SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Article on Huffington Post about a survey on the compatibility of science and religion. I'm not sure if the term religion should be used. Faith might be better since I refuse to be stuck in a box anymore. From the article"

"Dr. Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist at Arizona State University, was even more dismissive. In an email to The Huffington Post, he called the survey's findings "irrelevant," adding that "science itself is incompatible with the scriptures and doctrines of all the world's religions... It is all well and good to say that scientists and evangelicals can work together toward common goals, like preserving the planet etc., but ultimately those goals will in the end illuminate a universe that has nothing to do with the revelations of the Bible, and should rationally lead to a world where religious myths disappear."

If Krauss seems eager for less religion, the survey respondents seem to be looking for more. In fact, 60 percent of the Protestants surveyed--and 38 percent of all people surveyed--indicated a belief that scientists "should be open to considering miracles in their theories or explanations."

Now I don't necessarily agree with Dr. Krauss. If you have come to believe that the universe and God/dess are one and the same then there are no myths that need to disappear. If you insist that your particular "holy" book has to be taken literally and used as a science text book? Then "Houston, we have a problem" and the sooner those mythsend up in the trash heap of history the better.

As for the miracles. That's not how science is done. By definition science starts with a hypothesis. The hypothesis is verified or disproved by an experiment or series of experiments that can be repeated by other researchers. Miracles, by definition are one offs. You can't set up an experiment to verify the results of a miracle. It may have happened but it's not science.

I'm not sure how biology classes are run since I was in high school. We didn't do much experimental work in my high school biology class. It wasn't until chemistry in junior year that we were introduced to the idea of the experimental scientific method. And biology was a required class for everybody. Chemistry was an elective. So, given a non experimental biology program that is the end of the science requirements it's possible for a student to get through high school and know almost nothing about how experimental science works. Too bad.