Resolving Conflict between Science and Religion: Reform Judaism and Scientific Thought

Reform and Orthodox Jews both believe in the Torah; however their approach to it and the implications that come from it is the primary difference between both. An Orthodox Jew is one who is faithful to traditional Judaism’s principles and practices, including the belief in one God, daily synagogue presence and a strict adherence of the Sabbath and other holy days, religious festivities, and dietary commandments (Morris, 2015). In accordance with Jewish law, Orthodox Jews also maintain a historic comprehension of their faith by acknowledging that they are considered Jewish if born to a Jewish mother or by religious conversion if they accept the Torah and Halakha to be law. In Jewish law, the Halakha represents the will of God, as directly or as close to as possible. The written and oral law of the Torah was dictated by God to Moses on Mount Sinai (Shalev,

Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those super personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavour of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and action: it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between facts. According to this interpretation the well-known conflicts between religion and science in the past must all be ascribed to a misapprehension of the situation which has been described.

The first category that will be explained is conflict. This is optimally categorized with the statement that, “Science and religion investigate common questions, but their theories contradict one another and so compete with one another for our acceptance.” (Pojman 562). With the view of conflict, it is believed that science and religion overlap in regard to the quest for truth, but their methods and findings are contradictory. This theory is most commonly held by religious fundamentalists, those that believe in strictly literal translation of scripture; and the more recent movement of new atheism that is

When comparing science and religion there has been a great rift. As long as humanity has believed in a creator there as always been thinkers trying to quantify and evaluate the truth behind religion, trying to disprove or prove a supernatural force.

Throughout the history of science and religion there has always been a feud. People have been always told that this feud has lasted for centuries. Since the beginning of the scientific revolution there have a countless number of times in which science has presented a new idea about life that seemed to conflict with religion, and it almost every case religion combats it and ends up being wrong. All of these claims are basically common knowledge in today’s current day and age. Yet, is this common knowledge true? Many times, these conflicts have just been told to people as children by their teachers and parents and the children just blindly believe in these ideas just like their elders did before them. However, once scholars did more research

For most people of the modern age, a clear distinction exists between the truth as professed by religious belief, and the truth as professed by scientific observation. While there are many people who are able to hold scientific as well as religious views, they tend to hold one or the other as being supreme. Therefore, a religious person may ascribe themselves to certain scientific theories, but they will always fall back on their religious teachings when they seek the ultimate truth, and vice versa for a person with a strong trust in the sciences. For most of the early history of humans, religion and science mingled freely with one another, and at times even lent evidence to support each other as being true. However, this all changed

Science and religion are two different words in different disciplines, which are grounded on different foundations with different concepts, perspective and values. Science is built on surveillance of the Mother Nature, but religion is basically founded on faith. Religious people have faith and believe that God exists. Scientists agree that the real of the world can be learned and revealed, which can be concluded with the practice of the logical technique. It is true that science and religion are two different disciplines, but these two discipline can work together perfectly for better health outcome in the health care. It is true science emerges, but without God’s knowledge for the scientist, they cannot have the knowledge that it entails to discover Mother Nature. Different standpoints could emerge with the people who have strong basis for religion or science, with different beliefs and standards. Religious beliefs

theism versus science. During the beginning of this century and the next religion and science

John William Draper, in the History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science, states, “The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising from traditionary faith and human interests on the other.” John William Draper brings up a strong truth behind the progression of science. Human faith inevitably conflicts with the progression of science. One may think that religion is the moral part of human belief and science is the advancement of intellect. It is inevitable that morals and the advancement of intellect would. Emotions and morals sometimes may overpower what the advancement of science would lead to. This concept is present in the ethical controversy involved with the Catholic Church and stem cell research. The moral and heart of many members of the Catholic Church easily disables the acceptance and support of stem cell research. This is unfortunate because stem cell usage and research has tremendous potential in helping those that suffer from disease. Stem cell research will advance medical fields and assist in finding cures for deadly ailments. Many followers of the Catholic Church view the science of stem cell research as killing innocent lives, however a sense of the faithful needs to come into action in order to look passed tradition and history to

Reform Judaism also known as Liberal and Progressive Judaism is the large institutionalized religion that I chose. The locations that Reform Judaism is practiced in are 43 countries around the world and started in the Levant. They also have a headquarters in New York City, New York the Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis. “Reform Judaism emerged following the emancipation from ghetto life in the late 18 th century. It sought to modernize Judaism and thus stem the tide of assimilation threatening German Jewry” (Jews for Jesus). Abraham Geiger is considered to be the founder of the Reform movement. While he was investigating Jewish history he discovered that many of the old practices were changed in favor of new ones. Geiger also felt that the more changes that are made to keep up with the times will make Judaism attractive to all Jews. Olmec Religion was the small traditional religion that I chose. The location that the Olmec Religion was practiced in the Gulf of Mexico which is now the states of Tabasco and Veracruz, but their influence spread to as far as present day Nicaragua. Since the Olmec civilization was so long ago lasting between 1200 B.C. to 400 B.C. there is not much information on how the religion started but this was the first major Mesoamerican culture. Researchers have discovered “The Olmec practiced shamanism. They believed each individual has an animal spirit. Olmec religion centered around the Shaman. The feared and revered

Sometimes it can be hard to look at the universe and really appreciate all the complexities which govern it. Which might be due in part to the fact that as a species we have created, improved, and revised countless models of the universe. Often times people will interpret science and religion as being two very different things—which is true to an extent; however, at the foundation of religion and science they are the same, in that they both are merely trying to create a model of the universe; which in effect, helps us develop a better understanding of it. When you compare the difficulty of trying to understand science and religion; religion considerably is far easier to understand and thus people in general can better

The common narrative surrounding science and religion is that they are contradictory. People believe science is just a way to prove religion wrong, and so far science has remarkable accuracy. But science does not work against religion, rather science defends religion, and in some cases helps create deeper understanding of religion. When questioning religion, using science can help answer questions not found in the Bible, helping to further human understanding of both science and religion, and seeing how the two can build on each other.

Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan studied philosophy he has an enduring appreciation for evolution of both human beings and human culture. He believes there is a God, and science function should be just to study categorizations of phenomena. Kaplan concern was moral behavior, which is the individual 's knowledge of social and cultural norms and the ability to perform good works through noble actions. He believes humans should learn about the purpose of both, religion and evolution unless. that believe is affecting the person’s behavior or once chance of achieving salvation. He also believes we should apply the methods of science to issues of religion. “Science can have a salutary effect on religion”. (Cherry 271) Kaplan believes that science can have an effect on the way people view religion because, science influenced his understanding on religion and religion influenced his understanding on science so they are both useful.

Science and religion might be translated as different impressions of a similar source, and it is distortions in those reflections that prompt to chaos and misery. Religion and science both have defects that can imperil human progress if they do not acknowledge each other’s elementary principles. "Religion is not only dangerous and misleading but…sentient beings are generally too weak-willed to reject it” (269). When one acknowledges either science or religion with no endeavor to accommodate the two productively, the final result is normally disastrous. At the point when scientists and theologians take part in battle for the absolute entirety of people, nobody wins, but when they engage in dialogue, the fruits are enormous.

Although science explains much about life and the universe, some people choose to believe religion.