Science And Religion

     The dictionary meaning of religion is the performance of sacred rites, or a system of faith and worship. It is our belief in the existence of personal god who must be obeyed. Science, on the other hand, is organized knowledge. It is a trained and organized common sense. The conflict between science and religion can thus be easily understood. Religion is a matter of faith, science of fact. Religion is unborn belief, whereas science is a record of observed facts. Religion comes from intuition, science from reason. Religion is apt to sink into fanaticism, science into materialism.

      Fear is the origin of religion. Primitive man was afraid of the forces of nature. He imagined these forces to be so many gods. He tried to appease them by rites, rituals and sacrifices. In the early stage, religion was in no way different from superstition. Curiosity is the origin of science. It is combined with necessity. The saying “Necessity is the mother of invention’ is significant that way. As man’s intelligence developed through evolution, he became curious about the objects and events around him. His primary need of safety and many other growing needs urged him to discover the secrets of nature and invent useful appliances, and then he began to master and controls the forces of nature.

      Thus, quite naturally, science came into conflict with religion. Blind superstitious faith cannot brook the rise of reason. We have scores of examples of the prosecution of the great scientists. Galileo was thrown into prison for telling the truth about the motion of the heavenly bodies. Darwin’s theory of evolution provoked religious anger and antagonism. Robert mayor was locked up as a lunatic for his theory of the conservation of Energy. Even the use of Simpson’s chloroform was opposed by churchmen. We can never connect the horrors of the inquisition with a nonviolent God.

      But the things are different today. Religion is no longer superstitious and fanatical, and science is no longer a curiosity. Religion respects and even makes use of the achievement of science, and on the other hand science recognizes, even studies, the miracles of religion. All traces of conflict will automatically vanish, provided there is a mutual understanding and acceptance between the two. In that event, religion will be our true moral guide, and science also will cease to be lopsided. It will be our safe helpmate.