How will understanding science affect one's belief practices and ways of thinking?

Answer 1

Christian Perspective: Understanding science can actually strengthen your faith in God. The more you learn, the more you see just how amazing the world we live in is. Just our own body is a miracle and a marvel of engineering. King David, when contemplating his existence, wrote: "I praise you because in an awe-inspiring way I am wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know this very well." (Psalms 139:14) The more you learn about Biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy, you tend to feel the same way as to the magnitude of knowledge and power the creator has.

Many people think that scientific discoveries have proven The Bible wrong. That is incorrect. So far, all proven scientific discoveries actually follow inline with the Bible's account of how the Earth was created, the order of living things appearing, and the reason why humans are so much different than anything else. Any discoveries contradicting the Bible are usually based on Carbon 14 dating, which is greatly influenced by the amount of Carbon 14 in the atmosphere at any given time. Something Biblical scholars say would have been very much effected by the way the atmosphere was before the flood of Noah's day.

Answer 2

Science is a discipline in the way of integrating observation and understanding. This is something that is sometimes referred to as "The Scientific Method". Basically it states that if you observe something you may wonder about the how, what and why of its behaviour. If it interests you you may gather more information to understand it better. Each time you understand it better you build a better understanding or explanation about it and thus work toward the answers. Non-scientists often point to sciences ability to incorporate the existing facts to modify the path to the answer as "proof" that science is wrong when in actuality it is simply a self correcting process. As an example disease was initially thought to be a curse by the gods or the efect of magic from witches. Later it was ascribed to physical effects of night air or the "humours" of the body being out of line. Later the discovers of microscopes identified viruses and bacteria. Even later some diseases such as cancer or both defects were found to be eros in the basic blueprints (DNA) of the cell. Cures work best when you know the cause of the problem.Religion approaches observation in the other direction. It accepts something as the final answer (without proof - calling it faith) and attempts to build a tenuous explanation that always proves that the answer was correct in the first place. As a consequence, using the example of disease as above, religion thought that disease was caused by curses, moral turpitude and "god's will" and responded with mystic cures, bizarre explanations, and prayers and blessings to effect cures. NO curees from this.

So in response to the question, a scientific approach leads one to think on mechanical solutions to real world problems and to work towards real solutions. These attempts usually improve issues. A scientific thinker then turns his or her mind to the explanations as given by religion and finds they act proof, repeatability, and application in the real world. As examples bats are not birds, iron does not float, peeled wooden wands do not impact the DNA of goats, the sun has never moved backwards in the sky, koala bears and kangaroos seem unlikely candidate to get back to Australia from Mt. Ararat when they left Noah's ark - all truths espoused in the Christian Bible. Once this problem is identified he thinks on the matter more deeply, finds more problems, and ultimately reaches the conclusion that the whole basis of belief is pretty much a shambles.