Science and The Bible - Relationship Between Religion and Science

Relationship Between Religion and Science

The relationship between religion and science has been a focus of the demarcation problem, which in philosophy attempts to draw the line between science and nonscience. Some scholars, like Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, argue that the two are interconnected. Others like Stephen Jay Gould and the National Academy of Sciences take the view that each occupy a separate nonoverlapping magisterium.

According to this view, statements about the physical world made by science and religion rely on different methodologies. Science relies on the scientific method as a body of techniques used for investigating natural phenomena. To be termed scientific, a claim must be based on observable, empirical, and measurable evidence, which is subject to systematic principles of reasoning. In contrast, much of Christianity relies on Biblical inspiration, a doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches.

Skeptics argue that the various biblical statements are at odds with scientific knowledge, particularly with regard to its claims regarding the origin of the cosmos, astronomy, and biological evolution. The "Conflict thesis" is the argument that religion and science are at constant warfare with one another. This is exemplified by such examples as the persecution of Galileo Galilei, the public debate between T. H. Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, the John Scopes trial, and the current controversy between the teaching of evolution and creationism.

Religious text themselves can be the subject of scholarly inquiry via Biblical criticism.