Science and Religion

[HarpingHawke]

So, I was wondering: what role does general science play in your religion? Does it play a role at all?
Do your gods figure into your understanding of science, or is it the other way around? Or neither?

Can't wait to see what your answers are!

[baduhmtisss]

So, I was wondering: what role does general science play in your religion? Does it play a role at all?
Do your gods figure into your understanding of science, or is it the other way around? Or neither?

Can't wait to see what your answers are!

While I think this is a pretty good question to ask, generally speaking, I keep Science as Science and Religion as Religion. I don't mix my understandings of them.

I'm fairly new to my own religion, which means there is a lot of aspects I haven't touched on in my practice. The way my religion relates to science, if at all, is something for later on down the road .

[Voren]

So, I was wondering: what role does general science play in your religion? Does it play a role at all?
Do your gods figure into your understanding of science, or is it the other way around? Or neither?

Can't wait to see what your answers are!

 
I actually believe science and religion go hand in hand. Religion could explain what was created, who, when, why, and that sort of thing. It could explain what happens, when and so on, and science could explain HOW things are/were done, all the steps, all the necessary elements that needed to come together. Science can help us better make sense of, and understand how things work, in relation to what religion tells us (no matter what religion it is).

[Juni]

So, I was wondering: what role does general science play in your religion? Does it play a role at all?
Do your gods figure into your understanding of science, or is it the other way around? Or neither?

 
I find them largely irrelevant to one another. Science is about facts. Religion is about truth. Mixing them leads to entirely too much conflation, imo.

[Darkhawk]

I find them largely irrelevant to one another. Science is about facts. Religion is about truth. Mixing them leads to entirely too much conflation, imo.

 
Indeed.  Science is as much a part of my religion as it is a part of my artwork; one can analyse things that way but the results are kind of useless for the relevant function.

[Freesia]

So, I was wondering: what role does general science play in your religion? Does it play a role at all?
Do your gods figure into your understanding of science, or is it the other way around? Or neither?

Can't wait to see what your answers are!

 
The more I learn from science, the more the universe (if there is only one) expands, the greater my respect for spirit/Tao/or whatever it is grows. There is no difference between science and religion for me. Some things are understood by science, some things haven't been tested yet. Just because something can't be explained doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

[Leirion]

So, I was wondering: what role does general science play in your religion? Does it play a role at all?
Do your gods figure into your understanding of science, or is it the other way around? Or neither?

Can't wait to see what your answers are!

I took a whole class on Science and Religion back in undergrad, and was mostly just surprised at how people saw them in conflict. I see them working together, hand in hand at best. At worst, they are not relevant to each other. Science answers the How; Religion answers they Why, kind of thing.

Personally, the more I learn about science, the crazier and weirder things get. I mean, have you read anything about quantum mechanics? Craziness! It really makes the world feel like an even more mysterious place.

[Altair]

I find them largely irrelevant to one another. Science is about facts. Religion is about truth. Mixing them leads to entirely too much conflation, imo.

I'm somewhere between this view and Freesia's. On the "Juni side," I try to keep religion out of my science; it can lead to really bad "science" (f'ex, creationism). But on the "Freesia side", science is one of the big inspirations for my religion, fueling insights and appreciation. After all, as a nature-base pagan, learning more about the workings of every aspect of the universe around me feeds my paganism.

So science ---> religion, yes; religion ---> science, no. As a general rule.

I talked about just this subject in a blog post:
http://www.cfcooper.net/the-jewel-at-the-heart-of-everything

[HarpingHawke]

Personally, the more I learn about science, the crazier and weirder things get. I mean, have you read anything about quantum mechanics? Craziness! It really makes the world feel like an even more mysterious place.

 
Ah, quantum mechanics. I try so hard to understand but it just sort of...slips through my fingers?

But it's really cool too...so torn...

[yewberry]

Ah, quantum mechanics. I try so hard to understand but it just sort of...slips through my fingers?

Much like meeting the Buddha on the road, if anyone tells you they understand quantum mechanics (especially if they aren't, you know, actual physicists), kill them.  

Okay, maybe don't kill them.  But don't believe them, either.

I have no idea if magic will eventually be explained/understood by QM or some other scientific discipline.  I tend to find the conflation irrelevant (and insulting to actual scientists), and it tends to sound disturbingly like Creationists blabbing about science they don't understand.

Brina

[DavidMcCann]

So, I was wondering: what role does general science play in your religion? Does it play a role at all?

No role. Religion and the natural sciences deal with different things, and science mostly deals with rather unimportant things. Wittgenstein remarked that if all the questions that trouble physicists were answered today, all those that concern ordinary people would still be unanswered tomorrow. What's the Higgs boson ever done for me?

[Juni]

I'm somewhere between this view and Freesia's. On the "Juni side," I try to keep religion out of my science; it can lead to really bad "science" (f'ex, creationism). But on the "Freesia side", science is one of the big inspirations for my religion, fueling insights and appreciation. After all, as a nature-base pagan, learning more about the workings of every aspect of the universe around me feeds my paganism.

 
I think there's a fundamental difference between being inspired by science, and utilizing science to attempt to explain and validate religion. And I see the latter far more than I see the former, when the word science is trotted out, so I expect there is some frustration/knee-jerk reaction in there.

[Sefiru]

Ah, quantum mechanics. I try so hard to understand but it just sort of...slips through my fingers?

But it's really cool too...so torn...

Ah, quantum mechanics. I try so hard to understand but it just sort of...slips through my fingers?

But it's really cool too...so torn...

Indeed! It's a particle! It's a wave! It's ... Super-quantum! :p

I have no idea if magic will eventually be explained/understood by QM or some other scientific discipline.  I tend to find the conflation irrelevant (and insulting to actual scientists), and it tends to sound disturbingly like Creationists blabbing about science they don't understand.

Brina

It is a pet peeve of mine when someone tries to use quantum mechanics to "explain" magical practices. I've seen examples of this for Kabbalah and Reiki, I'm sure there are more examples out there. Just because QM is counterintuitive and works differently from familiar physics, does not make it related to magic.

Please, don't get me started on misrepresentation of the Observer Effect.

[Leirion]

Ah, quantum mechanics. I try so hard to understand but it just sort of...slips through my fingers?

But it's really cool too...so torn...

 
I think that is a pretty normal reaction. I feel like I best understand quantum mechanics when I admit that I know absolutely nothing about quantum mechanics. Schrödinger's cat, anyone?

[HarpingHawke]

I think that is a pretty normal reaction. I feel like I best understand quantum mechanics when I admit that I know absolutely nothing about quantum mechanics.

I was reading this book on string theory, right? I started it two years ago but I can't seem to finish it. There's a part of my head that sorta grasps it but then the other parts of my brain are like, "Eff this, it makes not a lick of sense. Go write."

It makes sense and then at the same time, it doesn't at all!

...it's kinda like UPG...:whis: