“Ever since the dawn of civilization there has been much debate on the
worth and dignity of science and religion; the intellectuals, philosophers,
thinkers are divided even today on the conflicting belief in the matter of
supremacy of one over the other”.
With the rapid progress made by science and technology in the recent past, the conflict
between the two widens further. Science, on the one hand, concludes the
theories based on experiments and analytical logic, while religious theories
are based on experience, meditation, and blind faith. Science deals with things
objectively, while religion is a subjective matter. In the present age of rapid
growth in scientific advancements in all walks of life, the future history
would depend on the way of living of the new generation to reconcile the
conflict between Science and
Religion.
Religion is
mainly a phenomenon of faith, a purely subjective topic while science is based
totally on reasoning and analytically proving the concepts based on laboratory
or mechanical experiments. Science always speaks the truth in crude language
and absolute terms, while religion speaks in poetic and touching sentiment.
Science has the credit for all the material progress made in the world,
religion enjoys the credit of providing mental peace and solace in the world,
where everyone is mortal. Through science one can amass uncountable wealth,
unimaginable luxuries, all material and physical things, that he needs to make
him more efficient, quicker, more important in the eyes of others, but the
mental solace, the self-respect, the internal peace, he can secure only through
the religion. Science gives luxuries and materialistic living to a man, while
religion gives him peace of mind.
Bernard Shaw once said, “life
will lose its charm when faith is replaced by cold scientific reason.”
Many great scientists, scholars, political leaders, writers
have given them credit for their achievements to the Almighty, a supernatural
being, it shows that religion is not an unimportant concept to throw away.
There is no weightage for moral and ethical values in the materialistic world
created by scientific inventions and discoveries, but without moral and ethical
values, the world becomes a self-destructive entity. By pushing a button of
nuclear warhead the whole world or the whole civilization may face destruction;
science is not going to tell you the consequence of the act of pushing a button
but it is the moral and ethical values imbibed in a man because of his faith in
a religion, which prevent him to push such a button as it can destroy the
beautiful creature of living being created by the will of Almighty.
The approach of science towards life is crude, monotonous,
lifeless, devoid of feelings of love, emotions, while on the other hand,
religion approaches life with animation, with feelings of faith, love towards
all human beings, faith in self, and faith in the Omnipotent, Omnipresent a
Superbeing. According to religion the existence of man is by the will of God’,
all the bad or good happens only by the will of’ God’, while science rejects
all these concepts and believes that the birth of a child is the result of a
sexual relationship between the man and woman. Science has been able to cure
several incurable diseases, but unable to conquer the inevitable death. Science
can’t tell us the reason and cause of-birth of the soul. Science can’t solve
many mysteries of the world. Religion gives us answers to the above questions,
but that is unable to be proved, as, in religion, things are based on faith and
belief and can’t be justified and proved scientifically.
Swami Vivekananda in his speech at the Parliament of
Religions held in Chicago in 1893 said, “Science
is nothing but the finding of unity. As soon as science would reach perfect
unity, it would stop further progress, because it would reach the goal. Thus
chemistry could not progress further when it would discover one element out of
which all others could be made. Physics would stop when it would be able to
fulfill its services in discovering one energy of which all the others but
manifestations and the science of religion becomes perfect when it would
discover ‘Him’ who is the one living in a universe of death., ‘Him’ who is the
constant basis of an ever-changing world, one who is the only soul of which all
souls are but delusive manifestations. Thus it is through multiplicity and
duality that the ultimate unity is reached. Religion can go no farther, this is
the goal of all sciences. All Sciences are bound to come to this conclusion in
the long run. Manifestation and not creation is the word of science today.”
According to religious philosophy, “Everything that is in this Universe has been created by the ‘Almighty’
and there lives a ‘Soul’ an invisible thing in the body of every human being.
‘God’ and soul are eternal and immortal. The body of man is mortal, on the
death of a person, it is the body that is destroyed, the soul just takes charge
of a new body in the womb of a lady. The science does not accept the existence
of ‘Soul’ or `God’ and does not believe in ‘Rebirth’ etc.”
The diversities prevailed in various concepts of different
religions and the selfish interests of the head of the different protagonists
of religion, turn out the havens of superstitions and unscientific, illogical
traditions, rituals, made the religion a hegemony of some people.
Untouchability, division of society based on birth, caste, and creed, has
caused a great loss to the civilized world. The organized war had taken place
among the followers of different religions to satisfy the lust for power,
killing thousands of innocent lives, and thus the basic concept of religion was
totally betrayed. Religion is a pious concept, contemplated to infuse moral and
ethical values in the human being to spread love, peace, and fraternity among
the civilized world.
Science and Religion are an altogether different concept.
Science deals with materialistic progress of the world, needed to arrange
physical things necessary for the comfort, luxury for the man, while Religion
in true sense deals exclusively for the peace of mind, for the internal solace,
for the spiritual advancement of the man, for the good of all concept.
“Now first arose desire, the primal seed of mind. Sages, searching in
their hearts by wisdom, found the bond between existence and non-existence.”
—A German Philosopher
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