Preview

The Conflict Between Religion, Science And Science

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1327 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Conflict Between Religion, Science And Science
Religion is an important part of life for many people. Even people who are not all that religious by nature consider it to be important. The rise of science during the renaissance in Europe created a confrontation between religion, science and philosophy which still persists today. Is religion still useful to civilization? In this paper an evaluation of the conflict between religion and science will be discussed.
Dictionary.com defines religion as, “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs” . Oxforddictionaries.com
…show more content…
Marx likened religion to opium for the masses. Whether used medicinally or illegitimately, this drug has been used to try to alleviate physical or emotional pain; opium has been used in an attempt to escape the symptoms of that from which individuals ailed. As with most palliatives, only the symptoms of the ills were treated – the underlying causes of the sickness or injury remained. Marx’s real criticism of religion comes in the understanding of his attitude that religion had developed in a way that provided humanity with an escape from the realities of this world by offering a better future in the next life. The conditions of this life – poverty, oppression and alienation – could then be simply accepted and tolerated. In this way, Marx viewed contemporary religion as maintaining the status quo by stripping individuals of the initiative to change their circumstances. He saw that the harsh conditions within which people lived during the early to mid-nineteenth century, if not radically changed, required some source of illusion that provided hope. Religion filled this function. Marx’s argument was that, in order to remove the conditions of oppression that made this illusion necessary, the source of the comforting illusion, or painkiller, had to be first removed. Marx considered the abolition of religion necessary in order that people find real …show more content…
Marx railed against the concepts of caste and division of labour, but seems to have written almost reverently of the conditions that preceded the Industrial Revolution. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, and the resultant drastic increase in capitalism, a different class system developed containing two primary strata – the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. “The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilized ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West” . Cycles of oppression and revolution, rather than resulting from class struggle, may be better interpreted as consequences of self-interest on a large scale, with profit and power as the motives, in which class domination and oppression are symptoms of unrestrained greed. The basic causality has been economics, but economics on a large scale with a history of a powerful, limited, moneyed elite dominating the much larger populations of powerless, impoverished peasants in order to satiate

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    According to Webster, Religion is defined as a personal set or institutionalized system of beliefs, attitudes and practices. An alternate source defines Religion as the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or a set of beliefs concerning the origin and purpose of the universe. Throughout history we can note that religion has played a major role in various cultures, political changes as well as social society.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religion as defined by Merriam-Webster is, “the belief in a god or in a group of gods; an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods; an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group” ("Religion," 2014, p. 1). However, throughout history different people have had different views and influences that have shape their definition of religion. Most religions have leaders, organized practices, holy places, and holy books or scriptures that are followed. Religions can also include mythology, dance, festivals, death ceremonies, gods, goddesses, idols, and prayer.…

    • 787 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marx saw religion as acting two functions. The opium of the masses explains that religion ease the pain or exploitation of the people in three ways as it promises an eventful escape from suffering and oppression in this life and promises a better life after death. Religion also offers hope of supernatural interventions to solve problem on earth and finally religion provides a religious explanation for the justification of inequality for example the rich man at his castle and the poor man at his gate. The second function that religion does based on Marx is that it legitimises and maintains the power of the ruling class. They see religion as a form of social control and oppression that are used by the ruling class to legitimise the power of the wealthy. The inequality…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    GP_Science_and_religion

    • 504 Words
    • 21 Pages

    Extension Lecture 3: Science and Religion 21 April & 25 April 2014 “Science without Religion is lame; Religion without Science is blind” – Albert Einstein ‘God is the Ultimate Scientist’ – Anonymous Lecture Outline 1. What is science? 2. What is religion? 3.…

    • 504 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Science verses Religion has been an ongoing debate all over the world for centuries. Depending on who one talks to about these topic will depend on the passion and beliefs one has. As we saw in the movie Angels and Demons all the major characters such as Robert Langdon, Camerlengo McKenna and the former pope had their own strong feelings and beliefs. Certain questions have been raised about these two topics that I will be elaborating on later in this essay such as, Is there room in the world for both, Can one render the other obsolete, and would I rather live in a world without science or religion? I find all these questions very interesting and interaging, just like the movie Angels and Demons.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is religion? Religion is “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.” (Religion, 2012) Basically, one’s religion is the set of beliefs which that person feels encompasses his or her beliefs regarding the powers of the universe and religious practices.…

    • 817 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    World Religions 1

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. Define religion. Religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods, a particular system of faith and worship, and a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Science and Religion

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Assess the view that science has replaced religion as the main ideological influence in society today? (33 marks)…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many different definitions of religion, but two we are studying about is Paul Tillich’s definition and Melford E. Spiro’s definition. Paul Tillich is a Christian theologian and philosopher who defined religion “the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the meaning of life. Melford Spiro, a contemporary anthropologist defined religion “an institution consisting of culturally patterened interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings.” I prefer Tillich’s definition.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    What is religion? In the dictionary it states that “religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods (world spirituality).” But in other walks of faith, religion could be a place of worship, whether if it’s at home, or at a church. In every culture there are those god-seekers. We have created every religion as a method to redeem ourselves and to reach God through regulations, rules, or works.…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    (or seems to) between science and religion. The argument being presented in this paper is very straightforward. It transcends the borders laid out by the proponents of the compatibility of science and religion regarding how they seem to complement each other and proves that they are in conflict with each other.…

    • 2127 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religion. “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods”. Religion is looked at differently by every single individual. There is no proof, no evidence, just faith. Religion is based strictly off of one’s faith. Without faith there would be no religion because there would be nothing to believe in. Every single individual has or has had faith in something. People practice faith every day without even knowing it. Every morning when people hop into their car they have faith that they are going to make it to their destination safely. Religion is a very reasonable concept. There are so many questions about humanity that can only be answered by religion. Science can only answer so many questions, the rest need faith in order to be answered. For example Ellie Arroway claimed that she was not faithful. This was proven wrong as she was willing to go into the machine not knowing what the outcome would be. She had faith that the machine was going to work and take her to Vega. Nobody understood the science behind the machine including Ellie, but everyone had faith in it working. Richard Dawkings compared faith in God/Religion to faith in Santa Claus or an imaginary friend. This is understandable because there is equally enough evidence that God exists as there is evidence that Santa exists.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As far back in time as can be remembered, there has always been some form of religion governing the thoughts of mankind. Different cultures found different deities to explain what they could not, the natural phenomenas all around them. These "gods of the gaps" were essential to allow the ancient people to give explanations for what they did not know, saying simply that "God did it". However, as time went on and science emerged with its theories and evidence, people realized that there were answers other than God that existed to their questions.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religion and science might be incompatible as long as we think that they are trying to do the same job. But they have radically dissimilar tasks, and if we just keep them in their separate district, preventing them from invading each other’s territory, there can never be any real problem of science and religion, yet they in some cases cross ways. To find the critical shared mutual interests and important contributions they make to each other, we need to explore deeper in ways where they are…

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Religion vs Science

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages

    An age-old battle with both sides having nearly equal followers and those followers being die hard advocates. No side willing to budge and give way to a different possibility makes for a very complicated situation. With both sides so committed to their beliefs there is little chance of a resolution in sight. With this topic comes a very thin line one must walk to cover both sides without offending one side or the other, I know there will be groups that will never accept any one word of this and will hate me. Regardless, I believe this topic needs to be discussed and should no longer be viewed as taboo. Religion asks us take things on faith because they have been now as truth for centuries, but Science tells us that our beliefs are wrong.…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays