How does Science explain the existence of "god" and "religion"?

Question

I'm not saying that God is or isn't real. I just want to hear some thoughts on why our species' belief in God has persisted for so long, especially if he is not real?

Answer 1

when family members started to die, the people left behind missed them and remembered them by visiting the place were they were buried, usually in their own properties.

they will bring food and all that those family members liked in an effort to keep that memory alive. these actions developed with time into bigger and more complex rituals. and religion started by organizing the rituals and the head of the family guiding and directing them.

organized religion is not new. neither are the critics.

Humans where created to love and live together. to think and reason. these takes us to God that is all LOVE. Science can not explain that.

Answer 2

Look up pansperma. Its the theory of life and it explains alot depending on how you look at it.

Answer 3

"Science" can observe religion, but cannot explain God.

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We have an inherent heartfelt need to know the Creator:

we have something we can't to get rid (sin/disobedience)

we want something we cant get  (perfection/acceptance)

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life and the universe tend to lead us to point us in one direction or another:

a) it has to have been created by a force far beyond our capabilities/understanding ( "GOD" )

b) it happened on it's own, and if we look deep enough, we can understand how, and then be "creators"

majority of folks thru the ages say "a" and desire to know that creating "GOD" thru "religion".

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Answer 4

Human beings have a chronic need for certainty and knowledge. This explains why when they are unable to know something they "fill in" the gap with superstition. God and religion are superstition used to deal with our uncertainties about the meaning of life and the concept of death and mortality. No one can know the truth, is one of the precepts of religions around the globe. If you don't know something and are unsure but crave comfort on this issue then I can come along and tell you whatever story I think you will like and as long as you are sufficiently unsure or I am a good enough story teller you will buy it to be free from the fear brought on by the uncertainty. This "trick" can be played on scientists too. That is why it is important to follow scientific method when carrying out experiments so you don't influence the results in one direction or another and reduce the factual value of the results. Also it is why people need to be very careful when evaluating or interpreting results and drawing conclusions. By the way I believe that people who believe in a higher power are no worse than than the heathens they look down on. Have you noticed that religion always gains in popularity when there is a crisis and when people become more unsure. Even if religion is superstition it still offers comfort to many and good deeds are done in the name of churches everywhere. Peoples belief lends a kind of reality to religion, it is as if enough people believe then it is as if it is real! SOme of the other answers are really good.

Answer 5

They dont have much scientific evidence to back up God.  But people believe in him because:

A. it is their only chance to live forever

B. they can feel in their hearts that God is real(along with Jesus Joseph and Mary)

C. they may have seen a miracle happen from god

D. and many more reasons

Answer 6

Science can't make any statement about God without total proof as it is the job of science to remain open minded and there simply isn't enough proof to support a conclusion one way or another.

As for religion that's simply a philosophical and traditionalistic belief system.

For science to hold any further view on that, would open the door for science, for example, to say the Pledge of Allegiance in America falls into the same catagory.

So is the handshake.

In Russia everyone (including same s*x) open mouth kisses as a greeting.

Science is not going to say these are wrong behaviors or right behaviors, they simply are systems of behaving.

Science defines them and catagorizes them.

Many scientists have no spirtual or religious belief systems.

Some do.

I think Einstein's statement is quite fitting

Science without religion is lame

Religion without science is blind

Answer 7

Humans need some way to think of their lives not ending.  Envisioning an afterlife or reincarnation is a great way of achieving immortality.  Additionally religion is a great way to add some level of control over the masses.

Now - God - real or not?  Well it depends on the definition.  My own personal description is that God is the force and power of nature.  Absolute, never changing, all powerful and infinite.  I do not believe that God is some being with thoughts - making decisions about how things will be and who will be rewarded and who will be punished.  

Actually nature - God - does cause those who act in a manner contrary to the laws, to be punished - in life.

I am personally completely convinced that Heaven and h**l are what we may experience here - during our lifes.

Answer 8

Good question..I sometimes do a bible study but really don't know the meaning. So I try and relate the thought that God is all around us in the fact that he created nature. Look at the beauty around us, and he created it. But I understand the meaning that we were ape like before..so did we eventually become human and then adam and eve?

Answer 9

Theology never solved or explained anything. All they said is "God willing" or "Its God's will" or some c**p like that. Thats not proof of anything.

Answer 10

Science does not have all the answers, it is somewhat limited to its scientific method: Observation, hypothesis, experimentation, conclusion (or several variations on this theme).

Don't forget that science is just a tool, nothing more and nothing less.

The nitty grittly of knowledge, or epistimology, has always been the duel between Philosophy and Theology.

Both Philosophy and Theology use science and all the liberal arts to solve the thorny, deep, and mysterious problems of life.

Answer 11

God was here before science and that should answer your question.  And he's persisted for so long because he is real and not some made up mumbojumbo c**p like the big bang theory.  Now that's something to laugh at.

Answer 12

Science has little space for belief systems or faith...they deal in cold hard facts that can be experienced through the 5 basic senses that they are aware of to date.

Science is the exploration of human-ness--the planet we live on, the creatures we co-exist with, the elements that make it all up, the vasts that surround us--all here in this realm.

Religions, for the most part, were created as a means of trying to explain that which could not be explained, while at the same time grouping people into controllable herds...they are very much part of our human mangement systems.

Spirituality is the discovery of Self...the delving into the fact that we are not humans in a spiritual experience, we are spirits having a human experience.  Unlike religious dogma, there are no limits in spirituality...truths are not stagnated or edited for convenience, they are continuous, ever growing & becoming--just like we are.

