Faith

Science and religion, in principle, are not so far apart. At its most basic level, both science and religion have a strong basis in faith.

“Religious” folks will say, “Well, yeah, dah. That’s what it’s all about." Many scientists’ knee-jerk reaction will be, “What are you talking about? What we do has very little to do with faith. We create hypotheses, test them, and refine existing scientific thinking. Little faith is involved in that.”

However, I would argue that a significant amount of faith is the bedrock of both. Some thoughts to ponder about religious faith:

• Major religions around the world have, as the absolute bedrock of their understanding of the world, a belief in a Creator. The name of that Creator varies from religion to religion, but the major religions believe in a single Creator that created the world, the people in it, and continues to be present in our daily lives. Although this Creator remains unseen on earth, religious believers have faith in the Creator’s existence.
• In order for us to understand some part of the Creator’s plan for us and our world, written texts and oral traditions and teachings are passed down from generation to generation. Believers have faith that these written texts and teachings accurately reflect the Creator’s intent for us on this earth, and serve as a textbook of sorts for us to live “faithfully” during our time here.
• Our time here on earth is but a prelude to something much more significant after our bodies no longer function and we move into the afterlife. If we live lives in faithfulness to our Creator, using the written materials provided as a guide, we are promised our reward in the afterlife. We have little idea what our “reward” might be, as it is written nowhere (or at least in cryptic terms) exactly what will happen, but we have faith in the Creator’s plan for us.

Scientists also take a lot on faith. Scientific thinking has been developed over a long period of time, and they take it on faith that their scientific approach to the world is on solid bedrock. Some thoughts to ponder on scientific faith:

• The Scientific Method (SM) is the bedrock of how work is done in the sciences, and the SM is the only method to use to properly do experimentation to build upon the current state of scientific knowledge and move science forward. They have faith, based on centuries of experience by countless scientists, that this methodology is the best way to expand and improve upon the current state of scientific knowledge.
• The theories that have been developed and repeatedly tested over time, such that they are now termed scientific “laws”, are inviolable descriptions of fundamental, measurable properties of not only the world around us, but the universe as a whole. They have faith that these laws are literally universal, and will apply anywhere in the visible universe.
• Scientific knowledge will continue to move onward toward some inevitable “theory of everything”, in which they will eventually be able to describe all phenomena in the universe according to a testable, provable, scientific set of descriptions. Scientists have faith that such a lofty goal is achievable, and that their life’s work will contribute to that goal in some way.

These are clearly just a very small subset of a much larger group of arguments that can be made about how science and religion are similar in terms of a “faith foundation“. They are illustrative of the ways, in my opinion, that the two are very similar up to a certain point. It’s what you do with that faith, and how that faithfulness manifests itself, that is important.

As a prelude to my next post, it becomes critical to what you do with that faith - scientific or religious - in your life that affects how we all experience life together here on this rocky planet we call Earth. What you do with such issues of faith discussed above, what kinds of conclusions you draw, and how you seek to influence others using those faith assumptions, can be very different.

For good and bad.