Religion not opposed to Science
"In the opinion of the house, Religion is not opposed to Science." I participated in the debate competition organized by Vivekananda Seva Samiti on the above topic, on the dias of Sri Rama Krishna Math, Hyderabad in Feb 1984 for college sudents. I spoke for the topic. The following is the gist of what I spoke. I was presented with a book bt Swami Ranganathananda at the end of the program.
Respected elders and my dear friends,
Before proceeding with the argument that "Religion is not opposed to Science" I would like to place before you my ideas about Religion and Science.
We cannot deny that there is "something" within every being apart from the material composition of the body which is not the body; that which is the source of thoughts and ideas and that which suffers both pains and pleasures. This "something" is what we call the "soul".
Religion says that this soul is divine, infinite truth and immortal. And this soul is clouded by the physical body with worldly passions and ignorance. And true religion is the realization of this divine nature existing in every individual by shattering ignorance and renunciating the worldly comforts. What do we get realizing God? We live in eternal bliss. It would be appropriate to quote Swami Vivekananda who defines religion as, "Religion is realization, not talk nor doctorine, however beautiful they may be; it is being and becoming; it is the whole soul changed into what it believes. That is religion." This realization is based on a set of spiritual laws concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe.
And what is science? Science is the systemaitised study of facts about man and his environment. And the existence of the universe is a fact. Every fact has a cause behind it and some laws governing it. Therefore there must be some cause behind this universe. So Science as many scientists define is a sincere pursuit of this truth. The objectives of Religion and Science being the same, we cannot say that religion is opposed to science.
Even though the objectives are same, their ways of approaching the truth are different. The way of approach of Science is that, it proceeds from known facts to the unknown ones. It is basically concerned with the physical and material world. It rests on theories and experiments. When experiments coincide with theories, they are transformed into laws or principles. These laws aor principles are in turn applied in everyday life which have led to so many discoveries and inventions which are responsible for easy and comfortable life, that a present man is leading now. Religion is directly concerned with cause which it believes it to be the inner world. It is also based on theories and experiments. Having been successful with the experiments, the theories were developed into laws known as spiritual laws. These can be verified only through experience. These spiritual laws inculcate in man the basic qualities of man such as discipline, concentration, control of senses, moral and ethical values. These qualities make a man think systematically and create in man the devotion for cause which gives a fragile man significance and value. And systematic thinking helps man to penetrate into the very depths of the facts around him and to extract maximum information about them. These are pre-requisites for any man to strive in any discipline. Thus we can say that religion accelerates the pace of science.
Religion has been describing God with different kind of phrases such as God is beginningless and endless, He is infinite, immortal etc. These things make a man hard to imagine the nature of God and thus becomes averse to religion and orients towards science. Since analogies reduce confusion and make understanding easy, we can observe some. Some scientist rightly points out that, "anything that science discovers is beyond the reach of direct observation; we cannot see energy; nor the gravitational force nor the molecules of gases nor the explosions in the nerve cells. It is only the premises of science and not conclusions which are not directly observed. In mathematics, we find that a number line extends from - infinity to + infinity, which means that the line is beginningless and endless. In physics, it has been proved that the sum total of cosmic energy is constant. That is it cannot be changed. It is neither created nor destroyed. Thus energy is immortal. And anything immortal is divine. Now, we can understand the nature of the soul.
Hence I conclude that the truths which were being cherished in the bosom of religion for ages are now being explained in a more authoritative language and Religion is only glad about it. Therefore Religion is not opposed to Science in any way as long as it is the sincere pursuit of the truth.
