Religion and Science - Essay Example

Task Religion and Science Religion and science, today, go hand in hand. They relate in a way that one needs the other in order to relate with the day-to-day activities that the church runs and to teach the followers on how to live and still hold a religious life despite the developments of technology worldwide. The relationship is explainable by considering the four principles raised by Theologian Ian Barbour. He expounds on the four principal ways in which science relates to faith with the look at conflicts, independence, dialogue and integration.

Although, these relate in operation, they are at opposites for all this time. There are have arisen conflicts between the two with one looking at the other to be in the wrong side of belief. To this extent, science identifies itself as the fundamental principle of life while religion also considers the fact of being the fundamental principle of life, which follows by the criticisms of each other that have seen a brewing conflict ensue. In his principles, he also sees science and religion as two worlds that run apart.

It is evident by the dominant spheres, which each aims at dominating. Science aims for the physical world while religion aims at the spiritual life. There are issues believed in that science, religion can dialogue and reach a consensus, and discuss at their general points the boundaries established in each. These are all due to their independence and unending conflicts. Explaining the debate on the origin of the earth where science believes to some extent that it might originate as God’s creation while religion supports the origin of it from God.

The creations in the world are what create the difference and lead to conflicting. The integration aspect expects that science and religion can reach a general point since they depend on each other. The two aspects of dialogue and integration reflect more on the relationship that science shares with religion. That science provides data and other aspects of helping religion enrich its target population and religion too helps science control conditions and creates a basis for reference. Religion and science are dominantly different and though there are conditions that are putting them together; they have not yet succeeded in exploring the differences between the two.

In the past, natural sciences vastly invested into religious meanings that led to many antireligious results that held no religious significance. A difference has existed that has held over time. This difference has seen a shift in boundaries with time. A nineteenth century evolutionist Henry Drummond stated “it was wrong to speak of reconciling Christianity with evolution since the two are one" (John 45). He believed that Christianity was one to development since it explained the origin of humanity that science has still failed to explain specifically.

In the past, the world believed in myths and they used to relate the people with a way of living. A myth believed as a narrative that essentially explains human beings and what they believe. It explains the way the world works and where human beings belong. In explaining this historically, four essential functions are evident. They include, vitalizing, rendering of a cosmology, the support of the current social order and the last relates to the initiation of an individual into the realities of the world and his believe.

These features explain the current position of science and religion that are still baffling the world today.Work CitedBrooke, John. Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Print.