\u201cScience can purify religion from error and superstition; \u2028religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. \u2028Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish…. \u2028We need each other to be what we must be, what we are called to be.” (Pope John Paul II) The argument of how religion and science can work together is something that the church has debated for many years. Pope John Paul further explains, \u201cThey are not mutually exclusive of each other, but work together to strengthen the truth for the existence of God.\u201d Over the centuries, as man\u2019s knowledge and understanding about the world around him has grown, many have sought to use science to prove that God does not exist. Charles Taylor, in his book A Secular Age, asks \u201cwhy was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in, say, 1500 in our Western society, while in 2000 many of us find this not only easy, but even inescapable?\u201d I believe the answer can be found in the Bible. Genesis 11:1-8 \u201cNow the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, \u201cCome, let\u2019s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.\u201d They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, \u201cCome, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.\u201d But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, \u201cIf as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.\u201d So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.\u201d Man, in a collective state, has much capacity and power to do great things. However, man can also collectively cause much destruction and propagate untruths. God had to confuse and scatter man all over the earth to slow us down from achieving anything our heart desired. Now, 2000 year\u2019s later man has walked on the moon, sent space probes to Mars, and explored the deepest depths of the ocean. Is it any wonder that many have turned away from God in light of the scientific wonders we have achieved since the tower of Babel? Yet, despite all of our technological advancements we still cannot solve the mystery of how man and the universe came to existences. Science can help us understand our faith and correct many of the errors in our beliefs. Once such example is that science has changed the dating or age of the earth. Religion supports and strengthens our faith in God, because there are things that science cannot explain or define. Science is only as accurate as our current understanding, yet it helps to uncover and increase our understanding of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cScience can purify religion from error and superstition; \u2028religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. \u2028Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish…. \u2028We need each other to be what we must be, what we are called to be.” (Pope John Paul II) The argument […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[186],"class_list":["post-4101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-taylor","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4102,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions\/4102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}