‘Science without Religion is lame, Religion without science is blind’

Since ages, man has searched for the meaning of his life and existence. As he inquired about the cause of rain, the source of light, and the cause of an apple falling to the ground instead of flying up, he has faced an existential crisis many times. In all these situations, it is both religion and science which have come to his rescue. A bird’s eye view would force many to believe that both science and religion cannot go together and represent two opposite streams of knowledge!

However, a deliberative and careful analysis would reveal that, though with different paths, their common aim remains human welfare. It is in this pursuit of searching for answers to our inquisitiveness and defining the paradigm of our welfare, that the relation between science and religion becomes important! So, are they antagonistic or complementary? How does one without the other remain useless? How when science embodies the goal of religion and religion brings scientific temper into its metaphysics, harbor a peaceful world?

In this essay, we would find answers to the above questions!

So, what is science and what is religion?

Science is the objective study of the natural world around us. Science is the art of reasoning, finding empirical evidence through research and analysis. Science is seeking proof with clearly elucidated theorems about the occurrence of a phenomenon.

Religion, on the other hand, is the study of both natural and supernatural powers. If the cause of rain for science is coalescent – collide hypothesis [combining of the droplets within clouds] for religion, it is a step beyond this. It is invoking the supernatural entity – Indra in Hinduism and IRIS [daughter of Electra] in Greece! However, both of those are interconnected. Let us see how….!!

The scientific study of religion:

When one inquires into many rituals and rites of religion, one finds a scientific explanation. The reason for polytheism could be how man, perplexed by natural forces and unable to find a reason, attributed natural phenomena to one deity – _____ for wind ___a for rain. As is rightly said, ‘the more one is ignorant of cause, the more one believes in miracle’.

And, the religious belief in science!

The fact that religion also has an impact on science can be seen when one hears that Newton called himself a ‘Natural philosopher’ and see what he did… Discovered gravity! Our many rituals have a scientific explanation like – not eating after sunset [fess or digestive fire of intestine], cleanliness at Diwali [hygiene hypothesis], GHAR AS LAKSHMI and walking inside the house without footwear [role of hygiene again], fast during Ramzaan [fast cleanses body of toxins]. Aren’t the above examples a testimony to the fact that a religious doctrine which has human welfare at its center stage also has a scientific corollary? Indeed it is!

So, how would science look without religion: a lame duck!

Since both science and religion should work for the welfare of mankind, their objectives should be the same. Take the example of a post-disaster scenario, while all scientific technologies come to our rescue, nobody forgets to take the name of ‘Auah, Prabhu, Ishu’! Religion hence gives the backing of emotional intelligence, belief, faith, solitude, and tranquility to a mundane society.

However, when science forgets the essence of welfare, it wreaks havoc. When – we forget that woman has been portrayed as Lakshmi, goddess in our scriptures? We apply the scientific tools of cyberbullying, cyberstalking to her. We objectify her on the silver screen; we use the lightning speed of our technological wherewithal to tarnish her image.

Not only women, even as Bible expounds all citizens as brother and sister, what explains the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by America? The acquisition of scientific knowledge with war, racism, hatred, greed for hegemony have led to massacres in the form of world war.

Even our environment has been a victim of such unblemished march of inhumane pursuit. While all our scriptures from Bible to Koran portray Earth as mother, we have begun looking at drilling holes with the latest equipment in her chest to dig oil and shale, to build dams and reservoirs. And what else explains our opportunism, that we are waiting for Arctic to melt so that North Sea routes open up for transportation.

This unstoppable journey of science without core values of humanism and religious tolerance leads to building up of nuclear bombs. Uranium, a natural element which can solve all our energy needs then becomes an alternative for our destruction.

But let’s imagine how paradise our Earth and societies could be if science is used for human welfare. When science will become a means to fructify the tenets of ‘solidarity, peace, coexistence’ that all religions show. A case in point is ISRO. It has acquired space assets and technologies to guard farmers against the uncertainty of rain god. It plans to send Ganganyaan to explore what religions have called ‘Brahma’ and ‘Eternal’ – the space, the robotics used in surgery, the delivery of medicines by nanotechnology, the use of social media for good governance all show one thing – ‘how science without religious philosophy of welfare and Lokkaiyaan would remain lame.

Moving forward, it is not just science which is incomplete without religion. Even religion without science is of no use!

Religion without science: a blind horse

When we look at some of our religious practices, we find how they block scientific inquiry. Whether one looks at the birth of caste system, jajamani system, one can find that, without questioning dogmas, religion would turn into superstition and oppression. When we do not question the physiology and science behind menstruation, we put women on the path of discrimination and patriarchy.

When we understand that the basic science behind the birth of any human being is the same – ‘the fusion of egg and sperm’, we begin to question Varna System, which puts a hierarchical badge of differential and discriminating treatment the day we are born. Even the international order has not been devoid of this unscientific religiosity. What else explains the challenges Galileo, Charles Darwin faced when they challenged the orthodox views of religion. However, when scientific inquiry got entrained, it led to a renaissance in the western world. The Protestant Christians believed in the value of labor and pledged to work harder, invent more to make the world a better place. That is how religion guided science and science became the harbinger of prosperity!

Even back home, we have examples of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who brought rationality into religion, whose personal morals contrasted with the societal ethics – and the result was rejuvenation and resurrection of a modern Indian society. Hence, religion with science has always showed the path of glory to man.

Tying the threads of religion and science together!

Having established how important the role of science in religion and religion in science is, it is time to tie the threads of these two virtues together.

In our Indian context, ‘Constitution’ is the supreme document. It is constitutional morality of equality, fraternity, rule of law that should guide us. Both our religious beliefs and scientific pursuits should be guided by the ideals