by Jules Wrenne

Created on: March 01, 2010

A friend recently asked if I thought balance could ever be reached between Science and Religion, implying that the two may be mutually exclusive. I have carried that question around with me for a few weeks.  It is amazing how many complex ideas can be contained in one question.  

Responding required defining.  Webster's Collegiate Dictionary offers the following:  

Science is systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation. 

Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances and often containing a moral code for the conduct of human affairs. 

Reading objectively, I don't find anything mutually exclusive in those definitions. If there is a problem in striking a balance between Science and Religion, its origin must lie in our individual interpretations of each.  

The Book of Genesis in The Old Testament teaches us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day.  The impression I formed as a child was a world in which by Sunday, there were elephants and humans and butterflies and cockroaches all at once; everything created in one fell swoop.  It is a spectacular tale told in glorious language,resonating with God's love for his creations, and a fair measure of pride in His own ingenuity.

Later in school, I learned of all the laborious study that had been done in order to understand each component of God's creation.  From what I gathered in science class, it took a very long time for this planet to evolve into a place which was conducive to supporting human life; much, much more time than one week.  Painstakingly, scientists have researched and documented the history of our universe.  As they tell it, the beginning is perhaps less romantic, but certainly no less wondrous.  

In my opinion, it is a mistake to create a sense of rivalry between Science and Religion.  I see nothing contradictory in the two views of the origin of the universe.  To me, each offers a description of the same miracle and neither purports to understand what came prior to that moment in time.  "What was before the Big Bang?" is exactly the

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