God vs Einstein: The War Between Religion and Science

Religion and science are often depicted as mortal enemies. But Stephen Barra, a theoretical particle physicist at the Bartol Research Institute of the University of Delaware, begs to disagree and wants to set the record straight. True, science has Galileo as its poster boy for those who think religion would rather have a world cloaked in ignorance rather than have  its dogma challenged.

But Barr reminds us that some of the greatest scientific minds happen to be people of religion:

• Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics was an Austrian monk
• Georges Lema?e, one of the founders of the Big Bang Theory was a Belgian priest/physicist
• Fr. Christoph Scheiner was one of the discoverers of sunspots and discovered the rotation of the sun on its axis
• Fr. Francesco Grimaldi discovered an extremely important effect in physics called the “diffraction” of light
• Fr. Lazzaro Spallanzani was considered as one of the top biologists in the world in the 18th century
• Fr. Marin Mersenne, the father of acoustic, discovered basic facts about wave motion and sound
• Fr. Giovanni Riccioli discovered the first “binary star”
• Fr. Angelo Secchi was one of the the founders of modern astrophysics
• Bisghop  Nicholas Oresme was the first to graph mathematical functions and discovered how to combine exponents
• Fr. Niels Stensen is considered as one of the founders of geology

Apparently abstinence is good for the brain as well as the soul.

Read the rest of the article after the jump.

Religion and science are often depicted as mortal enemies. But Stephen Barra, a theoretical particle physicist at the Bartol Research Institute of the University of Delaware, begs to disagree and wants to set the record straight. True, science has Galileo as its poster boy for those who think religion would rather have a world cloaked in ignorance rather than have  its dogma challenged.

But Barr reminds us that some of the greatest scientific minds happen to be people of religion:

• Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics was an Austrian monk
• Georges Lemaître, one of the founders of the Big Bang Theory was a Belgian priest/physicist
• Fr. Christoph Scheiner was one of the discoverers of sunspots and discovered the rotation of the sun on its axis
• Fr. Francesco Grimaldi discovered an extremely important effect in physics called the “diffraction” of light
• Fr. Lazzaro Spallanzani was considered as one of the top biologists in the world in the 18th century
• Fr. Marin Mersenne, the father of acoustic, discovered basic facts about wave motion and sound
• Fr. Giovanni Riccioli discovered the first “binary star”
• Fr. Angelo Secchi was one of the the founders of modern astrophysics
• Bisghop  Nicholas Oresme was the first to graph mathematical functions and discovered how to combine exponents
• Fr. Niels Stensen is considered as one of the founders of geology

Apparently abstinence is good for the brain as well as the soul.

Barr also corrects the misconception that the Church punishes those who put forward theories that threaten to shake the status quo. When Galileo found himself in hot Holy water it wasn’t only for his heliocentric theories but for publishing satirical ridiculing the Pope and the Church during the Reformation.  The Vatican has since apologized for the trial of Galileo.

Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution set off the still raging Creation vs. Evolution debate, was never persecuted and was in fact buried with great honor in Westminster Abbey. There are other radical thinkers who were never chastised by their religion.

In the 17th century, religion and science were viewed as equally valid ways to study God’s creation. After all, God is the Ultimate Scientist who created laws and principles. Scientific experiments were not meant to disprove faith-based philosophy but help determine the nature of the physical world.

So where the hell (so to speak) is the conflict coming from?

Thomas E. Brewton, a writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc., blames “the efforts of atheistic materialists,” (socialists and liberals) for denouncing religion as ignorant superstition. Brewton says atheistic and materialistic liberals believe religious morality must be destroyed and replaced by atheistic materialism.

Liberal-socialism, as defined by Brewton, is a simplistic, one-dimensional paradigm in which human nature is a variable that can be changed by external, material forces. “Manipulation of DNA and cloning are to be ultimate material forces to conform human nature to the design of socialist intellectuals.”  Brewster says the new religion wants to install the political state as the new god – “the final source of authority in all matters of human conduct.”

Since the 19th century, liberals have been chipping away at God and the Judeo-Christian religious tradition while proclaiming  Marxian socialism as the ultimate science from which all else flows. American universities version of the gospel says to be progressive, scientific person of the modern world one must be a socialist.

“From an intellectual viewpoint, there is no inherent conflict between religion and science and religion is obviously no impediment to scientific study of the natural world. If liberals were to become truly scientific… religion and philosophy would study humans’ relations to the Divine and to each other, and science would stick to discoveries relating to the God-created material world.”