• Question: Do you believe that science and religion can go hand in hand?

    Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Dave Jones

      Dave Jones answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      It depends on how literally you take religion. If you base your religion absolutely and inflexibly on old teachings, like taking the bible literally, then no they cannot. Science proves that everything that was in the bible cannot be completely true. From the creation of man, to the age of the Earth, the bible says one thing but science proves something different. However, if you just use religion as a guide for how to live your life (a good thing really, all religions encourage you to work hard, be nice to people, good stuff!), then yes there is no reason that science and religion cannot go together.

      There are some scientists who are quite religious, but I would say that the vast majority (myself included) are not at all religious.

    • Photo: Aimee Hopper

      Aimee Hopper answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I believe that they can do, though I personally don’t believe in a religion.
      Religion is a faith based system – if you believe something happens it’s based on how convinced you are by what someone has said.

      Science is a proof based system – if you can’t reproduce what you claim happened, no-one will believe you.

      Science has never truely disproved the existance of a creator(s), though religion does occasionally try to stop people investigating science.

    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Well said Aimee, I completely agree.
      Science and religion also aim at two different things.
      Science explains how the world works, what are the rules, the laws of nature, an that’s why it can be a proof-based system.
      Religion, on the other hand, most often try to tell people about the purpose of life, or the intension underlying the creation of the Universe. These are completely different questions than what science is trying to answer. An there is no way to get a definitive answer on those questions either, that’s why it’s based on belief.

      It is true, however, that a lot of people have mixed – and are still mixing – the two, and usually the the consequences have not been very happy.

    • Photo: Greig Cowan

      Greig Cowan answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      I can’t add much more than the other guys have answered. Religion is faith and there is no scientific way to say whether it is right or wrong. It tries to help people make sense of the world in a different way to science. I much prefer to deal with the hard facts and the testable and repeatable explanations that it offers.

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