The Future Of Religion :: essays research papers

The future of religion     In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the orphic and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light" and there was light& amp8230(Gen 11.5) &8230then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. (Gen 27) This part from the news is a typical example of what people used to believe before scientists came and gave logical explanations to the questions of mankind.It is possible, of course, to define a non-supernatural "religious" beingview that is not in conflict with science. notwithstanding in all of its traditional forms, the supernatural religious worldview makes the assumption that the universe and its inhabitants have been designed and created by "forces" or beings which transcend the mater ial world. The material world is postulated to reflect a mysterious plan originating in these forces or beings, a plan which is knowable by humans only to the extent that it has been revealed to an exclusive few. Criticising or questioning any part of this plan is strongly discouraged, especially where it touches on questions of morals or ethics. Science, on the other hand, assumes that there are no transcendent, smart forces and that all forces which do exist within the universe behave in an ultimately objective or random fashion. The nature of these forces, and all other scientific knowledge, is revealed only through human effort in a dynamic process of inquiry. The universe as a whole is assumed to be objective to human concerns and to be open to any and all questions, even those concerning human ethical relationships. Such a universe does not come to us with well-to-do answers. We must come to it and be prepared to work hard. According to Thomas W. Clark science and religion are in a battle from the day that scientists got in the fields of the theologises