Science and Religion

In the beginning, the earth was formless and desolate. Genesis 2:4 states, “When the Lord, God made the Earth, He made the Universe, there were no plants on the earth and no seeds had sprouted, because He had not sent any rain, and there was no one to cultivate the land, but water would come up beneath the surface and water the ground. Then the Lord God took some soil and formed a man out of it.”However, lately, archeology has been digging for answers. Now I’m not trying to change your perception of religion and neither am I a guy who criticizes spiritual beliefs; it’s just that they do not compute according to science, are physically impossible and are rendered as fiction by some people. However, out of curiosity, we discover and form our beliefs and establish our place in the world –and this in itself is not a sin. Firstly, around the 18th and 19th Century archeologists dug up prehistoric evidence that lead them to believe that there was an entirely different world from ours in which all living things evolved, later on they discovered more of these artifacts bones, footprints and animal fossils. They reigned for millions of years before the Stone Age period and were very much unlike the ones today. They were driven into extinction but existed as the Apex species before we humans evolved. They later came to be known as Dinosaurs. Unfortunately, for them, but fortunate for us, their extinction gave us life and passed on their instincts and traits, leaving us mammals as the Apex species. Genesis 1: 16 says, “So God made two larger lights, the sun to rule over day and the moon over night.” Many verses in the Bible, Quran and other religious books defy the laws of humanity. For example, according to the above verse “God made two larger lights” which are, the sun and moon. However, when you look through a telescope, you clearly see that the moon only reflects the sun’s light. Another chapter reads, “the fool says God does not exist”. In last week’s paper, an article titled “Is God man-made” talked about man’s possible involvement in the shaping of religion. It said religion is evolving like human beings are. The author also quoted the saying “it’s better to believe in God, die, and find out otherwise than not believe in him, die and find out the opposite.” But I think if you believed in Him and died, you’d have a fifty-fifty chance of either finding out He lives or you could disappear into the eternity of nothingness. The question is does God exist? Someone had to have created the universe in which scientists claim is the source of all life, and if He does not exist, how did we come to be and would there be any hope at all? What would the world come to? Would all religion be tarnished, would all belief in spiritual beings and gods be abandoned or cursed for the troubles, pain and inefficiency it has caused people? How would it affect both religious and cultural believers on this planet? What effect would it have on our everyday lives? Would it relieve people of traditional and sometimes religious pressures like forced marriage, arranged marriages or under-aged forced marriages? Would it simply devastate them to see something they have devoted their lives to is just man-made. Would people abandon beliefs that for centuries have spilt so much innocent blood over conflicts, racism, hatred and difference over words in old books? Nevertheless, what makes us human is our capability to achieve what no other species on the planet can. Maybe the things we cannot acquire, the future may reveal.