If science contradicts your religion, which do you believe?

Question

Anything from evolution to bats not being birds.

Sources:

Creationism

Leviticus 11:13-19

Answer 1

Science

because there is actual proof for science

Answer 2

How can Science & Religion contradict if there is just ONE truth in our timeline?

If such contradiction exists, it's the one that contradicts what really happened that is automatically a lie and not fact.

Answer 3

Since they always conflict, I just made science my religion! WOO!

Answer 4

The Holy Bible isn't to be tested by men's ideas of science, but science is to be brought to the test of the unerring standard.

Answer 5

Uh oh.  I just had deep fried "little owl" last night with a side of potatoes.

Our science must be wrong.  Clearly bats are birds, and the earth is a 6000 year old circle.

Answer 6

I see that you are a "strong atheist" so I don't suspect my response will mean much to you, but I need the points to get to level two. :-)

Personally, I do not believe that true religion and true science disagree.  As a scientist, you realize that that is all it is:  a science.  Scientists change their theories quite regularly.  Truth cannot be changed, or it would not be true.  Truth is truth.

As one who is religiously inclined, I have come to know the truth through the Lord's promise that the Holy Ghost would teach us all truth.

I could have given you the simple answer that I would chose the religious answer over science, but that would be too easy.  I actually believe that God, with his infinite knowledge, used a great deal of science in creating and organizing this marvelous earth.

Answer 7

Believe in yourself for goodness sakes.

Answer 8

Creationists have already stated their opinion on this, just by being Creationists.

Answer 9

I believe that science is correct concerning physical objects, and that my religion is correct about spiritual matters.

Since there is no overlap between the two, I don't really have this problem.

Answer 10

It depends on how ugly the thing "proved" by science is.  If Science proved Dianetics or Confuscianism true, then I would abandon science altogether.

And yes, Leviticus 11:13-19 has a nice list of birds that I won't eat.  And I don't think that they used modern classifications of animals back then.

Answer 11

One of the best questions I have read in a while.

I am a member of the Baha'i Faith. I am one simply because I followed scientific methods and applied scientific principles to my studies. I had a few year interlude as a staunch atheistic Agnostic, but a scientist keeps an open mind, always.

Truth is one. If it seems to be two, then one is not truth. True religion and true science will always agree. Since rather than ever contradicting it science has in every case confirmed my religion I would have to say I would carefully examine the evidence and then follow what is most reasonable and logical. I think why is best stated in some few short quotes from the scripture of the Baha'i Faith. The Big Bang, quantum mechanics and much more is discussed therein, but I am trying to keep this short.

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Religion and Science are inter-twined with each other and cannot be separated. These are the two wings with which humanity must fly. One wing is not enough. Every religion which does not concern itself with Science is mere tradition, and that is not the essential. Therefore science, education and civilization are most important necessities for the full religious life.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 28)

If any religion rejected Science and knowledge, that religion was false. Science and Religion should go forward together; indeed, they should be like two fingers of one hand.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 70)

Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past are useless today.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 224)

The fourth teaching of Bahá'u'lláh is the agreement of religion and science. God has endowed man with intelligence and reason whereby he is required to determine the verity of questions and propositions. If religious beliefs and opinions are found contrary to the standards of science they are mere superstitions and imaginations; for the antithesis of knowledge is ignorance, and the child of ignorance is superstition. Unquestionably there must be agreement between true religion and science. If a question be found contrary to reason, faith and belief in it are impossible and there is no outcome but wavering and vacillation.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 239)

[ Note the following paragraph was written in 1890. BKW]

Strange and astonishing things exist in the earth but they are hidden from the minds and the understanding of men. These things are capable of changing the whole atmosphere of the earth and their contamination would prove lethal. (14)

It is noteworthy that in 1911 in Paris in the course of a conversation with Viscount Arawaka, the Japanese Ambassador to Spain, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke these words:

Scientific discoveries have increased material civilization. There is in existence a stupendous force, as yet, happily, undiscovered by man. Let us supplicate God, the Beloved, that this force be not discovered by science until spiritual civilization shall dominate the human mind. In the hands of men of lower material nature, this power would be able to destroy the whole earth.'(15)

In a previous volume[1] there is a reference to the words of Bahá'u'lláh concerning the discovery of alchemy, the transmutation of elements, which He links with the coming of a great calamity for the whole world. It is known that the transmutation of elements is now possible through certain nuclear processes.

[1 See vol. 2, p. 268.]

(Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 4, p. 225)

Answer 12

I believe in my religion and maintain that by faith  

Answer 13

The whole point of religion is to have faith and believe in something without proof, so if someone really has faith in their religion, they will believe that over science.

Personally, I don't believe in anything science tells me is true because my religion says that God is the only one we should trust, and in my religion, well, I am the God. :)

Answer 14

basically you have to choose either one because science contradicts nearly every religion. personally i tend to believe scientific facts. i like to know the reasons for why things happen (proof). the religious views people try to give never fully answer my question, and keep makin me ask but how u know and why.

Answer 15

Anyone and everyone who either says that they would pick their religion over science, or whose behavior shows that that is what they do, also show that their personal life values treat their emotional comfort as being higher than facts and evidence. IOW, they will lie when it suits their feelings and emotional needs.

Such people show that they are not to be trusted about anything. Only people who accept all facts, no matter how inconvenient to their personal views, are trustworthy.