Can Science and Religion Coexist?

This hot-button has to be right up there with abortion and the war in Iraq. If you want to kill a friendly, social environment, throw one of those three topics out there. Does anyone else think this is getting a little old? And pathetically unoriginal?

You have your radical extremists who refuse to think about entertaining the thought of considering the other view, and the rest of us (the majority of humankind) are quietly sitting in the middle, rolling our eyes. The extremists are never going to see any other point of view, not even one that reconciles both sides, so, really, why are we bothering?

Ah, but then again, this is the blogosphere. Where we write for the sake of hearing the clickety-clackety of the computer keys. So, my two cents:

In college, I took an astronomy class on "searching for extraterrestrial life" (can you tell I was not a science major?) In this class, instead of discussing Steven Spielberg movies from the 80s, we learned this extremely long and extremely uninteresting formula, detailing what was required for "life" to begin. Our professor explained, in painful detail, the conditions necessary for life to form (oxygen, carbon, water, blahblah), and he walked us through each step of the process, as it has happened here on Earth. He chose to editorialize his explanation by adding, "This is why there is no God. The planet is set up to work like clockwork. Each event leads to the next; there is no need for any deity to 'do' anything, to set anything in motion, because it does it all by itself."

My very first thought was, "Well, duh. God's a busy guy - do you think He has time to oversee each and every amoeba as it mitosisises and meiosisises? He set up the clockwork system."

To my professor, who chose to blindly follow science, the clockwork system was proof that there was no God, because He wasn't needed. To me, it was proof that there was a God, because someone had to set the system up. We believe what we choose to believe. Religion and science can coexist very happily, if we would only let them. If we let each be what it is, do what it does, they do not contradict each other.

Oops, sorry - let me take that back. Semantics, man! They'll get you every time...

Faith and science can coexist very happily. Religion... now, that's a totally different matter.

Religion, as Kevin Smith has reminded us, is an institution with rules. Rules we humans have made up. And boy, have we done a splendid job of mucking that up... but that's a topic for another Featured Question. (Or you can just go rent Dogma.)

Science is the study of how things work. Faith in God* is the belief there is a Higher Power watching over us. Science studies how the things God created work. Where is the conflict?

A while back, the science teacher in our young adult Bible study group, who has had to put up with uppity jr. high students trying to "get" her on the whole evolution/religion debate (and trying to get out of learning the material because "I go to church and I believe in the Bible"), lead a Bible study session on Evolution V. Genesis/Creation. Did you know that the order of events in Genesis follows the scientific order of the formation of stars, planets, and life on Earth? The same order Genesis lists for the creation of these things is the very same order scientists have proven. Funny, huh?

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole Bible issue here. That just makes my head hurt, that some people's faith is so weak they cannot even consider any thought that might disrupt their fragile, unfounded status quo. But, if you insist, I'll open the door (or can of worms... po-tay-to, po-tah-to...)

The Bible is an old, old document. A document that has spent too much time in the hands of men. Power-hungry men. Don't argue with me on this, go talk to Martin Luther - he had a word or two (or 96) to say on the subject. But even if we put that aside, the Bible was written millennia ago, in languages that do not even exists anymore. Language - which many people, ironically, don't realize, since they do not bother to study it - is a complex thing. It is also a living thing. And a flawed thing - because it depends on us humans, us, flawed humans, to be interpreted. Ever heard of a metaphor? Ever heard of a parable? Ever heard of oral storytelling? Ever heard of myths and legends and why they were created? Do you seriously think every word in the Bible can possibly be taken word for word for word? How do you know the translator who finally sat down to write all this down knew what that word meant, three thousand (or however many) years ago?

I don't know why science is so afraid of religion or faith. Okay, I take that back - science has a lot to fear from organized religion, or at least it did back in the day (remember those poor chaps, Galileo and Copernicus and such?) However, I would be inclined to believe those days are behind us (whoops! Sorry, I forgot about our President... never mind, I take that back, too). Faith, a belief in God, is no threat to science. I can see why it would make a scientist uncomfortable - his world revolves around measurable, observable proof, and faith is the opposite of that. I can see why a scientist would choose to not believe in a deity. But how does that take away from my belief? Shouldn't that make my belief stronger, because I believe in spite of the lack of proof, and the snubbing I receive from the scientists?

As far as religion goes, well, I find its position even more ridiculous than science's. I don't believe what I believe because someone tells me to - I believe because I have found "proof," my own, personal proof, that serves as evidence for me but might mean little to anyone else, of the things I believe. A scientist walking up to me and selling me his "proof" is not going to have any effect on what I have chosen to believe, because I have made up my own mind after looking at both sides of the issue, and I have decided to believe, again, in spite of science and its "lack" of proof. I feel sorry for the people whose faith is so weak they live in terror of others believing differently than they do, because they seem to think that others' opinions will eventually affect their own. But, methinks, I have digressed from the original topic of this post...

*Author's note: I choose to capitalize "God" because that is part of my faith, and I am the one writing this. However, by "God" I mean any and all deities you may choose to believe in. You may call "God" by another name, but, like the rose, it's still the same person, whether you choose to address him/her/it as Jesus, Holy Spirit, Allah, Yahweh, Mother Earth, Buddha, or any other name I may not know because I'm ignorant in that respect.