Science vs Religion…again
27 Dec 2011
by everythingbyitsrightname
in Social Commentary
Tags: blame, conflict, fear, logic, religion, science, society
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14944470
This is an interesting article. I have a few things to say about it…
Why, oh why, do people assume over and over again that religion and science have to be mutually exclusive? (Except for fundamentalists who use the Bible as a book of science, but I’m not going into the flaws in that here.)
There are problems that religions cause, when people assume that theirs is the only right one and that everyone should obey their beliefs. There is no doubt that institutionalised religion has caused a lot of atrocities. But maybe it’s a sad fact of reality that human nature alone causes these problems too. There are wars and child abuse and genocides that are not in the name of religion. I’m not saying that’s ok, but I think sometimes we’re too quick to find a scapegoat for all society’s problems. When we look closer, religion does have good things to offer. Religion helps a lot of people get through life, religion has inspired people to help those less fortunate, to set up entire education systems, to give people hope. So there’s a danger that we may throw the baby out with the bathwater if we’re too quick to say religion should be abolished (as if anyone’s decision could bring that about anyway). However, from the perspective of someone who was brought up Catholic and ends up attending Mass on Christmas Day (for the parents’ sake), I believe the church needs a serious overhaul. People are not buying into it anymore; huge changes need to be made if any part of the church is going to survive.
My other issue with this article is that it never mentions the fact that people can be charitable and thoughtful and kind and loving without being guided by a religion. People have a moral compass; they don’t need religion to tell them how to live. Too much of religion and the dogma that goes with it is based on fear – fear of a vengeful god, fear of our own human nature, fear to embrace our humanity.
I think we can learn from both of them – from mistakes and judgments that religion has made, as well as from the love of religious leaders like Jesus, Krishna, Buddha (if you call Buddhism a religion), and so on. We can learn from science how the world works, we can learn to be logical, but we can also realise that we never have the full picture.
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Science vs Religion…again
27 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
by everythingbyitsrightname in Social Commentary Tags: blame, conflict, fear, logic, religion, science, society
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14944470
This is an interesting article. I have a few things to say about it…
Why, oh why, do people assume over and over again that religion and science have to be mutually exclusive? (Except for fundamentalists who use the Bible as a book of science, but I’m not going into the flaws in that here.)
There are problems that religions cause, when people assume that theirs is the only right one and that everyone should obey their beliefs. There is no doubt that institutionalised religion has caused a lot of atrocities. But maybe it’s a sad fact of reality that human nature alone causes these problems too. There are wars and child abuse and genocides that are not in the name of religion. I’m not saying that’s ok, but I think sometimes we’re too quick to find a scapegoat for all society’s problems. When we look closer, religion does have good things to offer. Religion helps a lot of people get through life, religion has inspired people to help those less fortunate, to set up entire education systems, to give people hope. So there’s a danger that we may throw the baby out with the bathwater if we’re too quick to say religion should be abolished (as if anyone’s decision could bring that about anyway). However, from the perspective of someone who was brought up Catholic and ends up attending Mass on Christmas Day (for the parents’ sake), I believe the church needs a serious overhaul. People are not buying into it anymore; huge changes need to be made if any part of the church is going to survive.
My other issue with this article is that it never mentions the fact that people can be charitable and thoughtful and kind and loving without being guided by a religion. People have a moral compass; they don’t need religion to tell them how to live. Too much of religion and the dogma that goes with it is based on fear – fear of a vengeful god, fear of our own human nature, fear to embrace our humanity.
I think we can learn from both of them – from mistakes and judgments that religion has made, as well as from the love of religious leaders like Jesus, Krishna, Buddha (if you call Buddhism a religion), and so on. We can learn from science how the world works, we can learn to be logical, but we can also realise that we never have the full picture.
Like this: