One of the best virtues of science is not its never-ending search for answers and inquisitive outlook on the universe that stands in awe of creation, curious to find out as much about it as possible.
One of the best virtues of science is not its never-ending search for answers and inquisitive outlook on the universe that stands in awe of creation, curious to find out as much about it as possible.
It is actually its relentless pursuit to disprove itself along the path to establishing those observational truths that we can all rationally agree to.
That is of course until a new observation completely unbeknownst to us stumbles randomly upon our trek of discovery and provides enlightenment we might otherwise never have dreamed of.
Rye bread was discovered haphazardly by ancient Egyptians who found some water that had spilled on flour unnoticed for several days and had begun to ferment. One unknown savant by circumstance had the brilliant idea to bake the bubbling concoction in a furnace to see what might happen. Probably too hungry to let food go to waste — you know, even if it has fermented. And voila, bread! Although not to be confused with modern bread, which can only loosely even be called that. But I digress.
There’s also Sir Isaac Newton, who paved the way towards new observations about gravity after an apple bopped him on the head. He didn’t hide his belief in a creator.
Then, penicillin, stumbled upon completely by fluke when Alexander Fleming, a Catholic, noticed something growing in a discarded Petri dish.
Regardless of how many centuries removed by history they found themselves, all believed in a creator of some kind and all contributed invaluable wisdom to include in our vast and ever-expanding fields of knowledge.
So to anyone who claims religion or belief inherently and unquestionably presents a roadblock on the path to progress, I ask, what new groundbreaking, history-making scientific discovery have you to bestow upon humanity?
However that said, fundamental extremism stemming from any belief — religious, political or ideological — is dangerous, but it can never be used as an excuse to label an entire group or population.
While assumptions are a fairly safe bet in well-established sciences like maths and physics, when it comes to the far less understood field of psychology, assumptions are indeed extremely dangerous territory. There is no psychological trait or belief that pre-determines with any amount of certainty an individual's personality.
In other words, the point is regardless of political or religious beliefs, some combination of both or even a complete lack thereof, it really doesn't matter — some people can do despicable things on all sides of the scale.
Conversely, it can just as confidently be asserted that people can also do great things and constructively contribute to humankind completely regardless of their political or religious leanings, or perhaps even lack thereof as in the case of great minds such as the following: world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking; brilliant mathematician as well as computing forefather and Nazi enigma code breaker Alan Turing — persecuted and castrated for being homosexual by the nation he helped save during the Second World War, and as a result eventually committed suicide.
While we should avoid labels like atheist, agnostic and deist, they all have the potential to push the boundaries of knowledge for the betterment of us all.
Getting caught up in minor details gets us nowhere fast.
Science and religion are not mutually exclusive and they can coexist, despite the divisive wedges hammered by extreme fundamentalist beliefs on either side of the spectrum.
