A few posts ago, I wrote about science and faith, and how they are not incompatible. I stand by that statement. Yesterday, a writer friend I know only through on-line contacts posted this meme, which came from The Other 98%.

Let’s set aside for the moment the wall of separation between church and state. Let’s also set aside the implication that those of the church should have no part in things of the state. Those are subjects for different posts.

The part of this picture that I don’t agree with is “Science belongs here” with the arrow pointing at “State”.  This implies that science doesn’t belong in religion. Or, perhaps, that science is incompatible with religion because religion relies on faith, not scientific evidence and method.

To which I respond with a big, fat, “So?”

As stated in my last post, faith is belief in something for which there is no evidence. I can’t prove there is a God, who created the universe, of which mankind is a small part. But neither can the atheist prove there is not a God. Both rely on faith concerning God’s existence or non-existence.

But why would anyone say science doesn’t belong in the church, in religion? Do such people really think that Christians (or, as some people say in a non-sectarian way, religionists) should not study science, should not believe in science, should not rely on science. Or are they saying that if you are in the church (since the meme frames the argument in a church context, though it does in fact show a synagogue and a mosque though only mentioning “church”), you cannot possibly believe in science? What dreck. What utter garbage.

Of course, perhaps this meme is saying that the state is built upon science, or that science maintains the state.  That also seems like a strange conclusion.

It’s true that at various times in the past the church (i.e. the Roman Catholic church, perhaps others) strongly resisted advances in science and misunderstood how science and faith interacted and could exist very well together. Nowadays, I don’t think that is still true in the main. Those mistakes have, for the most part, been eradicated from the church. At least, it has from the part of the Church Universal that I belong to. I don’t try to keep up with all the branches of the Church Universal.

To paraphrase what I said in that last post, science is experimenting, observing, concluding, and reporting, bit by bit, and so expanding man’s knowledge about the universe. It is involved in what you can prove. Okay, some things that science tells us are theories, based on reasonable assumptions but still lacking some final piece of proof.

Faith takes over for things that don’t need to be proved. What a truncated existence it is for those who have no faith in anything or claims to need evidence for anything and everything.

I hope all Christians study science and so show the foolishness of this meme. Much of my career as a civil engineer was based on science and mathematics. The Other 98% seem to be saying that I can’t be a Christian. Sorry, folks, you’re wrong.

I find my faith to be enhanced by science. My practice as a Christian is so much more meaningful to me because I believe in science.

The wedge between Christians and science is not being driven by Christians, but by memes like this.