What's Working Devotions, 10/9/07
Religion and Science are inter-twined with each other and cannot be separated. -- Baha’u’llah
What's Working Devotions is not just for those who come to the Oregon City Community Room. It is also for those who want to participate virtually. This week (10/9/07) we enjoyed the offering of spiritual calling from someone who is participating via ( Read more... )
Science and religion try to do the same thing: answer questions. In fact, science and religion weren't "separated" until fairly recently when many religions became too dogmatic to accommodate scientific understanding.
This dogma reared its ugly head because religion and political power were so tightly intertwined. If either side appeared to vacillate, it threatened their power. Even today, politicians will never take back something nor admit that they were ever wrong because it makes them seem weak. When political power is weak, it is prone to being toppled. This was how "The Crown" ruled Europe under serfdom with incredible gaps between wealth and poverty.
Science occasionally results in developing technology which can better mankind (hmmm... tough point to argue a posteriori). Eventually, technology contributed (or promised to contribute) so much to quality of life that people abandoned the old dogmatic religions altogether. Many religions failed to yield to the growth of mankind, clutching that dogma.
For instance there is no apparent contradiction between creation myths and our understanding of evolution. As Abdul Baha says in Some Answered Questions, God's time is different than man's. It's dishonouring the station of God to interpret Genesis literally as "God created the Heavens and Earth in six days."
I believe in progressive creation, that God is continually creating Heaven and Earth and those "six days" haven't even passed in the sixty ot billion years our universe has existed.
Richard Dawkins calls science and religion "non overlapping magisteria" that, although they both try to answer logical questions, they are incompatible logical structures. Well... the incompatibility is the fault of the limit of man's mind and consciousness. Sometimes the scientist has to embrace the mystic to understand a deeper spiritual meaning to science.
Kant also says the scientist must be an "impartial observer". I think what's important here is knowing that, even if there is prophecy in scripture, man will NEVER be able to predict it correctly. For instance, when Baha'u'llah says, "Split an atom and lo, thou wilt find the sun." This didn't begin our understanding of nuclear energy and fission. Although the words in holy writings never change, our understanding of it does. Naturally.
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