Yama Tombo
17-Oct-2005, 12:34 PM
I like to begin by quoting Gerald Schroeder:
If I had to assign chief blame for the ongoing struggle between science and religion and the resulting erosion of biblical credibility, it would be to the leaders of organized religion. Since Nicolaus Copernicus had the audacity to suggest that the Sun, not Earth, was the center of our solar system, their kneejerk reaction to scientific discovery has been to deny its validity. Yet what does the position of the Earth have to do with belief in a creator of the universe or the validity of the Bible?! Nowhere does the text claim that Earth is central to anything. In fact, the very first sentence of the Bible - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1) - places the heavens before Earth. As scientific data demonstrating the Sun's centrality accumulated, the Church was forced into embarrassed retreat. So today, the popular perception is that science had proven the Bible wrong. In reality, the claim of Earth's centrality had nothing to do with the Bible.
Similarly, Kepler's discovery of the elliptical orbit of the planets did not sit well with the religious establishment. Circles were perfect geometric shapes, ellipses are defective. An infinitely powerful God would be expected to produce perfect orbits. Of course, the Bible doesn't teach that a circle is better than an ellipse! Yet the Church condemned Kepler's discovery.
Then, Charles Darwin appeared on the scene. The thought that life in general (and humans in particular) had developed from lower life forms was simply unacceptable to the Church. The concept of evolution was condemned as heretical, notwithstanding the fact that Darwin in the closing lines of his book attributed the entire evolutionary flow of life to "its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator in a few [life] forms or into one." Nonetheless, the gauntlet of heresy had been thrown down
The above quote holds alot of truth to me. I believe religion gets alot of flack, because people receive ridicule by those in religion; if your thinking is considered outside the lines, then you don't have faith. As for me, I believe in God and the bible, I'm told by christains that faith is all that is needed; I can't accept something that science contradicts greatly.
Science is quite the same to me, especially evolution theories. I mean evolution is theories, right? A theory made up a group of facts held together by explainations. I admit evolution is compelling, but compelling doesn't mean logical. Alot of people, who favor evolution, tend hold on to answer to "how and hardly look at "why".
".....what is the material world, that which frames the puzzle of our existence? Why even bother with the existence of empty space, or even time? The basic enigma is not whether we evolved from apes or not, but why is there "being" in the first place? The very existence of existence is mind boggling. Yet we are so much a part of existence that we take it for granted—it's a "given," to use a scientific term. But step back from the subjectivity and think about it. What caused the Big Bang? What caused existence? What is existence?"
I think religion and science go hand-in-hand; we need to understand both:
....philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote that conflicts between science and the Bible arise from either a lack of scientific knowledge or a defective understanding of the Bible.
If I had to assign chief blame for the ongoing struggle between science and religion and the resulting erosion of biblical credibility, it would be to the leaders of organized religion. Since Nicolaus Copernicus had the audacity to suggest that the Sun, not Earth, was the center of our solar system, their kneejerk reaction to scientific discovery has been to deny its validity. Yet what does the position of the Earth have to do with belief in a creator of the universe or the validity of the Bible?! Nowhere does the text claim that Earth is central to anything. In fact, the very first sentence of the Bible - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1) - places the heavens before Earth. As scientific data demonstrating the Sun's centrality accumulated, the Church was forced into embarrassed retreat. So today, the popular perception is that science had proven the Bible wrong. In reality, the claim of Earth's centrality had nothing to do with the Bible.
Similarly, Kepler's discovery of the elliptical orbit of the planets did not sit well with the religious establishment. Circles were perfect geometric shapes, ellipses are defective. An infinitely powerful God would be expected to produce perfect orbits. Of course, the Bible doesn't teach that a circle is better than an ellipse! Yet the Church condemned Kepler's discovery.
Then, Charles Darwin appeared on the scene. The thought that life in general (and humans in particular) had developed from lower life forms was simply unacceptable to the Church. The concept of evolution was condemned as heretical, notwithstanding the fact that Darwin in the closing lines of his book attributed the entire evolutionary flow of life to "its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator in a few [life] forms or into one." Nonetheless, the gauntlet of heresy had been thrown down
The above quote holds alot of truth to me. I believe religion gets alot of flack, because people receive ridicule by those in religion; if your thinking is considered outside the lines, then you don't have faith. As for me, I believe in God and the bible, I'm told by christains that faith is all that is needed; I can't accept something that science contradicts greatly.
Science is quite the same to me, especially evolution theories. I mean evolution is theories, right? A theory made up a group of facts held together by explainations. I admit evolution is compelling, but compelling doesn't mean logical. Alot of people, who favor evolution, tend hold on to answer to "how and hardly look at "why".
".....what is the material world, that which frames the puzzle of our existence? Why even bother with the existence of empty space, or even time? The basic enigma is not whether we evolved from apes or not, but why is there "being" in the first place? The very existence of existence is mind boggling. Yet we are so much a part of existence that we take it for granted—it's a "given," to use a scientific term. But step back from the subjectivity and think about it. What caused the Big Bang? What caused existence? What is existence?"
I think religion and science go hand-in-hand; we need to understand both:
....philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote that conflicts between science and the Bible arise from either a lack of scientific knowledge or a defective understanding of the Bible.