Science and Religion: Buddies or enemies?

Kingsley Amis gives a v. similar response - "None" and "Nothing" - and then hilariously adds "Even though you suggest that you will be printing replies from such horrible people as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Peter Ustinov and Spike Milligan, I hereby give you permission to quote my answers to your questions."

Einstein saw a place for both religion & science. He was a pretty smart dude.

The Heisenburg [sp?] Uncertainty Principle & Godel's Theorem (horrible misinterpreted) has given the religious a WIDE barrier to hide behind that can neither be proven nor disproved.

So yeah, the two arent mutually exclusive except for that literal creationism take that some people hold true. And that big bang theorem seems to throw a monkey wrench in everyones mantra but that doesnt even nessicarily sit well with astrophysists either.

I think they might attack different things...you can find out so many hows with science, but never any why. That assumes that there is a valid why question about existence with a valid answer, but isn't that the point of religion (or at least philosophy)? I don't see them as buddies OR enemies; if you get a sense of wonder from science that leads you to religion, you could just as well get that from nature in general instead of the particulars of any scientific theory.

BUDDIES!

"if you get a sense of wonder from science that leads you to religion"

Also, if you get a desire from religion to learn more about God's general revelation, that leads you to science.

"WTF! It baffles me that scientists can be religious. "

It baffles me when a religious person doesn't care to learn about science (be a scientist).

I'm not religious, but I don't think it's a stretch that a person can believe that a god created science. Not as if there are any great explanations for where the universe originally came from, or why we have emotions (or even the concept of a supreme being.)

It baffles me when a religious person doesn't care to learn about science (be a scientist).
More than baffling, it's annoying.

"We all know Albert Einstein as the most famous scientist of the 20th century, and many know him as a great humanist. Some have also viewed him as religious. Indeed, in Einstein'a writings there is well-known reference to God and discussion of religion (1949, 1954). Although Einstein stated he was religious and that he believed in God, it was in his own specialized sense that he used these terms. Many are aware that Einstein was not religious in the conventional sense, but it will come as a surprise to some to learn that Einstein clearly identified himself as an atheist and as an agnostic. If one understands how Einstein used the terms religion, God, atheism, and agnosticism, it is clear that he was consistent in his beliefs."

Religion - made up.

http://www.theangrylemming.org/images/jesus.jpg

Do scientists still generally think of it as fine? I've always thought that it was considered slightly faulty and just being used until a better explination comes along? (Like with Newton's laws of physics and Einstein coming along with a newer more accurate explaination.)

Dude, that's ALL OF SCIENCE! It's one of the things that makes it so powerful.

They thought Newton was spot on until blackbody radiation was delved into. It was supposed to be only a couple more years until all the physical laws of the universe were to be unwrapped. Planck threw that idea into disarray.

Soul: science has spent the last several decades piling up the evidence against any separate soul (unless you choose to define it as something separate from mind, thoughts, feelings, brain activity and so on - i.e. define it in a way not susceptible to scientific evidence) so I can't imagine why you think everything will swing completely in the opposite direction.

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Untitled8.png

...First, Gauchat shows something I also highlight: Graduate degrees are now much more numerous among liberals, and the graduate education gap between left and right is widening. This factor—reflecting liberals’ greater Openness to scientific information and new ideas, as well as unending conservative attacks on academia (and recourse to ideological think tanks to take its place)—is a key structural force involved in driving conservatives away from science.

Second: Gauchat also captures, once again, the “smart idiot” effect: Conservatives becoming more factually wrong—or, in this case, more distrusting of science, which to me is basically the same thing—as their level of education advances. Here let me quote in full, because frankly, the finding can only be called highly disturbing:

…conservatives with high school degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and graduate degrees all experienced greater distrust in science over time and these declines are statistically significant. In addition, a comparison of predicted probabilities indicates that conservatives with college degrees decline more quickly than those with only a high school degree. These results are quite profound, because they imply that conservative discontent with science was not attributable to the uneducated but to rising distrust among educated conservatives.

...Whatever the underlying causes, though, the punchline of the story that Gauchat tells—reaffirming the story I have told—is unmistakably grim. We now have a powerful linkage between a powerful political movement in the United States on the one hand, and the denial of science and reality on the other. This not only manifests itself every day in our dysfunctional political debates; it is a gigantic threat to the country’s future and its ability to cope with 21st century problems.

Conservatives Vs Science

Biggest problem with the thread's implicit assumption is that science provides a fairly unified method for sifting, sorting, and organizing knowledge and so can be considered as 'one thing' in regard to its claims on your intellect, whereas religions comprise so many different beliefs and ethical systems, and make such multifarious claims and demands on your intellect, that it will drive you crazy to figure out what they all share in common, let alone your ever thinking of religion as being 'one thing'.