Will religion and science ever agree?

IMO, science and religion are contradictions. Science is based on observable facts, and conclusions drawn from those facts. Religion is ruled by faith, which involves the abrogation of reason.

I totally agree Pheonix. But what if science somehow finds a way to prove miracles, and prove why certain events from the bible really happened. Maybe if we gain more knowledge about the human brain we'll be able to explain more.

I don't believe religion and science are contradictions anymore than I believe that what we call "love" contradicts the biological stimuli/reactions one experiences when emotionally aroused. In the same way, science, which seeks to measure and demonstrate how, is not contradicted by religion, which observes and explains why. These two concepts are totally different though many people often use them interchangeably which is the reason I think we are prone to believe that they indeed contradict one another. Because religion and science do not attempt to answer the same question, we cannot say that religion truly "abrogates" reason if what you mean is "scientific" reasoning. Pure religion -- or a better term for what I am describing is "faith" -- is merely a philosophical yet quite logical reasoning based on observations of the human spirit over many generations. It requires a "sixth sense" if you will -- the spirit of a person that involves his innermost thoughts, desires, and relationship with life -- to discern "why" something in life is so... certainly nothing he can see or test in a science laboratory.

Religion can and will never explain or demonstrate how something occurs, just as science can and never will demonstrate why something occurs. The "why" questions in life are philosophical in nature because they are actually asking intent. For example, if someone bakes a cake, and is asked why it is pink colored, he could answer that it is because the frosting he used has pink dye in it... but, that really answers how it is that the cake came to be pink. The "why" is really about the maker's intention.... Therefore, there is no need to demonstrate how it is that the cake is pink; It is sufficient, and even accurate, only to state the baker's reason for choosing to make the cake pink.

Therefore, as you can see, many can accurately answer "how" (the scientific answers) because it is merely a demonstration of known facts. But, it is only the maker, the doer, the creator of something who can answer "why" because only he knows the reason it was done. People have always sought to know "why" through their religion by asking these philosophical questions of their Maker. Most religions have a written "Word" of some sort such as the Bible or Koran, etc. that keep the wisdom of the answers for their people, generation after generation.

Without religion or at least philosophy of some sort, one will only be asking and knowing "how". That is too basic and unfulfilling when it comes to the yearnings of the human spirit to understand the meaning of life.

wow, nice thorough response, welcome to A2K, youre in.

The problem is that the myths and symbols in the Bible were never meant to be taken literally, and doing so just belittles the religion. It's no wonder that the "virgin birth" causes so much contention between religious people, and confuses young people; to take that as literal truth rather than metaphor is superficial.

As others here have said, spirituality is subjective experience while science is objective. The two are parallel and never touch. If fundamentalists want to believe in old anachronistic science, that's their business. If they want to believe in geocentrism or disbelieve evolution, that's their business too. But don't call that religion; it's science, albeit disproven science.

Welcome to A2K, Kaboodles. You've made some good points, and I hope to see more of your responses on this and similar threads.

Phoenix pretty well says it for me.