The reason God has perpetuated through all of time is because we are part & partners of Creation...we carry within us an ever present connect to Home...for many it is simply the feeling that "there has to be something...just something." For those of understanding, it is the voice within, their soul sounds, that gut feeling--and the wise listen...for those of knowing, they see the whole connect, there are no barriers of forgetfulness, dimensions, or time--they see & can communicate with the all of it--and the wise listen.

Yes, He is very real, just as the Mother is, just as Angels are, just as each of us are--together, we make up a Wholeness of pure creative energy, which we call love.

Science is just now coming into discovering that there is an invisible umbilical that connects everything here...and when they develop vocabulary & greater understanding to present their findings it will be made more known. This will be quite interesting, to say the least!

Answer 13

The most obvious explanation is that humans are the only species that know about death. The first ceremonial burial seems to coincide with a certain development of the brain, hence religion seems to have developed as a result of an ability to grasp that death in unavoidable.

Answer 14

Science does not explain the existence of God, because science explains the NATURAL world from NATURAL causes.

Psychology might be able to teach us WHY so many humans think there is the supernatural - my guess would be to both explain what we do not know and to provide comfort in things like death.

Answer 15

Science for me is the explanation of how and not why.

Answer 16

Science would explain "God" and "Religion" as human construct.  It was originally created to describe the unexplainable.  It would rain 100 miles away and a flash flood would wipe out a village.  Drought destroys a year's crops.  An earthquake would hit, or a volcano would erupt.  Someone would become sick unexpectedly.  Prior to the application of science these experiences were quite scary for lack of understanding how they occured.  The natural response by early man was to hand the responsibilty of such events over to a "greater force" and henceforth religions popped up all over the globe to allow man to move on when hit by the unexplainable.  When more complicated social structures came about through the development of civilization, those who were in control of religion began to realize that they could control society and those who were in control of the state realized that they needed to have control of the society.  Based on these forces, an age-old tug of war between religion and state developed.  In some cases opposing religions were encompased into the threatened state (Roman Catholic Church), in other cases the state would create new religious doctrine that was more acceptable to their people (Church of England) and in yet other cases States would try to create barriers from religion (USSR) based on the simple realization of calling religion for what it is... a method of controlling people as shown in the frequently coined term "opiate of the people".  This last model devoid of relegion, however, did not succeed... why?  It appears that people like to be controlled more subtly by religion then by brute force of Stalin's iron fist.  The point of all this being that Religion was constructed, adapted and restricted throughout our history simply as a means to manipulate society.  If something terrible happened it was easier for the state to lay the blame off on "god" and to simply say "only god knows why this happened", we shall "leave it in the hands of god"... whatever, it's all the same, a scapegoat.  Yet when society had successful years you can be sure that the state would claim responsibility and go about collecting their taxes as they talk about how their vague decisions improved the economy, or that their irrigation project defeated the drought.  Of course the church took their cut as well, 10% for christians please!  Where did that come from anyways?

With the advance of science the unexplainable began to be explained.  An earthquake was no longer "gods bidding" and now the entire world knows which areas on the globe are more prone to seismic activity and can choose to live there or not and can construct buildings with this in mind to alleviate the amount of destruction that occurs.  When the Tsunami hit Indonesia and when Katrina hit New Orleans a lot of christians piped up that one event was an attack by God on the primarily muslim Indonesia and that Katrina happened because of the sinful nature rampant in New Orleans.  They forgot to mention that the french district was not badly damaged by the hurricane, or that many synagogues were left standing all over Indonesia due to their pillar style construction which did not create much drag from the onrushing water.  At the same time christians will rave about... say a church near Paricutin Volcano in the state of Michoacan, Mexico which, although badly damaged, was the only structure remotely recognizable after a lava flow wiped out the village there.  Suddenly this "act of god" is proof that god is real because their church survives the natural disaster... hey wasn't it built of stone while the rest of the buildings in that town were made of wood?  It is interesting to see how similiar events are construed in completely polar directions by those biased by religion.  All said, science allows a more appropriate and rational explanation of all of these events which were previously dominated by religious description.  That is why there is a surge in people turning to science because people, on a whole, like explanations that have incorporate reason and allow for the development of knowledge through the scientific method that can lead to predicting and preparing for such disasters rather then mindlessly hiding under "god's wing" as we had for millenia.  Now we put in Tsunami detection systems so that American or Japanese lifes can be saved if one were to hit the pacific.  As I mentioned before, buildings can be constructed to withstand earthquakes of a reasonable force, again of which America and Japan are of primary advantage while villages in Iran and South America... (wait isn't S. America a bastion for Catholicism?) are being destroyed because their construction is still not as scientifically advanced.

In the end, the final battle between science and religion comes down to "infinity".  Scientifically, we know what this term means, but within our minds it is an impossible term to truly wrap your brain around.  It is this single word that will ensure that relegion pushes on.  The reason why I pick this word is beacause no matter which force you believe to be responsible for our existence, they both depend on infinity.  The Big Bang relies on an either A) an infinite time frame allowing for the expansion and contraction of the Universe in a cyclical pattern recreating itself in an infinite amount of space over and over an infinite number of times (if the mass of the universe is enough that gravity reverses our expansion) or B) has encountered one Big Bang and will expand for infinity but this begs the question of what was before the initial Big Bang. (if the mass of the universe is not enough such that our universal expansion is not reversed)  Religion, on the other hand, rests solidly on "infinity" as well, by doing what our species has always done, turning the unexplainable over to, you got it, "GOD the infinite".  I don't know if we'll ever be able to fully wrap our brains around this term, I doubt it, and so long as it exists as such a powerful word, God will still have the power that this word lends him.

Answer 17

Science doesn't explain either.  I am a Christian and my belief in God is solely based on faith.  I have faith that His words are true and that He will protect me and my family.  He has brought my family out of so much and there is no way that He could not exist.  It is all about faith.