Reasons why scientists often resort to religion is maybe because they bare so many similarities; Science is based primarily on explanation…religion uses God to explain things. Science claims that such forces such as gravity and magnetism, are invisible forces that make things behave the way they do. Religion claims that the invisible force, which does this, is God.
Scientists test theories by experimenting, i.e. ‘the big bang theory’. Religion uses experiments to tests the effect on people’s lives. For e.g., when people are buried, religious people used to say that the whole body went to either heaven or hell, but as people began to question this, and ultimately, dig up graves, they realised that the bodies weren’t moving, simply rotting. Therefore, a new belief came to light, that the spirit went to either heaven or hell. As graveyards began to get full, the idea of cremation was considered, before, the idea had not been accepted and was merely frowned upon, but suddenly, it was ‘ok’ to cremate people’s bodies. They experimented, to test people’s reactions/emotions. Scientists believe everything happens for a reason, and that there is a reason/theory behind everything. In the same way, religion believes that nothing happens by chance…God does it.
Even though there are a number of similarities, you also have to take into account the differences. Science is based purely on what the eye can see (material things), whereas religion deals with the spiritual side of things. Religion is based mostly on what the eye cannot see, just a true belief in something. Science is based on recent discoveries, whereas religion is based on what ‘may’ of happened thousands of years ago e.g. in the Bible, Qu’ran-both of which, are proofless.
Religious people would disagree with the statement “you can’t be a scientist and be religious”. All 6-world religions already see scientists as following religion. This is probably because they understand that science is just another way of explaining the same facts. Religious people understand there is often question marks in s. These question marks sometimes have to be filled by religion.
I think you can be both, because for one, there are so many links and connections between science and religion and religion often fills gaps science cannot. I see no reason why people cannot be both, if they understand and respect aspects of both.
Reasons why people could not be both is the fact that religion can often be seen as contradicting science, so on a larger scale, you would be seen ultimately as contradicting yourself.
