originally posted in:Secular Sevens
They are wholly compatible.
Just because some religions contradict the scientific method does not mean that all do. The forms of christianity that most people seem to practice are pretty incompatible with science, because that form of religion drills into your head that questioning God is wrong. Personally, I think that questioning your faith is really the only way to truly believe it. Never questioning why your beliefs are the way that they are isn't called religion, it's called brainwashing.
Faith and science at their base levels don't get in each other's way. Faith is the belief that something is true, even if there is no proof of it being true. Science is the knowledge that something is true because it has been tested and proven, as well as the pursuit of that proof. If no evidence is there to wholeheartedly prove one side of an argument, both sides could be equally as correct or incorrect. Therefore, as we can't really disprove or prove the existence of a God, either side could be correct. Picking a side doesn't contradict the scientific method, it's simply hypothesizing.
I believe that a God exists, and that he built the basic building blocks of our universe. However, I believe that was the extent of it. This belief is often referred to as Deism, or the "Great Clockmaker" belief. Deists believe that some divine being exists, that he put the gears in motion, and then let it run. I don't count on a God coming in to help me in my life or in anyone else's life. We will probably never be able to figure out why the universe exists or why certain forces happen, and I simply prescribe to the hypothesis that the universe exists because it was created, and that those natural laws have brought us to the point we are in now, following the slow process that created our stars, galaxies, planets and the evolution that shaped us into the species we are.
They don't necessarily contradict each other, but not every religion mixes very well with science.
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[quote]If no evidence is there to wholeheartedly prove one side of an argument, both sides could be equally as correct or incorrect.[/quote] The proper course of action in this scenario would be to not actually address the question whatsoever. [quote]Picking a side doesn't contradict the scientific method, it's simply hypothesizing.[/quote] Proposing a fundamentally untestable and extra-existential force is as far from a scientific hypothesis as you can really get. Scientists put forward hypotheses when there is at least some substance standing behind the idea they are hypothesizing. There is no observational evidence or logical necessity for a deity, and the concept itself is completely beyond scientific testability, thus it isn't a valid hypothesis in a scientific environment. Faith and scientific reasoning differ two essentially opposite epistemologies, thus are incompatible on a very basic level.