Are Science and Religion Forever Mortal Enemies?

Imagine a black hole, if you can. There is one or more in every galaxy. These cosmic sized vacuum cleaners suck everything in their neighborhood down a funnel much like water going down the drain. As matter enters the vortex it’s structure becomes more and more compressed.
This is possible because matter primarily consists of empty space. Space between molecules, space between atoms in molecules, space between electrons and nuclei, etc. As the space between these particles of matter decreases the process generates heat. Tremendous amounts of heat. In fact, the trillions of degrees of heat are so intense the particles actually revert to their primal form, energy. Einstein’s theory tells us that the amount of energy created equals the material mass times the speed of light squared.

Now lets assume the process occurred on a universe sized scale billions of years before the birth of our universe. Every single gram of matter became a part of a soccer sized ball of pure energy and there is no physical matter left. All knowledge, time, and matter are encompassed in this ball of energy….God, if you will. Then, for reasons not even guessed at yet, the ball blows up. We have the big bang. Energy is spewed out in all directions in a trillion degree heat wave. Our universe is born. As the energy becomes dissipated things begin to cool off. Millions of years later matter begins to form in a process similar to water vapor condensing to steam, and then water droplets. Clouds of the simplest from of matter, one electron circulating one proton, hydrogen, begin to form in galaxy sized clusters.

Which brings us to today. Billions of years after the big bang we find ourselves living on the third rock from our sun in the Milky Way galaxy. We begin to look outward with ever more powerful instruments. But we are not just looking away from our planet; we are looking back in time. Because light takes time to reach us, the light we see tells us the way things were when it first began to travel in our direction. If we look back far enough we can glimpse the birth of our universe.

China is now developing an array of antennas about two miles long in a high plains desert area where a clear and undistorted view of the heavens is possible. This antenna array is a form of radio telescope which permits detection of something called background microwave radiation. This is radiation believed to be left over from the big bang. When information begins flowing from this giant instrument we should be able to determine the circumstances surrounding the birth of our universe.

There is an interesting conflict growing as a result of the increase in knowledge provided by instruments of this sort. Our increasing wealth of knowledge is creating an ever widening gulf between science and conventional western religions. Christian based religions believe the world we live in was created a mere 6000 years ago by a single act of a supreme being. This doctrine, however, is being contradicted by an ever increasing body of evidence supported by mathematics and science which, interestingly enough also give us our laptops and IPODs.

At some point, perhaps today, these opposing points of view will have to be resolved if the world is to move forward without conflict. As any student of history knows, religious conflicts have been the reason for some of the biggest bloodbaths in human history. We must begin to put superstition and mysticism at rest. The world of make believe served the organizers of man well for centuries but inevitably leads to an ungodly amount of blood shed.

It is time to move on; time to give peace a chance.
Bob Parmelee