Science versus Religion (A philosophical query)

Religion and science are sometimes thought of to be two separate things, sometimes at such a contrast that they cannot complement each other or inform one another. I believe that they can be compatible that science informs religion and that many religious beliefs are what science is formed around. After all, science is based on theory until proven fact, much like that of faith in many ways. It is not until blind faith is shown or believed to be truth that this religious thought or belief similarly turns from theory to fact.

There are many definitions for science. However, most of them revolve around that to the pertaining of knowledge. Religion on the other hand concerns a set of beliefs that a person such as a monk or devotee may prescribe to. In both scenarios, both the monk and the scientist are believers in a sense. While the scientist is believing in facts about the state of the universe such as natural laws of gravity and physics and how they pertain to his or her existence while the monk is believing in in things concerning his or her religious deities and or way of life.

Another definition of science concerns laws such as natural laws. As previously stated there are laws in science such as the law of gravity. There are also rules when conducting a science experiment that people must follow, in order to achieve an result that is approved by other scientists. Religious people similarly have guidelines to follow or laws as they may be such as, “ Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” and “ Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” They also have guidelines that are set down in a traditional sense such as the order an acolyte lights candles or what rights of passage one must follow in order to join in a community. While the laws might be different in a sense they are also similar because many religious laws can follow what can be proven scientifically and many scientists are studying new things, the unknown, what many religious people have faith in.

While the two are not defined the same looking at the English words can even bear some similarities which I find both interesting and leading to a possible conclusion. Science which is mainly speaking of knowledge and laws such as natural laws can also be looked at further when pertaining to a scientist or one’s self. If the scientist applies his knowledge or work towards a religious cause, or if a religious person, one usually concerned with the unseen concerns himself with knowledge of things that can be proven the two can be working together.

Religious people may be more concerned with how to act and conform to what their views of their God might have them be or do instead of the scientific theory or natural order like a scientist might, but I do not think these two different ways of life necessarily contradict each other. Alsot if the scientist actually makes knowledge, science, or enlightenment to new things their God they are basically conforming to the same thing that the religious person is only by a different name or in a different reality that the religious person is and might even be taking up a religion of their own. So you could say a scientist devoted to his work is really a monk of his own religion, writing theories and following his predecessors instead of transcribing bibles and reciting prayers, he practices memorizing the elements of the Periodic Table. Also when a scientist makes a claim or decides to venture out to prove something they then believe something to be true or possible just like the religious person is about their way of life or their God. So both really have faith and in their personal lives they actually could have similar or identical beliefs, however their exact practices might be different.

I believe that religion is actually a form of science, or possibly that science is a form of religion, that is hard to say. While many religions may be different in many ways they all are surrounded around certain beliefs those that require some faith or practice in order to be actually applied in someone’s life. The scientific view comes in when testing that faith as many evangelicals could tell you that it took many trials of their faith to reach a certain enlightenment or knowledge of God. So one might say that a religious person could really be a scientist learning about God, or a scientist could be religiously devoted to his work. Either way, I think they are compatible and can always help each other out.