Science religion

Historians of science and of religion, philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others from various geographical regions and cultures have addressed various aspects of the relationship between religion and science. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern understandings of 'science' or of 'religion', certain elements of modern ideas on the subject recur throughout history. The pair-structured phrases 'religion and science' and 'science and religion' first emerged in the literature in the 19th century. This coincided with the refining of 'science' (from the studies of 'natural philosophy') and of 'religion' as distinct concepts in the preceding few centuries - partly due to professionalization of the sciences, the Protestant Reformation, colonization, and globalization. Since then the relationship between science and religion have been characterized as conflict, harmony, complexity, or mutual independence.Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and action: it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between facts. According to this interpretation the well-known conflicts between religion and science in the past must all be ascribed to a misapprehension of the situation which has been described.Science and religion are based on different aspects of human experience. In science, explanations must be based on evidence drawn from examining the natural world. Scientifically based observations or experiments that conflict with an explanation eventually must lead to modification or even abandonment of that explanation. Religious faith, in contrast, does not depend on empirical evidence, is not necessarily modified in the face of conflicting evidence, and typically involves supernatural forces or entities. Because they are not a part of nature, supernatural entities cannot be investigated by science. In this sense, science and religion are separate and address aspects of human understanding in different ways. Attempts to put science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist.I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge.The Holy Quran directs attention towards science, time and again, rather than evoking prejudice against it. The Quran has never advised against studying science, lest the reader should become a non-believer; because it has no such fear or concern. The Holy Quran is not worried that if people will learn the laws of nature its spell will break. The Quran has not prevented people from science, rather it states, 'Say, 'Reflect on what is happening in the heavens and the earth.'' (Al Younus) By tradition: Historians of science and of religion, philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others from various geographical regions and cultures have addressed various aspects of the relationship between religion and science. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern understandings of 'science' or of 'religion', certain elements of modern ideas on the subject recur throughout history. The pair-structured phrases 'religion and science' and 'science and religion' first emerged in the literature in the 19th century. This coincided with the refining of 'science' (from the studies of 'natural philosophy') and of 'religion' as distinct concepts in the preceding few centuries - partly due to professionalization of the sciences, the Protestant Reformation, colonization, and globalization. Since then the relationship between science and religion have been characterized as conflict, harmony, complexity, or mutual independence. Both science and religion are complex social and cultural endeavors that vary across cultures and have changed over time. Most scientific (and technical) innovations prior to the scientific revolution were achieved by societies organized by religious traditions. Ancient pagan, Islamic, and Christian scholars pioneered individual elements of the scientific method. Roger Bacon, often credited with formalizing the scientific method, was a Franciscan friar. Hinduism has historically embraced reason and empiricism, holding that science brings legitimate, but incomplete knowledge of the world and universe. Confucian thought, whether religious or non-religious in nature, has held different views of science over time. Most 21st-century Buddhists view science as complementary to their beliefs. While the classification of the material world by the ancient Indians and Greeks into air, earth, fire and water was more philosophical, and proto-scientists like Anaxagoras impiously questioned certain popular views of Greek divinities, medieval Middle Eastern scholars used practical and experimental observation to classify materials. Events in Europe such as the Galileo affair of the early-17th-century, associated with the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, led scholars such as John William Draper to postulate (c.  1874) a conflict thesis, suggesting that religion and science have been in conflict methodologically, factually and politically throughout history. Some contemporary scientists (such as Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Peter Atkins, and Donald Prothero) subscribe to this thesis. However, the conflict thesis has lost favor among most contemporary historians of science. Many scientists, philosophers, and theologians throughout history, such as Francisco Ayala, Kenneth R. Miller and Francis Collins, have seen compatibility or interdependence between religion and science. Biologist Stephen Jay Gould, other scientists, and some contemporary theologians regard religion and science as non-overlapping magisteria, addressing fundamentally separate forms of knowledge and aspects of life. Some theologians or historians of science, including John Lennox, Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme and Ken Wilber propose an interconnection between science and religion, while others such as Ian Barbour believe there are even parallels. Public acceptance of scientific facts may sometimes be influenced by religious beliefs such as in the United States, where some reject the concept of evolution by natural selection, especially regarding human beings. Nevertheless, the American National Academy of Sciences has written that 'the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith',a view endorsed by many religious denominations. The concepts of 'science' and 'religion' are a recent invention: 'religion' emerged in the 17th century in the midst of colonization and globalization and the Protestant Reformation, 'science' emerged in the 19th century in the midst of attempts to narrowly define those who studied nature. Originally what is today known as 'science' was pioneered as 'natural philosophy'. Furthermore, the phrase 'religion and science' or 'science and religion' emerged in the 19th century, not before, due to the reification of both concepts. It was in the 19th century that the terms 'Buddhism', 'Hinduism', 'Taoism', 'Confucianism' and 'World Religions' first emerged. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin roots of both science (scientia) and religion (religio) were understood as inner qualities of the individual or virtues, never as doctrines, practices, or actual sources of knowledge. It was in the 19th century that the concept of 'science' received its modern shape with new titles emerging such as 'biology' and 'biologist', 'physics', and 'physicist', among other technical fields and titles; institutions and communities were founded, and unprecedented applications to and interactions with other aspects of society and culture occurred. The term scientist was first coined by the naturalist-theologian William Whewell in 1834 and it was applied to those who sought knowledge and understanding of nature. From the ancient world, starting with Aristotle, to the 19th century, the practice of studying nature was commonly referred to as 'natural philosophy'. Isaac Newton's book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), whose title translates to 'Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy', reflects the then-current use of the words 'natural philosophy', akin to 'systematic study of nature'. Even in the 19th century, a treatise by Lord Kelvin and Peter Guthrie Tait's, which helped define much of modern physics, was titled Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867). It was in the 17th century that the concept of 'religion' received its modern shape despite the fact that ancient texts like the Bible, the Quran, and other sacred texts did not have a concept of religion in the original languages and neither did the people or the cultures in which these sacred texts were written. In the 19th century, Max Müller noted that what is called ancient religion today, would have been called 'law' in antiquity. For example, there is no precise equivalent of 'religion' in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities. The Sanskrit word 'dharma', sometimes translated as 'religion', also means law or duty. Throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a similar union between 'imperial law' and universal or 'Buddha law', but these later became independent sources of power. Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of 'religion' since there was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning, but when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea.