Are Science and Religion Compatible?

– It is strongly held that knowledge and beliefs are dissimilar and even in conflict in one another. There has been a (relatively) recent trend to replace belief with true knowledge, as belief was simply superstition that should be avoided. Therefore education opens up thought and does not allow beliefs to discredit it.
– Convictions can very well be supported by thinking and previous experiences. However this is not entirely necessary for all of our conduct and judgements.- The Scientific method teaches how facts are related to each other. The knowledge of what is does not directly lead onto the knowledge of what should be. In fact, you can know all of what is and yet not understand the goal of humanity’s efforts.- Purely rational thinking is limited then, not even being able to give a reason for the pursuit of knowledge and bettering oneself.-Rational thinking does play a significant part in the development of ethical judgements, just not the entirety of it. We are required to discuss both the means and the ends, not just the ends.-Religion therefore sits in a place to make sense of these means and set these ends into the emotional life of a person. They are not justified by a specific authority but by a healthy society with specific traditions. They are a sort of living thing that does not need justification for existence.- This therefore comes about not from demonstration but through revelation of how people work together and feel. You do not need to justify, just sense their nature.- In the west, this is given by Judaeo-Christian religious tradition. It does not colour our whole existence but it gives a foundation to our values and aspirations, allowing a person to serve all of humankind.- There is no reason to divide people therefore in religious views as we are all of one tribe. One must look to serve the tribe of humanity instead of rule it. In totalitarianism, a ruler strives to destroy this combined feeling of humanity. Democracy on the other hand is the culmination of all of our efforts. In other areas, this destruction comes from nationalism, intolerance and economic means of oppressing.- People are looking for a means to resolve this, but there needs to be a culmination of our efforts, a belief in humanity to work together that will allow people to overthrow such totalitarian governments.- Therefore, how can we define science and religion? Science is easy – it is simply the reconstruction of experience by conceptualising. Religion is a lot more hard to explain in this manner however.- A religious person is someone who has liberated oneself from selfish desires and clings to aspirations of more encompassing natures. The existence of higher things or beings to a religious person exist the same as the person themselves. Therefore religion is to become conscious of humanity’s overarching goals  and values and extend them beyond the individual.- Looked at it this way, science and religion are not in fact antithetical to each other. Science deals with what is and religion deals with what should be. It deals with evaluating human thought and action.- In the past, whilst Religion sets a goal for humanity, it has taken from science what it means to actually attain those goal. However science can only be created by those imbued with a need to seek truth and understanding, which comes from religion. “Science without religion is lame, Religion without science is blind”.- The legitimate conflict between religion and science is referenced in the conceptual fight between an anthropomorphised god who controls all against viewing things in the context of facts.- Of course, for some, a god like this can provide help and guidance, as well as govern by simplicity. However it runs into issues when it comes to determinism in that how can the existence of evil  coexist with a loving righteous god?- Science gives us the idea of a fixed need, that things are ordered with cosmological rules, however they are too complex to understand and predict. Therefore religious leaders should give up the idea that God is the source of fear and hope and instead cultivate the Good, the True and Beautiful in humanity in order that we can give a sense to the order of scientific rules and work with them in society to create collaborative goals.- Religious conviction has led us to countless scientific discoveries, due to a striving for knowledge and a putting aside of selfish goals to instead work on selfless ones. If these convictions had not been strongly emotional, it is unlikely that the devotion needed to attain these discoveries would have existed, but through it, humanity has attained their greatest achievements.