Question:
Can Christianity and Science combine together?
Curious
2015-10-03 10:23:27 UTC
I'll stick with the facts. A Belgian priest named Georges Lemaître looked through a telescope and discovered that galaxies moved far away from each other so assumed that at one point, these galaxies had to be near each other because obviously, if a person goes far away from a person, at one point he was nearer because how can you get farther if you can get nearer. This theory, which we all like to call the big bang, happened to stem from a thought of a Belgian PRIEST. We don't know if it's true or not but a priest came up with it. As for Einstein, Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: "Firmly denying atheism, Einstein expressed a belief in "Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the harmony of what exists." This actually motivated his interest in science, as he once remarked to a young physicist: "I want to know how God created this world, I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details." Einstein's famous epithet on the "uncertainty principle" was "God does not play dice" - and to him this was a real statement about a God in whom he believed. A famous saying of his was "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
Nine answers:
?
2015-10-03 10:34:15 UTC
First off, don't bring einstein into this. Because he made his opinion of christardism Very clear. Second, don't trust a dictionary to explain the views of a real person. Words, yes. People, no. Opinions on people are biased. Here's what he actually thought. "I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal god is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being."



To answer your question, no, science and religion Cannot combine. They can coexist. Religious people can make insights that lead to (and we do actually know that Georges was right btw) accepted theories on reality, but they cannot combine. To accept science, you also have to accept the simple, proven fact that life evolved. Numerous fields of science deal with this fact, but, it directly contradicts christianity. For without adam and eve, which evolution does in fact invalidate entirely, there was no original sin. The was nothing for jesus to die for. The entire basis of christianity Crumbles when you introduce evolution into it.



This isn't however, enough to make people stop believing en mass. Yet. Most people incorrectly assume jesus invalidated the OT. They are wrong, but, it's this misconception that lets them acknowledge adam and eve as a story, and still believe in jesus anyways. This is why the christians who have actually read the bible reject evolution, an enormous part of science, wholeheartedly. They understand that it invalidates their beliefs.



So no, you can't combine them. They simply don't work as a fusion. Coexistence, yes, but not a combination of the two.
marsel_duchamp
2015-10-03 10:28:16 UTC
A person can be a scientist and religious But religion can't enter into the scientific work. Lemaitre objected when the pope brought up the BBT as proof of creation by god. Same for other religions as well. Science begins and ends with natural explanations for observed physical phenomena. No god, spirit, or demon interventions.



And a religious scientist must be prepared to alter his religious beliefs as well when that natural world contradicts what his religion says. If you have never read it I strongly suggest reading "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke that illustrates undeniable mathematical facts shaking the faith of a Jesuit astronomer.
FAT MAN
2015-10-03 10:48:46 UTC
The fact that all galaxies move apart from one another always bothered me, because if you're moving away from one thing, you're moving towards something else.



The fact that the further apart the galaxies are, the faster they move apart, bothered me more. Who ever heard of an explosion that gained momentum the further it moved away from it's original source?



Then I read many verses like these in the Bible:



He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

Jeremiah 51:15



I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, [even] my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

Isaiah 45:12



He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, [and] hangeth the earth upon nothing.

Job 26:7



Etc.



The Bible seemed consistent enough with science, so that now I am comfortable admitting that I fully understand neither.
geessewereabove
2015-10-03 10:30:49 UTC
Science has confirmed every line of history in the Bible by at least three places each!

Science was used to test the Atheists claims make-up since they Lost to God in the Supreme Court back in the 1930s. These tests were finished in 2007 and Everything the Atheists had claimed - tested to be fakes! The oldest fossils was no more than 6,000 years old! Many that the Atheists have lied to be Billions of years old, were Not even fossils, yet very young Bones!
?
2015-10-03 10:27:51 UTC
Real science, absolutely. Christians invented the modern scientific method and fathered virtually every branch of modern science. Look at what the inventor of vaccination and father of immunology, Edward Jenner, whose work saved more lives than any other mere mortal had to say:



"I am not surprised that men are not grateful to me; but I wonder that they are not grateful to God for the good which he has made me the instrument of conveying to my fellow creatures."
anonymous
2015-10-03 10:31:21 UTC
Spinoza's god is not the traditional personal god of the Abrahamic religions. Einstein explicitly said he does not believe in a personal god.



“God does not play dice with the universe.” ~ Albert Einstein



"Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen." ~ Stephen Hawking
Sly Phi AM
2015-10-03 10:30:51 UTC
You seem to be ignoring the definition of both science and religion.
Ricardo
2015-10-03 13:15:41 UTC
SO? Monumentally stupid people think they know more than science, that is the problem, not people who can actually think.
anonymous
2015-10-03 10:39:37 UTC
Yes, it can. And it's starting to.


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