Abstract:
This paper presents an overview of the relationship between religion and science.
It points out that historically religion preceded science, as the limitations of human
intelligence in a bizarre world led man very early to postulate a being considered
ultimate, supreme and worthy of human obeisance and worship. Like religion
and philosophy, science began in wonder: to explore the wonders of nature – of
the physical world. Religion and science are related in that both of them have
perspectives on cosmic reality, even though there are several differences in their
interpretations of reality. It is the different interpretations as well as their methods
at arriving at their truths and conclusions that eventuated in conflicts, conflicts that
actually came to the fore with the emergence of experimental science in and after
the seventeenth century of our era and led to the condemnation by the Catholic
Church of Galileo, the acknowledged founder of modern science. Scientific
theories such as the evolution theory, quantum physics, and some theories of
neuroscience presented challenges to religious doctrines of creation, cosmic order
and intelligibility, divine sovereignty, and human nature. However, there are areas
of integration, such as natural theology and design, order and regularity of nature,
that provide evidence of the existence of God – evidence that is supported by most
scientists. The paper concludes that religion and science are different languages
that ultimately express the same reality or at least present complementary accounts
of reality, and that, given the wonders and mysteries of the created universe and
the limitations of human intelligence, religion and science will continue to be
bedfellows in the twenty first century and beyond.
