Chapter  3: Science and Religion

What is the view of religion from the scientific perspective?

Some believe that they are opposed to one another in some fundamental way.

READ: Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, Anthropology of Religion.  William H. Swatos Jr.

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Science.htm

Some have characterized it as a war between Science and Religion!   Some characterize the relationship as involving irreconcilable differences.  Is this the best manner in which to portray the relationship?  It is not necessarily the most accurate view of the relationship. 

While some people believe that scientists must be atheists and non-religious and that any religious person who studies science will lose faith or be sorely tempted to abandon religion, the actual state of affairs is that there are many scientists all over the world who participate in in all the traditions of the world's living religions.  In fact there are religious people who attempt to use scientific theory and scientific method to provide support for some of their religious beliefs.  There are also members of religious orders who practice science as well as their religion.  What was the situation wherein there was once a "war" between science and religion and no possibility for compromise?  What has occurred that has led to the current situation in which science and religion coexist and can be accepted simultaneously by many individuals?  This is the subject matter for this chapter.

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