Religion vs Science or (Tools for Evolution?)

I got thinking about the past, our history as a species, about humanity and the being, the individual.

Then I began drawing some parallels and similarities to various cultures and how the individual also goes through this specific cycle; this specific cycle being: spirituality, or religiousness.

Now let me expand on this for clarification.

in the individual, throughout ones life, one goes through cycles of interest in spiritual, macro, generalizations to scientific, micro, specifications, sometimes these "phases" can last years, months, days, or minutes, even seconds.. although it appears that this cycle exists in cultures, humanity and society at large, ..

Like a tipping scale..
Once the religious/spiritual has become too pervasive and perhaps too irrational for reasons of dogma or violence than the scale tips and science has rule until for the same reasons it becomes too irrational for reasons of scientific dogma or violence....

Back and forth it seems to be a mechanism for evolution both for cultures and humanity at large as it does for the individual person.

I suppose the conspiracy aspect of this conversation is that, people denounce religion and spirituality as being useless, but perhaps it is a very integral part of how we evolve along with the tools of science, it helps us build our understandings of the universe yet still allows us to envision completely new patterns from what we already know.

Like the two are born of each other; with religion, science must exist to inspect the claims and make sense out of dogmas.... Whereas with science, religion/spirituality must exist to perpetuate and evolve the ideas and concepts to form models of reality for the future to develop and explore.

I think maybe we misunderstand the mechanisms of evolution and thus can't accelerate or help it's progression because we are attacking the very tools we use to actually evolve, which are spirituality and science; instead of using the tools we have to build understandings and possibilities for the future.


EDIT:
Let me ask.. at this point in your life, right now.. would you say you are more spiritual or more scientific?
or are you both spiritual and scientific with spirituality leading, or are you scientific and spiritual with science leading?...

I personally find that this changes quite often throughout life and has for humanity been one of the means of evolution.

Right now in my life, I would say that I am more Scientific/Spiritual, wanting to know methods and facts, learning information that is already there, .. and secondarily looking for vagueness and the esoteric, using the spiritual less than I have in the past.

[edit on 9/23/2008 by PuRe EnErGy]

[edit on 9/23/2008 by PuRe EnErGy]

Nice post - S&F for you my friend.

I try to get this point across quite a lot to friends and family. The world is not black & white, or pickles and goo as Alan Watts put it. I think his theology on people really applies well to the Religion vs Science argument.

Alan Watts - Pickles & Goo with animation by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

In the past science and religion went hand in hand. Now it's either one or the other.

Me, I'm very much a logical thinking scientist in the head. I trust science and I see it's results. However, i'm a spiritualist at heart and can see that science doesn't always explain the grey. It certainly doesn't explain how I feel about myself, how I analyse myself and how I develop myself into a better person.

I really enjoy the Alan Watts animated bits done by the creators of South Park, because Alan is such a VISUAL speaker, it's great to have someone there to capture the essence of that.

Aside from that...

Don't you find though Nammu that you deviate from the position of "Scientific" sometimes in your life and you find that you live more Spiritually? .. like through different periods in your life.

Like when you were 5 years old, I'm sure you were quite the collaboration of Science and Spirit, more so Spiritual is my guess (for most 5 year olds) although that is my point.. it obviously doesn't effect people by age all across the board, and neither can we say certain events will always cause such outlooks on life and the world around individual perception.

It is learned behaviors; but why do we go from one to another? From being more scientific in thought, to being more spiritual in thought..

Has anyone else given it much thought? or if you do give it a bit of thought right now.... Would you agree, disagree.. remain undecided?

reply to post by PuRe EnErGy


Science is the only methodology for human development. It is what got us out of the dark ages and into the present. Religion, while sometimes beneficial, has an inherent propensity to be misused. And unlike science, when religion is misused (either on purpose or quite accidentally), there is no hope to fix it from within, without massive bloodshed (figuratively or literally). Religion demands beliefs be held above all others; to be untouchable. Science is the polar opposite - it demands everyone be skeptical of everything - of results, of methods, of experimenters, of equipment - the lot. It is a self-correcting methodology, designed to remove the fallibility of human kind from our observations of the universe. Religion allows a single person, or a small group of people, to be above external criticism. That is obviously never a good idea.

One day religion will disappear. Abstract 'spirituality', or more correctly 'philosophy' will replace it. It will be debated. Cases will be made for and against different approaches to life, backed by scientific findings, and either encouraged or discouraged accordingly. No more dogma. No more prayers. No more chants. No more incense. No more tithes. No more 'sin'. Each person will be free to make up their own minds, and to think for themselves. They will be able to follow their own ideas, free of the bondage of organised religion. And yes, Christianity is organised religion -unless each person writes their own version of the Bible, it is organised. I don't care if you call yourself Catholic or Evangelical or whether you go to church - if it's not your idea, it's organised.