Thoughts on Science and Religion

Griffin Trau
Mr. O’Brien
English IV
7 March 2013

Thoughts on Science and Religion

Historically, science and religion just do not get along. Those who are spiritual often point to science as the greatest threat to their religion. Though not as prominent as it once was, religion is still the most influential power in our world today. From the way we carry ourselves, the laws we live by, to the wars we fight, religion lies just a few steps away. For example, the Western World taught all students to write right-handed for years -- very convenient for a writing system that goes from left to right. It is no mere coincidence that Westerners are dominantly Christian, and that the devil is left-handed. But increasingly inescapable, science also drives our world today. Medicine, geography, military defense, play a pivotal role in how we function. Gradually converging, science and faith have knocked heads more than a few times. Countless champions of the sciences have been killed by a church feeling threatened. Giordano Bruno a priest and astronomer was burned at the stake in 1600 for his astrological theories -- theories which contrasted the church’s views -- ones which later proved true. Although the debate between church and science is polarizing for much of society, I tend to accept both sides of the spectrum. I do not dispute fact, but I do believe in something more.
I am a protestant, and we, like other christians, read the bible, which is really a collection of many texts written throughout the years. Some christians hold the bible’s every word as truth; I do not. Though the text is indeed sacred to me, I do not hold it so because of some myth of veracity. It is through the many stories that broader messages and metaphors are woven. The unnatural simply does not exist in our world as there is no way that 4,000 men were fed with five loaves of bread and two fish. However, with a people driven by good virtues, great things can happen -- you might even say that miracles happen.
As a christian, I believe that god created the universe. That does not mean that I am wrapped up in creationism. I am aware that evolution occurs, I know that the Earth is far older than some religions claim, and I do not stand by the fact that humans have always bared the body which we do today. In short, I have confidence in science. But I also have faith that something above created us.
Kurt Vonnegut tackles the controversy between faith and science in Cat’s Cradle. His fictional country, San Lorenzo, is a scienceless state, governed by the religion of its people. The novel exposes the weaknesses of religion and blind faith as its people are exposed to ice-nine, a revolutionary weapon of mass destruction and product of science. The reader is meant to feel challenged by the book’s social commentary on religion. I for one find no contest in Vonnegut’s writing. Because I make concessions in my faith for the findings of science, the ignorance of the Bokonons does not apply. I believe that Vonnegut makes some very important points in his book regarding the dangers of both scientific ambition and blindness. A crucial point is also made: humanity must work together. The only survivors of ice-nine other than the narrator and metaphorical “Swiss Family Robinson” are ants. Ultimately it is the nature of their innate cooperation that allows them to exist in the new world. The sacrifice of one for many and ability to share is nature or Vonnegut’s solution to worldly disaster.