Science
Science versus Religion
Well I just read quite a thought provoking article about the ceaseless and incessant strife between Science and Religion in today’s(Oct 13, 2013) Open Page section of The Hindu and I had to pen down some of my own thoughts. I believe I could be a spokesperson for most part of the educated and civilized mob who are willing to be cognizant about both sides of the coin.
I’ve personally always believed in the line “When in doubt, always go to the basics”. So I decided to go down the rabbit hole and asked myself this very simple question, knowing fully well it’s yet another wild goose chase. How did the concept of Science and Religion originate? The one thing that’s common between the two is us, human beings. Take it one step deeper, it’s fair enough to say both originated only after man started to think. While religion is about acknowledging the unknown, science is about trying to learn the unknown. But the fact remains that the disparate ideas of known and unknown could only be conceived by the human mind. And this conception of ideas by means of humane thoughts is an evolutionary process starting from the early man to the modern day man. Since evolution in itself is a science, is it fair to say that science gave birth to religion? If so, aren’t they meant to co-exist?
One factor that has caused a rift between science and religion is mostly the dominating prevalence of ideologies of the upper echelons of the society. For example, Galileo’s views were ridiculed by the church during his period because of the dominance of it. The Renaissance during it’s peak saw an invigorating growth to the intellectual life, be it art, literature, politics, science etc. in most parts of Europe. Right now, there’s no denying the fact that we’re at a point where the growth curve of science and technology has risen exponentially, while religion somehow still maintains its stronghold. I’m biased to think Science is starting to overshadow religion with its humongous growth. But nevertheless, inexplicable things still continue to happen which leaves science flummoxed for an answer. This is where our belief in the unknown comes in handy to save our day. Pragmatically speaking, we almost always see people praying to God in the face of a problem, no one ever prays to science! Given these circumstances, one would be inclined to think there’s no way we could live without either of them, which is absolutely true. There are scientists who are religious and there are religious people who believe in science. But we’re always consciously biased towards one side, albeit we acknowledge the existence of the other for there’s no conclusive proof that God doesn’t exist.
We also have to be conscious of the fact that both science and religion are nefarious in their own ways. We often tend to attach terrorism with religion and conclude religion is evil. Religion should just be seen as a willingness to gracefully accept the unknown entity, after all there’s not just one religion in the world, which is precisely why it’s a bit overrated too. But the fact remains that the same mind which conceived religion also conceived dynamites, missiles and nerve gas that are being used by countries now as a pretentious display of power.
As the saying goes.. “The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know – the less you know, the more you think you know.” In an ever expanding planet where there are no apparent boundaries for thoughts, we have to make an attempt to expand our mind to accommodate all the realms of possibilities or choose to remain ignorant to it, after all knowledge is wealth, half knowledge is dangerous, but ignorance is bliss!
Topical Storm.. 