The Myth: “Religion and Science are Enemies!”

There has been a great deal of media attention paid to certain books in recent years This has left most people with the impression that science and religion are somehow opposed to each other – i.e. faith is unreasonable, and a reasonable person doesn’t rely on faith – i.e. a person can’t have religious faith and “really” be a scientist too, or be a scientist and a person of faith at the same time

These books include:

There have been many convincing responses to these books, but they tend to be less well-known: For example: have you heard of …?

“About a hundred years ago, two anti-religious bigots named John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White wrote books promoting the idea of an irreconcilable conflict between science and God. The books were full of facts that have now been totally discredited by scholars. But the myths produced by Draper and Dickson continue to be recycled. They are believed by many who consider themselves educated, and they even find their way into the textbooks.” - Dinesh D’Souza, "Debunking the Galileo Myth." Dinesh D'Souza Blog (November 26, 2007).

Consider: The Church was the leading sponsor of science in Galileo’s time, and he himself was funded by the church. The leading astronomers of the time were Jesuit priests. Even today, the Vatican has its own observatory and astronomers. It was the Church that founded the first hospitals and universities. How could any of this be true if religion is an “enemy” of science, and “poisons everything”?

In reality: The conflict is not between science and religion, or reason and faith The conflict is between people: – some want science to be able to “answer everything” (which it can’t) – some find their faith threatened by the idea that the Bible isn’t a science textbook (which it isn’t) Actually, science and religion need each other: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.“ - Albert Einstein