Science and Religion

Sometimes there are things from the scientific narrative of life and our existence that doesn't make sense. But to tell you the truth in the age of quantum mechanics, special relativity, thermodynamics, electromagnetic field theory, string theory, etc these relatively new concepts or phenomena require a new form of thinking and a total rewiring of our brains. Because on the surface they do not make sense to a lot of us. Hence, it pains me when preachers some of whom, appear on the surface to be very educated individuals (with their Masters and doctorate degrees, business acumen and experience) and should know better are against science. Going further to ridicule things they do not fully grasp or understand. These preachers go against scientific observations which form the basis of the various conclusions. I think it could be presumptuous and arrogant for a person, to preach that all science is wrong and the theories that science brings forward be it climate change, evolution, etc are nonsense. Without the person presenting their audience with the facts and a fuller picture. But to tell you the truth, I was not totally surprised because I had heard of reports they had told their patients to stop using their anti-viral medication because they had been healed. Without checking with the medical doctors first. (Jesus, who had healed lepers in Luke 17:11-19, told them while healing them in verse 14 "Go shew yourselves unto the priests") Although it could be argued that, the very action of them going to priest healed them, and Jesus wanted them to display faith. But that is another story and not in the scope of the present article. I had also heard of various patients who had suddenly stopped their anti-hypertensive, anticancer, anti-epileptic or anti-diabetic medications after being "healed" leading to "relapse" with devastating results or a fatality.

In the 17th century, Galileo Galilei the father of modern astronomy agreed with Nicolaus Copernicus’s book titled "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) published in 1543 about a century before, on the nature of our solar system. He had seen the way the heavenly bodies were moving via his modified stronger telescope and he propose a heliocentric solar system (the earth and other plants revolves around the sun) as compared to the geocentric (the earth is the center of  solar system and the sun and other planets go round the earth) purposed by Ptolemy in 2.AD. This was the official church stand. In 1610 he pointed his telescope to observe Jupiter and saw 4 moons orbiting the gas giant, these are the 4 largest moons and since have been named the Galilean moons in his honor; Ganymede, Callisto, lo, and Europa. He published 2 books one in 1610 the Starry Messenger (Sidereus Nuncius) and 1635 "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems". In these books, he further explained and demonstrated his heliocentric views. Galileo was "invited" and charged with heresy by the holy inquisition.The 2 charges brought against him

1. The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its place is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scriptures. 
2. The proposition that the earth is not the center of the world, nor immovable, but that it moves, and also with a diurnal action, is also absurd, philosophically false, and, theologically considered, at least erroneous in faith.

Galileo did recant after seeing the torture rack which they had "kindly" showed to him, as being 69 years and suffering from arthritis. He remained under house arrest for the rest of his life forbidden to teach his heresy, he died as a heretic in 1642 after 8 years afterward at the age of 77. In November 1992,  359 years after the fact the Catholic Church, at a ceremony, before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II officially declared that Galileo was right in "adopting the Copernican astronomical theory". 



But the Christian church had a fixed belief based on scripture. With the invention of the telescope that people could actually see it for themselves, the church had to revisit its interpretation of the scriptures. Now, the heliocentric solar system is generally accepted. What we would say of the interpretation of the scripture, did they get it wrong? In the 13th century St Thomas Aquinas was said to have melded Aristotle and Christianity. Because the Bible had given the impression of a fixed earth. 1 Chronicles  16:30, Psalm 96:10, Psalm 104:5, Isiah 45:10 (the earth is treated as being center and fixed). While in the book of Joshua, Joshua 10:13 the sun and the moon stood still. He confirmed the church standing on this matter. The church had interpreted the scriptures literally as they were written down. Obviously, they had got it wrong.

But since then we were able to use the mobile phones, use satellites, send people to the Moon, send probes to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, landed on a comet (as it journey round the sun) etc based on his heliocentric model. The calculations involved are so complex that if the science was wrong we would have known.

The scientific process is a method by which with asking questions and testing them. Science continually asks questions and these big questions lead to smaller questions. Which could be tested and these hypotheses are tested vigorously by many people under different conditions. Resulting in the scientist to draw a conclusion, but this is not the end as they would revisit the result and see whether they could reach the same conclusion under the same condition. Also, they test if they could reach a different conclusion by altering the preconditions. When these questions are answered, they are often able to produce an equation to explain their findings with calculus. Like till the early part of the 20th-century scientists were able to explain most things based on Newtonian laws. But quantum mechanics brought us to a different level, in the nature and structure of an atom. That light behaves as a particle and a wave at the same time (wave-particle duality). Or concepts like Schrödinger's cat use to explain the superposition of even smaller particles, in which the cat is both alive and dead at both time until it is observed. Then we have the theory of special relativity and the fact time is relative, which means time travel is theoretically possible. Then there is string theory that is stated that it is not only our universe but there are different universes occupying the same place but in different dimensions, a kind of multiverse (level 3), parallel universes, the vastness of space, etc. These thing will be difficult to explain to a pre-industrial age population and I believe that why the bible does appear cryptic sometimes as there are some concepts we do not yet understand.

Also there are issues on what precisely the bible was saying or is it our interpretation of them. Languages from different ages when a language separated by just a few years changes dramatically. Then there are variants in areas so our interpretation of the scriptures should be taken as such. I believe that bible is a scriptural book and of life. It should not to be treated as a science textbook as they had done in the past. A lot of truth can be found in the pages of the holy book.