Letter: Science, religion and the search for truth
Church, state, Religion, Government, Spirituality, Conflict, Road Sign, Horizontal, Color Image, Urban Scene for Ann Silverberg ( iStock) Credit: iStock Photo
Your “Asking the clergy” feature asked, “Can science and faith coexist?” [LI Life, Sept. 4]
I’m a docent and staff entomologist at a science museum and president of a local history museum, and I hold a degree in biology. I’m also a Christian practicing in the Anglican tradition of the Episcopal Church.
Frequently, I’m asked how I can reconcile modern science, especially evolutionary biology, with religion.
I do so by noting that there are many schools of thought on this question and that many scientists, philosophers, historians and theologians have weighed in over the years.
It’s been my observation, however, that those who reject these investigations and favor the idea of an intrinsic philosophical conflict between science and religion hail from two categories of people who agree on nothing else: atheists and religious fundamentalists. This is not as astonishing as it seems. The former endeavors to turn science into a religion and the latter endeavors to turn religion into science, both profoundly misunderstanding the epistemological nature of the two areas of human inquiry.
Paul Manton, Levittown
