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SCIENCE AND RELIGION: EXPLORATION OF THE CORRELATION
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Author(s):
DR. VIKRAM SINGH
Vol - 7, Issue- 11 ,
Page(s) : 6 - 15
(2016 )
DOI : https://doi.org/10.32804/IRJMST
Abstract
The relationships between ‘Science and Religion’ has been a subject of continuous discussion among scholars in recent years. In the present article it has been endevoured to analyze and discussed this relationship. These two great cultural forces have multi-faceted relations which have been evolved as a historical phenomena since ages as philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others have studied them as a subject. Science and religion are complex subjects and it is very difficult to define them, however, we may define science is the observation, experimental investigation, theoretical explanation of phenomenon, activities based on the study of an object and mainly based on the facts as well as it can be proved by scientific analysis. Science cannot be explained on the basis of supernatural phenomenon as it has no evidence. On the other hand, religion may be defined as it is a supernatural belief in which human being worships superhuman power i.e. God or goddess. Moreover, science and religion are complementary as science examines the natural worldscientifically, while religion involves to the spiritual as well as a supernatural phenomenon.
- Science and Creationism, A View from the National Academy of Sciences, 2nd Edition (National Academy Press, 1999).
- National Center for Science Education. Voices for evolution.Retrieved December 29, 2008.
- Popper, K., Conjectures and Refutations, p. 257 (1963).
- Teaching About Evolution And The Nature of Science (National Academy of Press, 1998). Also see, Science and Creationism, A View from the National Academy of Sciences, 2nd Edition (National Academy Press, 1999). Alters B., Alters S., Defending Evolution (2001).
- Stenmark, Mikael (2004). How to Relate Science and Religion: A Multidimensional Model. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. ISBN 080282823X.
- Francisco José Ayala(born March 12, 1934) is aSpanish-American evoutionary biologist and philosopher. He is known for his research on population and evolutionary genetics, and has been called the “Renaissance Man of Evolutionary Biology.”
- Kenneth R. Miller (born 1948) is a Biology professor at Brown University who wrote Finding Darwin’s God ISBN 0-06-093049-7.
- Francis Collins (born 1950): is the current director of the National Institutes of Health and former director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute. He has also written on religious matters in articles and the book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
- Stephen Jay Gould (1941—2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation.
- Gould, S. J., Rock of Ages, (1999).
- John Carson Lennox ( Born: November 7, 1943 ) is a Northern Irish mathematician, philosopher of science, Christian apologist, and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.
- Thomas Berry, C.P., ( 2009—2014) was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian.
- Brian Thomas Swimme (Born: 1950 ) is a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology to graduate students in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program.
- Kenneth Earl “Ken” Wilber II (Born: January 31, 1949 ) is an American writer, philosopher, and public speaker. He has written and lectured about philosophy, sociology, ecology, developmental psychology, spirituality, and mysticism.
- Ian Barbour (1923–2013): Physicist who wrote Christianity and the Scientists in 1960, and When Science Meets Religion ISBN 0-06-060381-X in 2000.
- Robert Grosseteste (1175–1253), Bishop of Lincoln, he was the central character of the English intellectual movement in the first half of the 13th century and is considered the founder of scientific thought in Oxford. He had a great interest in the natural world and wrote texts on the mathematical sciences of optics, astronomy and geometry. He affirmed that experiments should be used in order to verify a theory, testing its consequences and added greatly to the development of the scientific method.
- Roger Bacon (c.1214–1294) was an English philosopher who emphasized empiricism and has been presented as one of the earliest advocates of the modern scientific method. He joined the Franciscan Order around 1240, where he was influenced by Grosseteste. Bacon was responsible for making the concept of “laws of nature” widespread, and contributed in such areas as mechanics, geography and, most of all, optics.
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a Catholic canon who introduced a heliocentric world view. In 1616, in connection with the Galileo affair, this work was forbidden by the Church “until corrected”. Nine sentences representing heliocentricism as certain had to be either omitted or changed. This done, the reading of the book was allowed. Only in 1835 the original uncensored version was dropped from the Index of Prohibited Books.
- Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) was a Italian philosopher, priest, and cosmologist, known for espousing the idea the that Earth revolves around the Sun and that many other worlds revolve around other suns. For his many heretical views, including his denial of the divinity of Christ, he was tried by the Roman Inquisition and burned at the stake. The Catholic Encyclopedia labels his system of beliefs “an incoherent materialistic pantheism.”
- Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was a scientist who had many problems with the Inquisition for defending heliocentrism in the convoluted period brought about by the Reformation andCounter-Reformation. In regard to Scripture, he took Augustine's position: not to take every passage too literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history.
- Origins, NC Documentary Service 16 (1986), 122. See also The Galileo Affair: A Meeting of Faith and Science, eds. G. B. Coyne, M. Heller, and J. Zycinski (Vatican: SpecolaVaticana, 1985). National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), on 1992-OCT-31.
- René Descartes (1596–1650) was a key thinker of the Scientific Revolution. He did important work on geometry and is honoured by having the Cartesian coordinate system used in plane geometry and algebra named after him. His Meditations on First Philosophy partially concerns theology and he was devoted to reconciling his ideas with the dogmas of Catholic Faith to which he was loyal.
- Robert Boyle (1627–1691 a prominent scientist and theologian who argued that the study of science could improve glorification of God. A strong Christian apologist, he is considered one of the most important figures in the history of Chemistry.
- John Ray (1627–1705): English botanist who wrote The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation. (1691) The John Ray Initiativeof Environment and Christianity is also named for him.
- Simpson, G. G., The Meaning of Evolution, (1967) p.345. Also see, Miller, K. and Levine, R., Biology (1995).
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science
- Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p.131, p. 138 and p. 287. Also see, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Divine Philosophy, p. 26
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