It is often unclear what the relationship between science and religion is. Does science support or conflict with religious beliefs or is there a relationship where science and religion are consistent and don’t support or conflict with one another but work side by side? The debate based on this question often centres around certain basic questions regarding such conflicts as whether evolution or creationism is the correct explanation for the formation of animals and plants, or whether the big bang theory or the literal truth of Genesis in the bible is the correct explanation for the formation of the universe.
It can be seen that it is the literal reading of the bible which creates conflict between science and religion. If everything in the theory of creation based on Genesis in the bible is taken literally, then we are lead to believe that God was the creator of all life, all life was created at the same time, in the space of seven days, and that all species are exactly the same now as they were at the time of creation and that humans were the last life form to be created. We are also lead to believe that the earth is only 6000 years old. However this conflicts with the scientific theories of evolution, and the big bang, the scientific theory to explain the creation of the world. The theory of evolution, derived from looking at fossils and other sources, states that all of the life found on earth developed in small steps, and that the life we see on earth today has developed over millions of years. The theory of evolution also shows that humans evolved from other species, and were not, as the creationist theory suggests, created as a separate life form. However religion discards scientific evidence such as fossils as not being scientific evidence which proves the theory of evolution at all, but merely a test of faith, the bible alone holds the one true account of the creation of the world. Science also shows that the environment is not actually ideal for the life of humans, but humans have adapted to make life on earth possible. Science also shows through methods such as carbon dating, which are based on fact, that the universe is in fact around 15 billion years old, not the mere 6000 which is suggested by the creationist theory. The empirical evidence obtained by science is very much against the literal truth of the bible, and so it can be seen that creationism and modern science are very much opposed at this level.
On the other hand, in recent years, it is not only scientists who have a religious faith that have said that the creation of the universes cannot be completely explained in terms of science, science does not hold all the answers. Although science can provide many explanations as to the way the world works, it has been discovered that science in itself needs an explanation. Stephen Hawking has been quoted as saying that the initial state of the universe must have been very carefully chosen, as it is difficult to explain why the big bang would have occurred, and brought about the creation of the universe, if it were not the result of an act of god who intended to create beings like us. Science can provide no explanation as to why the universe was composed the way it was before the big bang occurred, and can only provide an explanation as to how the big bang occurred, the universe being how it was. Hunt said “even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup, the chance of producing the basic enzymes of life by random processes without intelligent direction would be approximately one in 10 with 40 zeros after it … Darwinian evolution is most unlikely to get even one polypeptide right, let alone the thousands on which living cells depend for survival.” This is to say that the possibility of the universe being created by accident is almost negligible, and science cannot provide a complete explanation as to why this occurred, and as a result it is necessary to look beyond the things that science can tell us to find a complete explanation for the formation of the universe, and the simplest solution to this problem is the existence of a god. These arguments show that the world of scientific discovery is in fact a strong indicator of the existence of a god, and that science is merely discovering and explaining the things that god created.
