originally posted in:Secular Sevens
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Personally, I find the idea of simultaneous support for both religion and science wholly incompatible. Here's my thought process:
- Scientists support the [url=http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/overview_scientific_method2.gif]scientific method[/url].
- Faith-based religion conflicts with the scientific method, as religion skips/ignores steps in the scientific method.
- One cannot support the scientific method while simultaneously supporting faith-based religion.
One cannot truly support both science and religion; you're compromising your support in one or the other.
Thoughts? Explain your position.
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I think that the two are not mutually exclusive. A scientist can be religious and scientific at the same time, but you just have to be careful that your religious views don't get in the way of science. If an experiment directly contradicts something that the Bible or whatever holy book you claim to be true, you must take a look to see if your interpretation of the holy book is true and accurate, if the passage was speaking in allegorical or metaphorical terms, or if there is any other reason why your interpretation might be wrong. If you have decided inconclusively that a passage 100% contradicts a scientific fact, you need to rethink your world view. There is nothing wrong with believing something that is inherently unknowable. What I do believe is that the "god of the gaps" has cast a seriously bad reputation on Christianity. Unfortunately, a wide majority of Christians seem to cater to this type of belief. It gives me personally a bad reputation, because people will automatically think that I think like that the second I tell them I'm Christian, even before they get to know me. The Bible tells us that we must learn from nature and heed to its teachings, but many Christians misinterpret these types of passages into this mindset that if we don't know how something works, God must be doing it. So my bottom line is that yes, they can intertwine, but you must be careful that you are taking everything from an objective point of view, and not letting what others have taught you get in the way of an open mind.