Science and Religion

Science is wholly based upon objective reasoning and building upon previous knowledge by experimentation. A hypothesis is drawn up which can be used to formulate a series of experiments. Theories found to be false are rejected and replaced by new theories which fit in with the new ideas about how the World works. This allows future events to be predicted and the new theory should allow another person to repeat the experiment and achieve a similar result. This allows society to be able to flourish by controlling to some extent what happens around it, for example, building bridges and holding back tides, growing crops, and healing people through medicine.

Religion is based on systems of faith in a being (called a God) and worship. It involves a code of conduct and obedience and recognition of an ideal way to live one’s life. Religious sources argue that knowledge can be derived through argument about how the World operates, such as the argument that there must be a Creator because of the complexities that exist. Knowledge is also discovered through revelations by God through prophets and written down in sacred texts.

It was naturally assumed in Medieval times that all knowledge was Divine in nature. There was a strict adherence to the authority demanded by the Pope in Europe and traditional beliefs were held to be true if accepted by the Church.

There was a time when it was taken for granted that derived knowledge and faith were inextricably linked together. Divine knowledge was also accepted without question. The Renaissance changed not only how we viewed our place in the World, but also how we accepted new ideas. God’s place at the centre of Society was being replaced by people’s obsession with themselves. So led a separation between the Church’s teachings and Science.

Many of the great Scientists right up to the Seventeenth Century did not see it necessary to test their faith and there was no contradiction between personal faith and their scientific investigations. Isaac Newton, for example, described the limitations of his model for the orbits of the planets to God’s Work. Galileo was condemned for his acceptance of the Heliocentric Model which put the Sun at the centre of the Cosmos and all the planets (the Earth included) orbiting around it. Galileo was forced to recant his views based upon scientific observation because it was not the accepted view at the time.

You may be interested in reading:

Earthquakes

The Downs Process

Hydrogen

Thermionic Emission

SI Units

The Octet Rule

Semiconductors