The Myth of Science vs Religion

Discussion on one of my favorite topics:

The Myth of Science vs Religion

What I have learned from reading strings of books as well as conversations on the topic, is that God and science truly go hand-in-hand. I remember watching those anthropomorphic apes on "Planet of the Apes" discuss how they must cover up all evidence of preexisting civilization because it would unwind the very fabric of their religion. Obviously, humanity has been fighting this bigotry since the inception of "The Church".

Why must science and religion be pitted against another? Scientists from Einstein to Sagan argued that they are not separate but inseparably intertwined. To me, this only makes since as well. Science is the observation of the surrounding universe that we call our home. It is in essence the study of where God has given us to live.

It is an enormous place to explore (14 billion light years across). In fact, it is possible that it is an infinitely large place to live! We will probably never know for sure because we would have to "leave" the universe to find out. What does this make me think? Why the exuberance?

That's God for you! First, he makes the universe (Heaven and Earth). Then eventually he makes us; creatures with high capabilities and an unquenchable curiosity! We oh so want to know everything (he made us in his image). What is over that next hill? On top of all of this, He made it so that the very boundary of space as we know it (the edge of the universe) is fleeing away from us at every second of everyday; and it's accelerating.

This gives me pause. Maybe it will be possible to explore the outer universe someday given our lust for knowledge and technology. Just maybe God knew this would eventually happen (He is all knowing and created us to be this way). Possibly the fact that the universe is exponentially expanding is His ultimate riddle to solve (albeit in the ultra future). I believe He challenges us; personally and on the grander scale. He has set the bar high. This only means He has high expectations for us.

We will never know everything. This is truly impossible. We are not meant to. Even if someday we invent faster-than-light engines and explore the entire universe, we still will have questions. What might those questions be? If history teaches us anything, it's that it repeats itself.

Plato pondered (over 347 years before Christ) what it meant to exist. Many people take their existence for granted. These folk are distracted by their everyday existence: what to eat, wear, and how to be entertained. Does everybody do these things? Yes. Does everybody ponder the question of why they do these things? Undoubtedly, no. What does it mean to live? What is the purpose?

If the purpose of life is just to eat, drink, breathe and propagate, then we are indistinguishable from the lowest of animals. But we aren't. We have evolved brains; specifically, our cerebral cortex. We have art, science, religion and needs beyond the range of survival. We have a need to know. We invented the phrase, "curiosity killed the cat," and yet we risk our very lives for this curiosity (i.e. astronauts, spelunkers, divers, journalists).

But why do we do it? Why must we know? I believe it is because we are truly made in His image. We will never know everything; but we will not stop trying!

Back to Plato. He scribed out these words, "There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good." This, of course, means that if there were no evil, good could not exist. (i.e. there is no cold without heat). This is the balance of existence. To measure good is to measure the lack of evil and vise versa. There can be no knowledge without lack of it. Everything, in essence, is measurable by comparing it to it's opposite. So, what is the opposite of what we are?

We are nothing if not curious creatures, so to deny this curiosity is to deny that of whom we are. Put simpler, our life equals curiosity; so it's opposite is not death, but the squandering of our curiosity. How are babies able to learn so much, so fast? They are full of life (curiosity)! Why do we get so enclosed in our mindsets as we age? We progressively lose this curiosity. It is truly sad. This could be viewed as a natural process, although I believe it to be tied more closely with our cultural and societal influence to belong to a group.

Towards our last days on Earth, we have beaten down our curiosity. We know that we do not know everything, but have come to terms with what we have learned. No Christian on his death bed is going to convert and become a traveling monk. It's not a safe bet after spending a lifetime of pondering that religion. To this person, questions remain, but no longer matter. Death impending, the fight is over. Curiosity has lost. Programmability has won.

Galileo stood trial for heresy and would have been executed if he had not recanted. Curiosity nearly killed the cat. Even though he probably still believed what he had discovered, programmability had won. If just one of those accusers had simply looked through his telescope, that would have seen the truth for themselves. Instead, they chose to blind themselves with the comfort of knowing that they were right. Denying the basic curiosity instilled in themselves, in essence, they casually accepted their own deaths. I once heard a funny saying, "in marriage, you can be right or be happy".

This is true in science as well. It is easy to go with the flow; to be accepted. This is not how ground-breaking insights occur. Rather it is those fringe scientist that always make the discovery. Their eyes are not blinded by what is known. They still have that curiosity that allows themselves to see the truth in all its upside-down glory. Einstein is a great example. Who would have guessed that gravity (an invisible force) can curve and distort empty space and time (also invisible)? He, just like Galileo, was working in a land beyond the common man's curiosity.

Shakespeare put it best, "to be, or not to be. That is the question." I'll para phrase, "to be curious (and live) or not to be curious (and die). It is the question as well as the answer! That is what it means to exist; to be able to question one's existence is existence. It is every body's choice at every given juncture in life to accept or to question.

Einstein questioned the simplest of ordinary things. Some would say, likened to the way a child would. As stated earlier, this is the way to live. Does a child know a red-hot surface will burn it's hand if touched? Not until that moment when the experiment takes place. This is how we learn, by trial and error. Unfortunately, pain is not a good teacher! But we overcome it anyway. Think of the same child trying to learn to walk. Falling down hurts, but still babies do eventually learn to walk. However, this is only physical pain. Emotional pain from being a fringe scientist hurts worse and takes a worse toll.

They study their entire lives and aspire to become a ground-breaking scientist out of the very text books they are made to read. Then, as they focus on a theory that is not widely acceptable to the mainstream, they are outcast. It hurts. That is the reason there are so few. Everyone wants to be accepted, admired, and respected. I conjecture that many of these heckling mainstream scientists would be studying wild ideas of their own if not for the stigma of going against what has already laid down before them. In a small way, they have also accepted a part of their deaths. They will never know what could have been because simply because they never asked. Programmability wins again.

I'll paint a visual picture. Say you're walking down a road and you come to a fork; to the left you can see the road branching off in many directions, to the right there is only one path. You decide to take the simpler right-bearing road. Later on your travels, you discover that the path that you had chosen had circled back to the same spot, the fork in the road. You check your map; it says you're supposed to take the right-bearing road. The map depicts the left hand road as dangerous and unknown. Yet, your instinct tells you maybe you should be going left. Sure, you know that the right-bearing road is safe. You've been down that road before; it's all mapped out. But where does it lead to? Nowhere except back again to this same spot. Now suppose you're not alone on your travels. Your friends are all beckoning you to take the right-bearing road. You plead with them to trust your instinct and take the other. They reply, "You'll get lost on that road! Don't go, it's not on the map!" This is how a fringe scientist must feel.

What then, is too heinous to ponder? Nothing. For in knowing the heinous, we are able to compare it and measure it against it's opposite, the unknown. (to be continued)