Monday, November 28, 2011

God vs. Science


     Above is an article from the New York Times debating religion and science, and the possibility or impossibility of their coexistence. In 1925, the Butler Act was passed, forbidding the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in any public school or university. This act defended the story of creation in the Bible. However, the American Civil Liberties Union believed that well founded science, even if controversial, should be taught to students. The members of this group claimed the religion should not interfere with science. To contest the Butler Act, John Scopes taught the theory of evolution in his science classes. Thus ensued the Monkey Trial. This trial brought attention to the debate over religion and science. Eventually, William Jennings Bryant and triumphed the the Butler Act was upheld. Today, feverent debate over the blurry lines between religion and science still exists. the above article, written in 2006, calls to mind a provocative question "Can religion stand up in the progress of science?" According to the article, modern scientific research suggests that chemical imbalances in the brian could have been the cause of the ecstatic states of visionary saints. The article suggests that "something called the multiverse hypothesis in cosmology speculates that ours may be but one in a cascade of universes, suddenly bettering the odds that life could have cropped up here accidentally, without divine intervention. (If the probabilities were 1 in a billion, and you've got 300 billion universes, why not?)" However,the pope, cardinals, and bishops argue that the cold, logical, and factual science can never replace religion and the Bible as "a worldview and a touchstone." The author of the article concludes by testifying that science and religion have always and will always clash.