Religion and Science

This is to further expand on the topic of Religion and Science.

As I described in my earlier post on Origin of Religions, when religions originated it was the explanation for everything.

There are 4 categories of questions that Religion typically answers how did everything get created or come into existence, how human beings came into existence, what is proper or moral behavior and our goal in life, what happens after we die and how to achieve salvation or get rewarded in after life.

Here is common between all religions,

a) The existence of a supreme intelligence or higher power that has control over everything. Theravada Buddhism however doesn't believe in a God so it is sort of non-theist religion. Carvaka Philosophy also doesn't believe in a God.

b) The existence of a soul or an undying part within all human beings (all living organisms in case of Hindu and eastern cultures) which the essence of life.

c) An after life i.e. the concept of existence after we die. This can range from being reborn or achieving salvation as in case of Eastern cultures or existing in either heaven or hell as for western cultures.


1) To explain Creation every religion has a myth associated with how everything was created. Typically there would be a creator God that is eternal and ever present and with magical powers would be able to create everything.

2) Who we are: This is again an expansion to the creation story.

Western religion preaches that Adam the first human was created by God in His own image suggesting that God also looks human. Science teaches that we evolved from other animals namely simians or monkeys.

One of the Christian preachers who did not believe in Evolution actually said "It is not respectful towards God and human beings to say that we evolved from animals. Where is our self respect and dignity."

Hinduism has many creation stories. However there is humility as expressed in the Rig Vedic Nasadiya hymn which expresses doubt on how everything came into being, probably the one who existed at that time would know or probably He doesn't know either and there is a question mark at the end.


3) Our goal in life: Our goal is to pursue a life and live according to the traditions prescribed in the religious texts.

Judaism believes in following the ten commandments and the Jewish customs and rituals.
Christians believe that faith in Jesus as the Son of God is important to salvation and so forth.

Hindus believe in the pursuit of Moksha by following one of the 4 paths prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita or via meditation.

Now I turn to Science

Science has traditionally played a secondary role in life, with a practical point of view aiming to solve problems that are important. Western researchers prescribe that science originated in the west in the 16th century. However in reality science has been there all along, from the person who invented the wheel to the people who first started agriculture and invented the first tools, etc.

Science has always had this aim of making life better of human beings by solving problems.
It is only later that scientists started theorizing their principles and explaining things.

Unlike religious explanations which were typically done using miraculous events and using God or Gods as explanations, e.g. it was believed that it rained because of a God who controls it.
Human beings quest to control nature and the environment rather than the reverse created these explanations and also created a branch of people who would communicate with the divine beings via rituals to ensure that it rains or cure diseases, etc.


Science on the other hand uses real observations to explain things. In that respect science is humble, there are no preconceived notions and no agendas.

One of the biggest contradiction that science offered to the existing religious view is in creation and world view.

For e.g. Christians and Jews believe that God created the world in 7 days, 6000 years ago.

Science proved that the world was created much earlier and that human beings descended from ape-like creatures. In fact if you dissect a frog you find that the frog has the digestive system as humans. If you look at Chimpanzees the features look very human, the hands, the facial features, etc. This was in stark contrast to the Christian view that men were superior to animals and man is an image of God.

The second aspect science provides is that it questions rituals, such as a ritual to make it rain.

Science however cannot provide an explanation on how we should live our lives or the purpose of life. These are now the realm of philosophy.

Religion offered the entire package i.e. explanations, rituals, cultural traditions, purpose of life, social activity, etc. However it is based on the concept of God.

As science questions God, members of the scientific community declare themselves as atheists or non believers.

All science offers in the religious package are better explanations. However when it comes to cultural traditions or prescribing a path on how one should live one's life science has nothing to offer.

Western religions the religious explanation serves as a purpose for everything that one does. So for Christianity for e.g. it is important to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and in the original sin etc. Thus if you contradict any of these you are asking for a lot of resistance from the religious community.

Thus the greatest resistance to science has come from the western religion.


As I described earlier, Hinduism offers a similar humility that science has. The creation myths, the various mythological stories are not required to be true for a Hindu. The philosophies of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita are reasonably abstract from science that it doesn't conflict with scientific explanations.

In fact the path of knowledge prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita is the one that true scientists such as Albert Einstein follow. So in that respect it only promotes scientific inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge.

So scientists everywhere, if you are looking to be atheist don't be, turn to Hinduism.