Science, Religion, and the Surrounding Confusion.

[Flint]

So I'm backsatge with the church band in between sets, and we're talking about how military technology has changed throughout history. And somebody says "I wonder who were the first people who were farming their fields, and then one day decided that they also wanted their neighbor's land, so they went and took it? Because that is essentially what war is."

So I replied that a really early example of that was when we pushed the neaderthals out of central Europe and into colder climates where they weren't able to adapt and survive. I didn't think anything of this other than it being as example of the "I will take my neighbor's land" scenario.

An interesting conversation ensued, that I honestly wasn't expecting. A few people were quite confused, and one person told me that "they don't believe that." Someone asked me how long ago I was talking about. Someone asked me what "we" were and I said, you know, Homo Sapiens. Pretty soon the whole room was talking about dinosaurs, Adam and Eve, and carbon dating. I stopped talking at this point and was just listening, fascinated. I really didn't think that mentioning the colonization of Europe by fully modern Homo Sapiens would have anything to do with evolution, which is, I think the hot button that was triggered.

Someone mentioned that dinosaurs weren't mentioned in the Bible. I wondered, then do dinosaurs not exist? Someone mentioned the iceman that was found, who was 5,000 years old, and some discussion about his origins followed. I made a mental note that the Earth is only supposed to be 6,000 years old. The merits of carbon dating, and the fact that it is a decades-old technology were discussed. One sensible person was clearly trying to tell the others that the "debunking" of the precision of carbon dating has already been done by the scientific community itself, who have subsequently devised more accurate methods (I don't think they followed this line of reasoning).

I found myself in the middle of a shocking display: otherwise intelligent people acting out of utter confusion regarding the difference between their spirituality, their religion, and the culture of man-made attachments which masquerade as religious elements. Specifically, the fact that religious people still feel the need to attack science as an enemy (and with such misguided and easily dismissed talking points no less). What the hell does the existence of dinosaurs or neanderthals have to do with your religious faith? People, why are these stupid ideas still in circulation?

Religion and science are different, but complementary methods to interpret our perceptions of the world. There isn't any compelling reason for them to be opposed, unless one simply misunderstands the scope of their application. In my way of thinking, they, and in fact all disciplines, should be completely intertwined.

Do you think that religion trumps science; science trumps religion; one should pick and choose qualities from each depensing on the situation; or that religion and science are not in conflict at all?