Science Finds God
In one sense, science and religion will never be truly reconciled. Perhaps they shouldn't be. The default setting of science is eternal doubt; the core of religion is faith. Yet profoundly religious people and great scientists are both driven to understand the world. Once, science and religion were viewed as two fundamentally different, even antagonistic, ways of pursuing that quest, and science stood accused of smothering faith and killing God. Now, it may strengthen belief. And although it cannot prove God's existence, science might whisper to believers where to seek the divine.
AN UNEASY TRUCEThroughout Western history, science and religion have been like siblings--sometimes at loggerheads, sometimes on common ground.
800-1000 The Islamic Empire, where it is believed that astronomy and mathematics provided a glimpse of God, is for centuries the only repository of many Greek and Egyptian texts.
1268-73 In writings on Aristotle's physical studies, Thomas Aquinas synthesizes scientific inquiry with Christian thought. After him, medieval scientists see their role as uncovering the divine plan.
1543 Copernicus publishes "De Revolutionibus." It concludes that the earth revolves around the sun, challenging man's exalted place at the center of God's plan of the universe.
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Member Comments
Posted By: jef4 @ 07/03/2008 9:45:54 PM
Comment: I found this article fascinating because it reflects my own experience. I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic grade school and University, both of which drove me to periods of atheism. It was science that solidified my belief in a Creator. The idea that the universe came from nothing and for no reason was rejected as far back as ancient Greece.
There must be a power, energy or force responsible for the Big Bang. Suggestions to the contrary remind me of "Mommy, the bowl fell off the table all by itself and broke itself."
The power that caused the universe is what most folks call God. I think it was Max Planck who said the though the universe might be "A matrix in the mind of God." That thought reappears in Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town." Stephen Hawking said that "It becomes increasingly difficult for me to believe that the Universe was created other than by a being who intended it to have an intelligence like us." Newton, despite his now discredited Clockwork Universe, was a religious man himself. And his idea of a universe that ran like a clock prompted the question ???Who wound up the clock????
Both scientists and theologians rely of both reason and faith. For example, scientists accept on faith that the laws of physics are uniform and theologians use reason when they study ancient secular scripts to supplement and/or confirm Holy Scriptures.
Congratulations on a well done article that many publications would have avoided.