When Science and Religion Collide

For centuries, two worlds have argued with their philosophies of the universe: religion and science. 

Religion

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with both sides of this continuously ongoing story. My parents argue sometimes about these theories, my mom on the religion side, and my dad on the science side. Mom’s a Maronite, which is catholic. She does somehow believe in science though, which is fair enough. Dad, however, is an Orthodox. He would consider himself an atheist because of his scientific beliefs.

Now let’s get to the most basic thing the religious and scientists argued about: the creation of the universe. The religion side says that a spiritual being named God created the planets in a week (they actually just said the Earth, Sun, and Moon), with one day of rest which is now known as “Sunday” or the day religious go to the church for mass. The science side, nevertheless, says that the universe was created by a massive explosion called the “Big Bang”, which spilled all the elements of our periodic table from Hydrogen to Oganesson over our universe. That resulted in the composition of chemicals and matter, which resulted in the existence of all things on Earth, including humans.

Science

Both these theories are true to their own sides, but to simply classify, science is the logical evidence, and religion is the spiritual matter. It wasn’t always believed those two could intertwine, but in a way, they can.

One theory where both worlds are on the same page is mindset, beliefs, and thinking. Religious folks say God can forgive your sins when you tell him to. Scientists say you can control what your mind says and you’ll get rid of all the bad memories you’ve had. 

This may be a situation of God vs. psychology, but both sides here say the same thing: You can easily excuse yourself for all the wrong you’ve done to you and others.

Another thing about the two concepts is the fact that one can’t help you in life more than the other. The beliefs in science and/or religion equally result in great success, as logical beliefs can motivate you like God would, giving you an excuse to get something incredible done. For instance, the scientific belief that there’s still a chance global warming can be fixed is equal to the religious belief that there’s still hope for a stop to global warming without any further reasoning.

One final thing is that both rely on people to add new rules or make advances to the concept. In religion, there’s church powers like cardinals, and philosophers. In science, there’s heads of institutions, and of course, scientists (or inventors). They also help answer the big questions of the universe, like “How was the Earth created?”, or the “trillion-dollar question” as my dad calls it: “Why do we exist?”. This proves both have a philosophy.

Religion says that there shouldn’t be a logical explanation for everything, as miracles are miracles and coincidences are coincidences. Science says there should be logic, as there is a cause for every phenomenon, big or small, in the universe. Even though both sides are different, this doesn’t mean they are totally opposite. This means everyone can believe what they want to believe, as long as they keep an eye on what either God or reason has intended for them to do. That’s how science is a religion and religion is a science.