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Science Versus Religion

The Roman Catholic church dominated western civilization for nearly 2 centuries. It was allied with the powers of civilization for most of that period and used that influence to preserve its institutional power. As the most successful organization in history, it was conservative, preserving its power. When “modernity” arrived circa 1500, it opposed the threats to its power and its opponents did their best to undermine the Church in every possible way. The Manichean story of “the bad Church and the good scientists” arose. Modern historians, philosophers, sociologists and specialists reject this story. However, this story has a strong hold on the modern imagination supporting a “materialist” view of reality. Let’s look at the 25 greatest scientific discoveries to see what they really say about the conflicts between a purely materialistic philosophy versus one that accepts that some form of supernatural or transcendent dimension of life is possible or likely.

There are many lists of the “greatest scientific discoveries”. I’m working from a nice summary of those lists.

Most Important Scientific Discoveries of All Time

1. Electromagnetism

Electricity and magnetism are two dimensions of a single immaterial, abstract, unobserved force. They can be measured and described by laws and equations that require advanced calculus. Non-material forces are essential to life. They could not be imagined by anyone prior to 1700. Advantage “immaterial forces”. Our modern economy is based upon this non-material dimension.

2. Laws of Gravity/Classical Mechanics

Nature is logical and can be described by equations! Newton created the possibility that everything can be described by mathematical laws. This undermined the prevailing Middle Ages view that embraced many active roles for the supernatural in daily life. This was a HUGE change in world views. Newton remained a Christian believer. He admitted that he had no idea how gravity worked across time and space or why it worked. Advantage materialism.

3. DNA as the Basis for Heredity

The chemical basis of life provided support to Mendelian genetics and Darwinian evolution. Life is based on chemicals. The reductionist view celebrated. Scientists offered lightning based chemical reactions that could have created the key amino acids naturally. The parallel with the newly evolving computer science world was truly amazing. Religious organizations mostly stopped opposing Darwinian evolution. Subsequent work challenged the idea that complex molecules like DNA could have evolved naturally. MIXED.

4. Heliocentric Model of the Solar System

The church opposed these innovative views. Opposed to common sense, without scientific evidence, a threat to theology, against some specific texts in scripture. The Church flubbed this one but eventually agreed that the details of astronomy are not an essential part of religious belief. Essential to consider the holistic, integrated nature of 1500 world views. Everything fit together nicely. Advantage materialism.

5. Periodic Table

All matter is based on a structure. Matter can be reduced to chemical atoms. The individual elements obey laws. God created the universe and declared that it was good. MIXED.

6. Evolution Based on Natural Selection

All of history COULD be based upon random variations. Darwin provided great evidence for instances where this had occurred. Professional biologists waited for 90 years to fully agree. Some religions embraced God as the designer of evolution or select changes like the emergence of men. Others opposed evolution completely. Advantage materialism.

7. X-Rays

Seeing through physical reality. Like magic. Advantage supernaturalism.

8. Relativity

Euclidean geometry and Cartesian coordinates are not exactly correct. Energy and matter are somehow deeply connected. Advantage supernaturalism.

9. Geology

The earth is much older than expected. It is subject to the laws of physics. Fossils support evolution, mostly, except for the bunching of new species. Advantage materialism.

10. Modern Drugs Like Penicillin

Science delivers results. Advantage materialism.

11. Circulatory System

MIXED.

12. Oxygen

Key individual elements can be isolated. Oxygen is the breath of life. MIXED.

13. Vaccinations

Power of biology. Materialism.

14. Radioactivity

Many elements are unstable! This can be described by probability functions. Advantage Supernaturalism.

15. Quantum Theory

The deep structure of reality is probabilistic. It is truly not “rational”. Advantage Supernaturalism.

16. Struture of the Atom

Protons, neutrons and electrons. Charged particles. A mini-solar system. SPDF levels for electrons. Probabilistic chances for positions of electrons. Supernatural.

17. Big Bang/Expanding Universe

Not a fixed, eternal structure. A beginning and possibly an end. Supernatural.

18. Microorganisms/Germ Theory

Life thrives at the microscopic level. MIXED.

19. Mendelian Genetics/Heredity

Mixed. Supporting logic for evolution.

20. Transistors

The flow of electrons and electricity can be managed. MIXED.

21. Human Anatomy

Identifiable organs. Later, the integration of many organs and systems. MIXED.

22. Cells

First, components of life and organs. Mostly well described by bio-chemistry. Then, questions about the components of cells and their evolutionary history. MIXED.

23. Speed of Light

The speed of light is fixed. It acts as a constraint on the universe. Time is not fixed. Matter, energy and the speed of light are intertwined. Supernatural.

24. Steam Engine

Mechanical marvel. Materialism.

25. Telegraph

Electricity and information can flow everywhere, through the air. Supernaturalism.

Summary

Galileo, Newton and Darwin led the way for a simple, deterministic materialism that rules out anything else. 7 of our 25 big discoveries mostly support this view. 9 have mixed evidence for a purely materialistic view versus one that allows for a transcendental dimension. 9 clearly point towards a supernatural dimension of some sort being very important. Electromagnetism, force fields. See-through X-Rays. Relativity of time, space, matter, light and forces. Probabilistic radioactivity. Spooky action at a distance of quantum mechanics. Light is both a wave and a particle? Atoms are not material; they are composed of subatomic particles that we cannot practically describe. Heisenberg uncertainty principle limits our knowledge at smaller scales. The universe appears to have a fixed beginning. The speed of light is fixed. Light is a wave and a particle. The universe is a crazy quilt of forces, particles, quantum pairs, subatomic particles, dark matter, dark energy, matter, energy and probability. Waves are everywhere. Lakes, radioactivity, electromagnetism, light.

We live life mostly as analog beings. We intuitively understand classical mechanics much better than modern physics, chemistry and biology. The many advances of physics in the last century are all quite distinct from a simple materialistic view of the world. The world is, perhaps, mainly immaterial, dynamic, probabilistic and unknown.

This does not provide strong evidence for a specific religious world view. It only shows that a purely reductionist, materialist world view is very unlikely to fully describe reality.