Well, we’ve talked about the fight between scientists, the fight between scientists and religion, and today we have to talk about science and religion, but more importantly about religion and faith. And while you may think they are interchangeable, they are not.
Science tries to prove everything without the use of mysticism to cover certain areas that can’t be explained. Religion uses mysticism to fill those holes by putting God (and I’m still going with God, Goddess, deity of your choice) into the gaps and declaring that it was all divine concept. And keep in mind, no matter what you believe in, what religion or faith you have, it all is included in mysticism. I’m not talking about some wizard snapping his fingers and having a sword appear in a stone. But what is described as happenings is mystical, thus mysticism (a doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding).
First off, while science may have gaps where a cause is unexplainable by other than mystical means, that does not mean that the true cause is mystical, but only that it appears that way based on our level of understanding. It could be that if we were advanced enough, we would be able to understand the science of it completely.
But science hates religion because it is all hocus pocus to them. It feels that those who believe in religion and the word passed down through the ages are being deluded by others in order to control them. I feel part of this is true. At the same time, we have free will, and if whatever we believe in works for us, then so be it.
My take on it is that religion was invented by man. Man came up with the rules of conduct and worship. Now, originally some of these may have come from spirit, from God if you will. But just like anything else, man has built so much onto that foundation that it may not even be recognized as part of the original work.
There are so many different religions, so many different methods of worship even to the same deity, the Judeo/Christian God. Then there are other religions that worship other entities/deities. The point is that somewhere along the line, someone (man) decided that things should be done different, so they devised a new religion. This created the Lutherans, the Baptists, the Mormans, the Methodists, and so forth. Each and every law for each of these religions was devised by man.
Within each group, there are different laws. Some groups of Baptists believe that dancing is a sin. Some groups such as the Pennsylvania Dutch don’t allow technology. But this is not the decree of a higher power. It is a dogma created by man.
For instance, it was part of a religion that if one died in battle for Islam, they would be taken in by Allah. Another blessed all the soldiers before they went off to the crusades, forgiving them of all sins they were about commit (talk about a ‘get out of jail free card’). There has been more violence committed in the name of religion than any other reason. How can this be?
Even the Bible is not much more than a history and teaching text through stories of things that happened. I keep getting told that the Bible was written by God. But it wasn’t. It was written by man, and those men that put down the events, although like all history texts it is biased to a specific viewpoint. Over time, man decided what information to take out and what information to leave in as well as what information to change. (History is always written by the winners.) Now, I am not saying it is bad, but it is not what a lot of people claim it to be. It is said that Jesus taught a lot of spirituality in teaching people how to communicate with God. Most of that was left out of the Bible because it gave more power to the church as the church wanted all people to go through them to seek God.
Religion is a dogma created by man to have different methods to utilize one’s faith in a particular deity. And while religion is referred to as a faith, faith is truly the spiritual belief in some entity much greater than ourselves, a creator, a deity, a source of all things.
Now I am certainly not going to blast any particular religion, nor anyone’s belief in those religions. As in all things, there are a million ways to do everything. I figure that whatever method you find that works for you is good. All I ask is that you give me the same right to believe as I do.
You see, I have faith in something bigger than I am. I am not sure what it is. It may simply be some intelligent energy field that created us whether we want to call it God or Goddess or by any other term. But I have faith that it is there, and in what I do, I feel energies that increase my faith in it. After all, I work in energies, and everything I do and believe in was proven to me to my satisfaction (yes, I truly am a skeptic). But I don’t align myself with any particular religion because I don’t want to deal with the dogma of any of them. I don’t want to be told what to do and how to do it.
But the point is that we start with faith, faith in something greater than ourselves. After that we add our own dogma, or follow someone else’s, and that is called religion. And while I feel that science or scientists may not like religion, most of them do have faith, because they have to see that something greater is a work. And who knows, someday science may advance to the point that it can prove God, but not if they continue to be closed minded about things.