Mr. Mouse,

    Which do you choose -- Science or Religion?
                                       
                                                 Alison
               

Socs: First, let’s put aside, just for the moment, the assumption that a choice needs to be made. I believe that honest discussions depend on agreement of definitions. So, let’s define science. The general understanding incorporates knowledge about the natural world, based on facts that are provable. Hopefully, we agree.

Evolution comes under the category of science. So far, so good?

Religion is associated with faith or belief in the existence of a god or gods. This places the topic into the realm of the supernatural, or as I like to say, the transnatural. Different arena, different sphere of thinking. This is where creation belongs.

So we are examining two levels of observation. A definition of observation? Perception: the faculty of being noticed. Science observes natural phenomena and repeated experimentation. Religion also observes historical documents, human experience and effects of faith – minus repeated experiments. And of course, these observations intersect.

Speaking of faith, many scientists validate the logical combination of both science and religion. Opposition is primarily based on each scientist’s worldview, either atheistic, agnostic, or theistic. The conflict is not between science and religion, but between worldviews.

Now we need a definition of worldview. Hopefully we can agree this is a view by which a person sees the world. It’s like a pair of glasses that you look through. The lenses are made up of experiences, teachings, emotions, assumptions, etc. Each of us has them and our mind-sight can be 20-20 or distorted. My recent travel through the Gospel of John, which is captured by Into the Book, has the dust of Jerusalem ground into my lenses. It will take some thinking to decide if my vision of the world is clearer or otherwise.

Now back to your question. I could almost smell the cheese bait and was tempted to reach for my crash helmet. My answer is that there is no division between science and religion, so no choice is needed. What one does need to decide is how to avoid the traps of  "isms" like scientism, humanism, and dogmatism. Here is when choice becomes very important.

This is a rather lengthy response to your inquiry and we have only begun to think about it. The topic requires more discussion which I will address in a future blog.

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