Why Scientists Scorn Religion

Every social phenomenon has two sides to it: the original philosophy it’s based upon, and the institution that it grows into, with time. An institution can distort the original philosophy to varying degrees, so we should not make the mistake of “judging Christianity by looking at the Church”. But an institution cannot transcend its underlying philosophy; in other words, an institution is only as good as its philosophy, or worse.

(Same is true for an individual, by the way. Personal philosophy is basic to anything else.)

The higher philosophy tends to accept, embrace, forgive, and build upon a lower philosophy. The higher philosophy is like widening your window of perception and understanding: accepting all that is, but seeing it in a different light. The lower philosophy, however, tends to resist, hate, ridicule, and fear the higher philosophy, because it is unable to embrace it; its worldview is narrower.

Without regard to the history of atrocities of the Church, the philosophy of Jesus Christ is higher than the philosophy that is behind contemporary science.

Christianity emphasizes individual free will, brotherhood of men, and ultimate responsibility to the Universe (“God”) alone for one’s choices. It disposes of the pagan notions of man being controlled like a marionette by the authority of either gods, or the society (“the common good”). It rejects the idea of submission, and instead proclaims ultimate freedom of every individual person, with total acceptance of the responsibility that comes with this freedom. It also teaches humility, and warns against any one person’s proclaiming themselves God or more powerful than God. (Incidentally, worshipping Jesus Christ as God is in direct opposition to his teachings.)

The worldview of science, in comparison, is a regression towards pagan beliefs. If science was simply a methodology for exploring the nature’s forces (as it claims to be), it would have no reason to attack religion. After all, what difference does it make? We can study and use the phenomena of nature just as successfully without any consideration of whether it was created by God or by accident. With either point of view, the scientific formulas would stay exactly the same. Your car engine works just the same whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not.

The only thing that can explain why scientists are conditioned to feel so passionate about ridiculing and condemning religion, is the conflict between philosophies. The scientific philosophy essentially robs people of free will and instead emphasizes that man is again controlled, only this time by forces of nature, physical laws, the genes, the neurotransmitters, the economic necessity, or whatever. At any rate, the responsibility for one’s choices and actions is again pushed away from the individual person, and to the environment. To anyone who truly believes in science, nature and society are the irresistible authority, and man is a helpless and insignificant grain of sand in the giant mechanism. The role of a human being is again reduced to a bee in a beehive, who must surrender its rights (or even life) to the request of the bigger powers. Thus created is the great disease of the mind — mysticism — which is blaming the outside forces for one’s circumstances, and refusing to admit personal responsibility. This is how scientific philosophy brings us straight back to the pagan society.

Since earthly governments can hardly exist in a truly Christian society, it is easy to see why science is well-funded, and also why it has become so much of an ideology, rather than simply a humble exploration of the nature’s wonders.