The Relationship between Science and Reliogion

Shaman47 wrote:
I have no problems with the concept of mutual respect between faith/hope and science. However I do feel that there is a huge differenece between faith/hope in religion and faith/hope without religion. We do not need religion as it exists today, and faith/hope can and will exist without it when humanity is ready to rid itself of the perils of religion.

MagnetMan wrote:
I have use the word religion in general terms. Religiously practiced metaphysical (spiritual) observances is more precisely what is meant - with the rider that every person is free to decide who and what form God/Creator takes, and how to pay private respects.

For instance: If one worships Reason - then one should religiously (regularly and devoutly) pay homage to the underlying metaphysical force that gave rise to reason. Such humble observances serves to keep the psyche focused on the endless need for learning and saves the ego from prematurely arriving at the delusions of all manner of self-importance.

I agree that Scriptural dogma, especially Christian New Testament dogma, which asserts Jesus is God, is primitive and dangerously divisive and has no place in the modern world. Jesus' message of love for neighbor and non-retaliation for trespass is for me socially brilliant and religiously profound. As is the messages of all the other great socio/theologians.

My argument is that science deals with physics and has no knowledge of metaphysics and therefore has no business even mentioning it, let alone knocking it. Even though one may not agree with the vast majority of the word who have faith in spirit, one should at the very least respect their view.

Finally science itself is an outgrowth of scripture. The spread of scripture taught mankind to read and write. And it had to be spread among hostile heathens by learned ministers who had to brave all kinds of hardships that only Faith alone could have sustained in their desire to teach.

Scripture first served to break the superstitious hold of oral-based totemic worship and unit warring clans into a national consciousness, with all of them re-focused on a Common Origin.

The content of the Scriptures aside, the grammatical structures of literature stimulated our intellect - and the metaphors and parables in scripture that the ancients needed to explain the workings of the universe to inquisitive children, excited our maturing curiosity to search in an educated manner for more determinant answers. Mix that intellectual awakening of the literate mind with the practical engineering technologies that we had already developed during the hunting and gathering and agricultural eras - and we see how Scripture was instrumental in moving man away from purely oral-based metaphorical instruction into new eras of industrial and scientific consciousness.

For that evolutionary reason alone, science should be grateful to religion - for all the added complexities it brought with it..