Reply #2: Funny you mention Angels & Demons.... [View All]

[jandrok]

I just started reading it a few nights ago. I wanted some background on the main character before I tackled Da Vinci Code.

I'd agree with your point about most scientists not being contemptuous of religion. I myself know several people who are involved in professional science who also have deeply held spiritual beliefs.

On the other hand, I'd say that there is a concerted effort amongst several fundamentalist religious organizations to treat science as a competing religion, as a threat to the "one truth" that these groups constantly peddle. Carl Sagan's excellent book "The Demon-Haunted World" explores this trend in detail. You see it in efforts to push "creation science" and "intelligent design" in schools. You see it in efforts to push competing theories to plate tectonics and the fossil record. There is outright contempt for science amongst these groups, and that is a very dangerous trend.

Science in it's purest forms is an attempt to understand the mechanics of the universe. Religion in it's purest forms is an attemt to understand our place in the universe. The two can most certainly co-exist and compliment each other.