IFSA - Do science and religion harmonise?

Do science and religion harmonise?

The clash between science and religion

The churches had been put into an embarrassing position in the late Middle Ages when their doctrines were contradicted by the discoveries of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment/Reason. The earth was proven to be a ball whereas the Catholic Church had been convinced it was flat and that the sun and the moon were supposed to be turning around it, a geocentric view (Figure 4) that was contradicted by science as well. The church sent many astronomers to death, tortured them or put them on trial during the period of the Inquisition (Figure 5) and tortured others, among them eminent pioneers such as Tyco Brahe and Gallileo Galilei (Picture 3 and 4):

Picture 3 and 4. Tycho Brahe (left) was persecuted and Galileo Gallilei was forced to neglect his own views by the church during the period of the Inquisition in Italy because their scientifically correct findings did not match with the geocentric views of the clerics. Johannes Kepler was an assistant of Tycho Brahe and the first one to be accepted by the church in Germany. Giordano Bruno died for his scientifically correct views.

Figure 4. The geocentric model of Ptolomaeus in opposition to heliocentric model of Copernicus

The Inquisition

Figure 5. A failure of Christianity, the Inquisition of the Middle Ages.

After all these attempts to save the doctrine of the church, the age of the earth was stated to be much longer than the clerics had calculated. Kelvin, in the last century, estimated it to be millions of years whereas they had believed it to be 6-7 thousand, based on the Genesis in the Bible, which contains a detailed list of supposed generations after Adam. (See "Religion and Science", Compton's Interactive Encyclopaedia.)

Today's religions and their scriptures

Today fundamental Christians do not even accept the Theory of Evolution, which is the established view of how life on this planet has developed, at least among biologists. The answer of many Christians is to separate science and religion. Most Christians do not allow a literal interpretation of the Bible anymore. They say it was written down by people, who were inspired by God and could thus contain mistakes, as it is human to err. So most Christians do not consider the Bible to be the true word of God. They go so far as stating that the belief in God is the last test for a true believer despite of science being unable to prove his existence. That point of view would actually mean that the belief in God was unreasonable! Furthermore, parts of the Bible were translated from Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek and Latin and the originals were lost. There is a common and mutual confusion as to which parts of the Bible are to be taken literally or not. The Old Testament is not as a whole acceptable to Christians and they say its teachings are partly annihilated because of Jesus' Gospel and Paul's preaching. Furthermore, the Old Testament of the Christians is not at all similar to the Torah of the Jews. Still the people that descend from both religions call themselves Jews and Christians and build up the fundament for the modern technological society, many without practising their religion. All that is left in the modern Western industry nations is a secular moral structure as a rudiment of a Greco-Roman society and a lot of confusion.

Still people do believe in God

But the world religions and many others are still alive and people wish to believe. More people believe than watch TV or use the telephone. God is communicating more effectively than technology. Do all religions scriptures contradict science? After all the Ancients had very advanced knowledge of mathematics and astronomy and they all believed in an afterlife. Is there any such scripture which was revealed them and is still consistent with modern discoveries?

What should a scientist do?

If a scientist is looking for the truth in the universe today, he should study the scriptures of all religions and compare them with modern knowledge and with each other before he can make a sound judgement. This of course alongside with his studies and the thorough reading of literature from all disciplines,. There are different opinions, there can be different realities but there can only be one truth. (See G.W.F. Hegel, "Science and Logic", 1812, Berlin.). A religion ought to be judges by its scripture, not by the practice of its people, since nobody is perfect, least of all a whole group of people.

Who says, God is dead? Nietzsche? Socrates?

Nietzsche (Picture 3) (1844-1900), in his great work "Nathan der Weise", puts the words "God is dead" into the mouth of the frustrated prophet Nathan, who comes to the people after dwelling in the mountains for years and tries to preach to them about wisdom and God. Nietzsche is often quoted as a nonbeliever but in fact he meant, "God is dead" in the hearts of the people. He was a man of the 19th century whose influence on the 20th century thought was enormous. It was not so much what Friedrich Nietzsche believed in as what he saw happening in European civilisation that was so meaningful in later decades. He saw a civilisation so self-confident over its mastery of science, technology, politics, and economics that for it "God is dead," and that "belief in the Christian God has become unworthy of belief." Nietzsche saw emerging tensions arising from those who embraced the ideologies of democracy, socialism, or Communism. He predicted: "There will be wars such as there have never been on Earth before." His death in Weimar, Germany, on Aug. 25, 1900, prevented him from witnessing the accuracy of his predictions. So he did not deny the existence of God, he just saw the failure of the Christian religion and secular ideologies. There are more historical misunderstandings like this one. And they are essential to be understood and analysed in order to find the truth.

Picture 5.Nietzsche founded his morality on what he saw as the most basic human drive, the will to power. Nietzsche criticised Christianity and other philosophers' moral systems as "slave moralities" because, in his view, they chained all members of society with universal rules of ethics. Nietzsche offered, in contrast, a "master morality" that prized the creative influence of powerful individuals who transcended the common rules of society.

Another amazing figure in European history, if we go deeper, is Socrates (470-399 BC.), who was a rebel against the society of Athens and a teacher of many important Greek philosophers and politicians. He was appreciated by the people and neglected by the regents and accused of denying the "Gods", still his last words, when he was poisoned were: "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways--I to die, and you to live. Which is better, God only knows." Goethe was a believer too:

Picture 6. Goethe (1749-1832) is the most influential poet in European history and was not only a firm believer but had written a detailed report on his travels through the Muslim world in his youth called "Westoestlicher Divan" which includes poems of praise and a clear commitment to Islam as the true religion and original form of all religions. This fuelled his inspiration for the rest of his life. He is the author of "Faust".

Picture 7. Sir Francis Bacon, who was a great poet, writer, scientist and politician of the 17th century, repeatedly expressed his admiration for the pioneering and dominating culture and religion of the Saracens in Spain. In a similar way as Goethe he expressed his praise of Islam in prose and poetry repeatedly throughout his life. Today it is commonly said that he was a secular scientist. It is much more true that he opposed the Christian churches.