ON THE MATTER OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Science versus Religion, Reason versus Faith:

The reasonability of Faith in God.

By: Dominador N. Marcaida Jr.

Reason, with its handmaiden Science, and Faith with its handmaiden Religion, does not contradict each other in the matter of explaining about the existence of God, or of gods, because God, or gods, merely exist in the human mind to explain the mysterious phenomenon of life in the universe. In reality, there is only nature (from the Latin word “nascor”, meaning “birth”, “originate”, “generate” “engender”) that tries to explain the origin of everything that exists or that has life.  Hence, that which humans call God, or gods, is the very existence of everything in nature, which is the proper subject of both science and religion.    

In fact, even the biblical God, Yahweh, or Jehovah, comes from the Tetragrammatons’ “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh”, which is from the Hebrew verb הוהי, meaning “to be”, “to exist.” 

Philosophy, as a science of reason, refers to God as a thing that exists in itself (ipsum esse subsistens), one which is of pure existence, a self-subsisting existence.

The term “God” is a conventional term used conveniently to refer to the phenomenon of existence, or life, in the universe.

Religion is the vehicle used by people for such belief in the existence of existence itself (i.e., God, or gods). It is also a sociological phenomenon that changes with the predominant mode of production of society as it goes from one period to the next period of history.

Faith is belief in something that comes from human intuition, or from the will or the heart of man.

Science is the exercise of reason through some sensory evidence of reality being presented to the mind for analysis or synthesis. When science becomes capable of explaining the entire phenomenon about the existence of everything in the universe, such as its explanation about the origin of life from the first symmetry-breaking quantum-like fluctuation in the original void that resulted in the Big-Bang to its explanation about the evolutionary process through natural selection, then faith, and with it religion, becomes an unnecessary tool to explain reality. But until the time that science and reason is not able to present to us a reliable answer to the ultimate question concerning the origin and operation of the universe, then we have to contend with the explanation that faith and religion offers us regarding these things.

The rituals of religion are merely human celebrations of life and the wonders of survival of daily life in the natural environment.

Hence, to my opinion, there should be no quarrel between science and religion because both are merely human attempts to try to comprehend reality as it is perceptible and appreciable at present, nor between reason and faith because both are mere exercises of the faculties of the mind and heart of man, nor between theists and atheists because the thinking and musing of both kinds of people are necessary and required to arrive at the truths and certainty of the things and phenomenon of nature, including the wonders of life in the universe we presently live in.

Therefore, there should be no exclusion of people, and of no one, even to the point of painful tolerance, in matters of searching for the truth about life. Let us just embrace everyone, in good will, to make one’s life on earth peaceful, memorable and meaningful even in the midst of our disagreements over some arguments for or against this or that principle and about our individual discoveries and beliefs concerning the truths of life.

Whatever people had made out of religion, whether they made a big profitable enterprise out of it or just a sincere quest for the sacred and the divine, is their own business. Let us just rely on the good sense of people to discern rightfully, and to choose properly in which one to trust over the so many varieties of religions proliferating nowadays in our pluralistic society. Lest we also forget to just arm ourselves so tightly in self-defense against some religious fanatics who are out there waging a holy war to promote the concept, or the cause, of their own God.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN FAITH AND RELIGION

Faith is the motor

That makes religion run.

Remove faith

And religion dies.

Because faith

Is the blind obedience given

To everything that

religious authorities dictate,

religion and faith is one,

almost an inseparable pair.

But according to Jewish thought,

Their religion runs essentially

On three motors, or acts,

Based on the principle of the Shema:

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

This Jewish teaching

Was borrowed by the Christian religion

Where the Christian evangelists

Also affirmed the same principle and acts.

This teaching of the Christian evangelists

Was supported by Peter Chrysologus

When he said that: “If you pray, fast;

if you fast, give alms.”

The Christian Apostle Paul

Modified this teaching

Of the evangelists when he said

That three things remain:

Faith, hope and charity.

But the greatest of these three,

According to this apostle, is charity.

The teaching of these two Christians,

That of Peter Chrysologus and Apostle Paul,

Is similar because prayer is the outward

expression of faith; fasting, of hope;

and almsgiving, of charity.

If these two Christian teachings were combined,

That of Peter Chrysologus and Apostle Paul,

The result will be that almsgiving is the greatest

Of these three Christian acts.

However, according to the hierarchy

That Peter Chrysologus used,

these three Christian acts

Start on prayer, or on faith.

.

Hence, no fasting and no almsgiving will happen

If, in the first place, there is no prayer,

Which is the expression of faith.

Eventually, if there is no faith,

There is no religion.

Therefore, ultimately, the motor

that makes the engine of religion

run is faith.

It could be worse if religion is run

With the motor of almsgiving,

Like what many religious groups do

That run on the engine of money.