Right...now that I'm not getting ready to head out the door to work I can actually give a slightly longer viewpoint on this.
You were warned
I am a man of science, I believe that humanity descended from apes which in turn spawned from a primeval swamp, which in turn was formed by a random meteor impact on a planet which was already teeming with bacterial life from other random meteor impacts.
I believe that we are as much a part of the universe as everything around us, the plants, the animals, the sky, the earth, it is all connected.
I believe that we are little different to the animals that surround us, when it all boils down to it, we act in similar ways, we fight over territory, we have strong mating instincts (some stronger than others
), we seek the best we can in a mate and we all seek to protect our young so that our species can continue. We may put a fancy society around it, but there are so many similarities that it's hard for me to deny it.
I am a man of belief, I believe that there is a spiritual side to mankind which is formed more of energy than it is of any big man in a beard. I believe that this Big Bang was caused by the Big Crunch of a previous universe...but what started the first universe?
Does this make me scared? Sometimes, yes, I am scared...I look out of the window and I see wars that are not caused by religion, religion is just a thin icing on top of a cake composed of standard human emotion. Greed, is a strong component of our daily lives, bigger is better, everyone wants a pay rise, everyone wants that oil field, everyone wants a successful market, even at the expense of someone elses market, someone elses job, someone elses life. Religions put humanities flaws down to an evil entity, some call him Satan, some Lucifer, some Velnias, but it is in essence a simple display of what is in every single one of us. There's a quote from Star Trek Deep Space Nine that I always come back to when I think of humanity, and it is just so true, and it's from a very powerful episode, 'The Siege of AR-558':
Quark: "
Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people – as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts... deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers... put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time... and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces, look at their eyes..."
That Satan, that evil is just a simple part of the complex machine of emotions which make up a human being. Do other animals have that same machine? Some cat owners would certainly attest to the darker side of feline emotions, however since we still have trouble bridging the gap between our form of language and theirs it is something that we can only guess at.
Science has inflicted some terrible pain upon our animal brethren, and it still does in laboratories around the world. Somewhere up in orbit, or more likely in small microns scattered across the planet is a dog which was sacrificed for science...she had no say in the matter, and she died a lonely, horrible death, for science. So Science isn't quite the magical cure for all the evils of mankind, if anything it gives us more evil ways to kill each other and to make each others lives a misery. Yesterday it was the rack, today it's water-boarding, tomorrow perhaps it will be false memories implanted directly into the brain.
Religion and science are the ying and yang of mankind. Where did morality come from? Our societies grew up from the Medieval era of god-fearing citizens (although some haven't quite grown up yet...) which instilled in them a strict code of right and wrong which was punished harshly, and as we emerged from under the umbrella of that fear, what has happened? The London riots, fueled by nothing more than greed and a disregard for the morality of the event. If those youths knew that they would be punished by having their hands removed, would they have still done it? Not that I'm advocating such treatment, but merely highlighting the fact that science needs religion to curb its excesses as much as religion needs science to keep it from growing beyond its place in society. Right now, and throughout history, neither have managed to keep that perfect balance, and we have swung from one extreme to the other.
Are all scientists automatically atheists? An interesting question to ponder. Does religion have a place in science? I think it does, and science has a place in religion. Just because the Bible is just a book it does not mean that the underlying principles of the things that Jesus supposedly taught are null and void. Even the bible states that Politics and Religion do not mix, it is humanity which has merged the two into a horrible mess.
We are a flawed species, nothing is perfect, and religion and indeed science, are just two parts of this flawed gem that is humanity.
Maybe one day there will be a conscious change in society towards a more peaceful coexistence...but it will take a collosal event to have something like that happen on a global scale. Until then we just have to make the best of what we can, but at the end of the day, we have to try to live in peace with each other on this ball of dirt and water the best we can in order to face the challenges that await us in this century...and boy do we have some doozies.
