—science in the empirical constitution of the universe, and religion in the search for proper ethical values and the spiritual meaning of our lives. The attainment of wisdom in a full life requires extensive attention to both domains—for a great book tells us that the truth can make us free and that we will live in optimal harmony with our fellows when we learn to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.”
Barbour, Ian G. Religion in an Age of Science. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990. Print. (BL 240.2 .B368 1990)
Is it possible for science and religion to coexist? In both The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Man Who Fell to The Earth, the idea of science versus religion is questioned. The films show that our world is rapidly changing and how society reacts to events during those specific times by questioning spiritual faith. Certain sounds that are heard throughout both movies allow us to feel the tone that each movie tries to relay. These sound effects help the viewers understand moments of tension, fear, desperation, peacefulness, to name a few. In addition, certain cinematic techniques that portray quick cuts, long and complex scenes, and much more allow viewers to explore the relationship between science and religion. This leads the viewers mind to recognize that these scenes are intended to elicit an emotional response. Both the idea of science and religion are questioned in the films, though the films were made two decades apart. The movies examine how our world can deal with unexpected situations by allowing society to implement science or religion as a coping mechanism. Since there is no confirmed answer as to which is more accurate of effective, people assume to look to one or the other for help and believe that whatever happens is a direct result of their beliefs. These movies explore the evolution of science and religion in both forms in addition to how reality can obscure them.
If this is the chance to find that even a little part of that answer i don’t know i think its worth a human life’’. Through the understanding of the conflict between science and religion, we can observe that there are still some similarities present in both of them. Both science and religion hold to the importance of testing your idea as a departure from starting an idea. Theology or mythology and science are understood through critical thinking. Both authorities support their view, and both rarely question the authorities unless strong evidence points to the contrary of accepted ideas.
At first glance, many facets of science and religion seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Because of this, I have generally kept them confined to separate spheres in my life. I have always thought that science is based on reason and cold, hard facts and is, therefore, objective. New ideas have to be proven many times by different people to be accepted by the wider scientific community, data and observations are taken with extreme precision, and through journal publications and papers, scientists are held accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their work. All of these factors contributed to my view of science as objective and completely truthful. Religion, on the other hand, always seems fairly subjective. Each person has their own personal relationship with God, and even though people often worship as a larger community with common core beliefs, it is fine for one person’s understanding of the Bible and God to be different from another’s. Another reason that Christianity seems so subjective is that it is centered around God, but we cannot rationally prove that He actually exists (nor is obtaining this proof of great interest to most Christians). There are also more concrete clashes, such as Genesis versus the big bang theory, evolution versus creationism, and the finality of death versus the Resurrection that led me to separate science and religion in my life. Upon closer examination, though, many of these apparent differences between science and Christianity disappeared or could at least be reconciled. After studying them more in depth, science and Christianity both seem less rigid and inflexible. It is now clear that intertwined with the data, logic, and laws of scien...
Christianity and science are seen to conflict with each other because people approach both views the same way; instead, they should be taken differently. There are certain things that can be explained with science and other things with Christianity. There are incidents that science cannot explain and people believe that those things are still true without evidence. Christianity is not opposed to science unless it contradicts the word of God written in the Bible. Scientific method is not the only way to find the absolute truth. The scientific and Christian view of the world will always have some conflict and misunderstanding because they attempt to explain in essence two different things.
In many aspects of our lives, the use of faith as a basis for knowledge can be found. Whether it is faith in the advice of your teacher, faith in a God or faith in a scientific theory, it is present. But what is faith? A definition of faith in a theory of knowledge context is the confident belief or trust in a knowledge claim by a knower, without the knower having conclusive evidence. This is because if a knowledge claim is backed up by evidence, then we would use reason rather than faith as a basis for knowledge . If we define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’, it can be seen that faith, being without justification, can never fulfill this definition, and so cannot be used as a reliable basis for knowledge. However, the question arises, what if a certain knowledge claim lies outside of the realm of reason? What if a knowledge claim cannot be justified by empirical evidence and reasoning alone, such as a religious knowledge claim? It is then that faith allows the knower to decide what is knowledge and what is not, when something cannot be definitively proved through the use of evidence. When assessing faith as a basis for knowledge in the natural sciences, the fact arises that without faith in the research done before us, it is impossible to develop further knowledge on top of it. Yet at the same time, if we have unwavering faith in existing theories, they would never be challenged, and so our progress of knowledge in the natural sciences would come to a standstill. Although I intend to approach this essay in a balanced manner, this essay may be subject to a small degree of bias, due to my own non-religious viewpoint.
First off, it is important to realize that religion and science have to be related in some way, even if it is not the way I mentioned before. If religion and science were completely incompatible, as many people argue, then all combinations between them would be logically excluded. That would mean that no one would be able to take a religious approach to a scientific experiment or vice versa. Not only does that occur, but it occurs rather commonly. Scientists often describe their experiments and writings in religious terms, just as religious believers support combinations of belief and doubt that are “far more reminiscent of what we would generally call a scientific approach to hypotheses and uncertainty.” That just proves that even though they are not the same, religion and science have to be related somehow.