How does religion impede scientific development?

Answer 1

Science has often flourished in those areas with religious domination. Great scientists of the past such as Newton, Kepler and Copernicus all believed strongly in God. Pasteur and Lister - arguably the two men responsible for saving the most lives due to their medical discoveries - both believed The Bible to be valid.

AnswerMany religions are also in their very nature supportive of science and the pursuit of knowledge about the natural world.

In Islam for example, followers are exhorted to develop this knowledge wherever possible, and this is the cause for many Islamic and Middle-Eastern societies being amongst the first to work with science and mathematics, being responsible for enormous advances. Ancient Athenian Greeks and Egyptians used mathematics specifically as a sort of reaching hand towards their gods. The near-perfection of the pyramids and the Greek schools of philosophy show how much they believed the efforts would prove their gods and bring them closer.

However, religion has also been a barrier to science at times, sometimes through indirect causes. The Catholic Church's period of Inquisition is a prime example of how badly one group can be discriminated against by another; Galileo and Copernicus were both firm believers in the Church's doctrine, yet were constantly (in Galileo's case, still) officially prosecuted and made infamous for their hypotheses and the evidence they gathered.

Other religious groups have also denied the benefits science can bring as a result of their doctrine; the Jehovah's Witnesses will refuse a potentially life-saving transfusion on the basis of several obscure verses. Still others have caused a drop in science's progress through other social means: the attraction of many intelligent people to the clergy instead of scientific research, and the cultural and social upheaval generated by religious conflict are two of several causes (none of which are deliberate, just unfortunate that one cannot have the cake and eat it too).