Personal Viewpoint

Instead of growing up in a family where religion was a positive part of everyday life, like going to church or Bible study, religion was one thing that everyone in my family viewed as maybe one of the greatest crimes in our society. Many dinner conversations focused around some core issue that was currently in the news, or how one of us was bothered about what someone had said in school. My junior year of high school I wrote a three-page letter to our school newspaper arguing that having a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meet and pray at school was a breach of separation between church and state. I also remember speaking to a classmate in my Honors Chemistry class about the Big Bang. He argued that it was ridiculous to think that there was a great explosion and the universe was created. I said that he was completely right - a man with a beard pointing his finger and creating Adam and Eve made a whole bunch more sense than science. Obviously, my background has made religion and science mortal enemies in my view. This view has ended relationships, and has caused many arguments.

My main issue with religion relating to science is this opinion that you could have truth and fiction existing in the same realm- because science to me is the truth. It is tested, re-tested, re-tested again, and proven. Religion is faith. Faith cannot be proven; it is a belief that an individual has. I once read an article written by the comedian Ricky Gervais in which he discussed why he is an Atheist. He joked that if someone said that they believed in God and you asked him or her why, they would say faith. And that would be the end of the conversation. But if I claimed I could fly, and I said I had faith, and that made it possible the other person would tell me to jump off a bridge to prove it. This hits the nail on the head for me. I do not think that anything relating to science should include religion because religion taints it. I feel that so much rides on science during this time. Issues like stem cell research, abortion, and gay-rights are so important to me. In my opinion, when religion invades these issues, society suffers. I can completely admit I'm closed minded. I hardly ever entertain the idea that what religious individuals claim is in fact true. I am hoping that this class helps me understand why those individuals hold on so strongly to their faith, just as I cling to my proof.