In the beginning most people in the Christian world looked at the universe though Christian eyes. Everything was a product of God and it was a mystery. Some people devoted themselves to reading the Bible and finding answers to the many questions people had about the way things worked. There were things that people couldn't find the answers to. Many of these things were about the way the universe worked. Some people decided to try and find the answers to these questions in the real world. They started observing and experimenting. These were the first scientists. All the time they were trying to determine how God had done things. No one had any real problem with that as long as it didn't conflict with what the church said. As these scientists started learning more and more they started getting in trouble.
Take Galileo for example. He saw the moons of Jupiter with his primitive telescope. The church at that time believed that the sun was the center of the universe. Believing that moons orbited something other than the sun or the earth was grounds for heresy and he was sentenced to house arrest for life.
This wasn't the beginning of the rift between science and the church but it was a prime example. As the years have rolled by and science has learned more about the workings of the universe both science and the church have change. Scientists now are less likely to be working for the church for one. Even though science has changed greatly from its beginnings one thing remains the same. Scientists are trying to determine how the world works.
When scientists disagree with the church are they wrong? It is impossible to tell. As an omnipotent being God could make things appear anyway he/she wants them to. That is the beauty of omnipotence. All a scientist can do is say that according to the evidence, if the world works according to these theories, this is true. Now is that to say it is right? No. If God just made it look like the Earth is 4.5 Billion years old because that the way God wanted it to look, there would be no way of knowing. What a scientist can say is that according to the past evidence and the theories we are using to describe things the evidence doesn't support a 6000 year old earth.
The conflicts seem to occur when people from one side attempt to use their beliefs and techniques in the other court. Religion has its place and is wonderful and useful for many things. The same is true for science. You can't use the Bible to do science and you can use science for biblical studies or studies of morality. The differences in the genres are to great for much useful overlap. It seems to me to be counterproductive.
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In the beginning most people in the Christian world looked at the universe though Christian eyes. Everything was a product of God and it was a mystery. Some people devoted themselves to reading the Bible and finding answers to the many questions people had about the way things worked. There were things that people couldn't find the answers to. Many of these things were about the way the universe worked. Some people decided to try and find the answers to these questions in the real world. They started observing and experimenting. These were the first scientists. All the time they were trying to determine how God had done things. No one had any real problem with that as long as it didn't conflict with what the church said. As these scientists started learning more and more they started getting in trouble.
Take Galileo for example. He saw the moons of Jupiter with his primitive telescope. The church at that time believed that the sun was the center of the universe. Believing that moons orbited something other than the sun or the earth was grounds for heresy and he was sentenced to house arrest for life.
This wasn't the beginning of the rift between science and the church but it was a prime example. As the years have rolled by and science has learned more about the workings of the universe both science and the church have change. Scientists now are less likely to be working for the church for one. Even though science has changed greatly from its beginnings one thing remains the same. Scientists are trying to determine how the world works.
When scientists disagree with the church are they wrong? It is impossible to tell. As an omnipotent being God could make things appear anyway he/she wants them to. That is the beauty of omnipotence. All a scientist can do is say that according to the evidence, if the world works according to these theories, this is true. Now is that to say it is right? No. If God just made it look like the Earth is 4.5 Billion years old because that the way God wanted it to look, there would be no way of knowing. What a scientist can say is that according to the past evidence and the theories we are using to describe things the evidence doesn't support a 6000 year old earth.
The conflicts seem to occur when people from one side attempt to use their beliefs and techniques in the other court. Religion has its place and is wonderful and useful for many things. The same is true for science. You can't use the Bible to do science and you can use science for biblical studies or studies of morality. The differences in the genres are to great for much useful overlap. It seems to me to be counterproductive.
Sorry if I was a little long winded.