Religion vs. Science

Let me begin by telling you that I am not a scientist. I certainly don't know everything about it, but I do know its basic rules, that the most basic process of the scientific method is hypothesis, then theory after observation, then law after that theory has been repeatedly proven.

Recently, I have been involved in a rather passionate debate with a friend regarding global warming. He is a geology major. I do not claim to know more than him. However, his point of view is rather disturbing. Most recently, he has told me that "religion and science to not belong in the same conversation." He has chosen to attend a state university, which is his choice. That's just fine. However, it is through this fashion that people are deceived by the left-wing agenda, that religion does not belong in our everyday lives.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that our religion should dictate all of our actions, including that of our education and profession. If a scientific theory does not line up with our religion, such as that of evolution, we are encouraged to study why. We are encouraged, even commanded by the Lord, to gain our own testimony of this.

I would contend that science and religion do, in fact, coincide and even compliment each other.
Daniel J. Fairbanks, a BYU professor of botany, gave a speech in 2000 called The Arts, the Sciences, and the Light of the Gospel. In it, he makes some rather compelling statements that argue my point quite well.

I quote part of it, but I certainly encourage my readers to look at the whole text. It's quite enlightening.

For example, Francis Collins, who is the director of the human genome project, one of the greatest scientific undertakings in history, said:

"When something new is revealed about the human genome, I experience a feeling of awe at the realization that humanity now knows something only God knew before. It is a deeply moving sensation that helps me appreciate the spiritual side of life, and also makes the practice of science more rewarding. A lot of scientists really don't know what they are missing by not exploring their spiritual feelings." [Quoted by Gregg Easterbrook, "Science and God: A Warming Trend?" Science 277, no. 5328 (15 August 1997): 892]

A remarkable number of prominent scientists, both past and present, have expressed their own religious feelings, and I think it is appropriate at this university to share some of their writings. As a geneticist, I like to use Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics who was also an Augustinian monk, as an example of an objective scientist who was fully committed to his faith. I have my students read Mendel's classic work because it is such a superb example of scientific experimentation and objectivity. However, Mendel also left us some powerful religious writings. The following is an excerpt from an English translation of a poem he wrote:

Wherefore was man created?

Wherefore did, into a pinch of dust,

An unfathomably exalted Being

Breathe the breath of life? Assuredly

The Most High, who so wisely

Shaped the round world, and who

For his own sage purpose fashioned the worm out of dust

Created man also

For some definite reason. Assuredly

The capacities of the mind

Prove that for it a lofty aim

Is reserved. . . .

But unfading are the laurels of him

Who earnestly and zealously strives

To cultivate his mind,

Who with the full light of his understanding

Seeks and finds the mysterious depths of knowledge,

Of him in whose development the germ

Of glorious discovery implants itself.

[In Hugo Iltis, Life of Mendel, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul (New York: Hafner Publishing Co., 1966), 36–37]

As we study the sciences, we are studying the details of creation. The words of Fyodor Dostoevsky from his classic work of literature The Brothers Karamazov summarize well the message of my devotional:

"Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love." [Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Constance Garnett, in Mortimer J. Adler, ed., Great Books of the Western World (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990), 52:175]

IF God created the earth, and IF He is who He says He is, and He truly knows all things, then certainly, by observing the words of His prophets we can find the truth. Not through science alone, but through living oracles called prophets, and through the Holy Ghost giving is personal revelation.

Don Lind sums it up quite well in his 1986 New Era article, "Things Not Seen" :

Some people have suggested that science and religion are basically different, that they involve themselves in different questions (which is probably true), and that they are incompatible intellectually. I challenge the incompatibility part of that statement. Science and religion use different kinds of tools, but I think they are intellectually compatible, since a person who is well educated can also have a testimony. He need not be ashamed of his testimony, and he need not compromise his intellectual standards when he considers the gospel. As a youth striving to get my own testimony and also as an aspiring scientist, I was overjoyed to find how comfortably they fit together.

I rest my case.