Is it possible that science and religion are not at odds; and that only our understanding of them are?

This is probibly the case - loads of peole throw scientific hypotheses around and obviously they have no basic understanding of them. The same with God - and I think alot of people forget the bible was manmade - and most of the old testimaent is irrelevant - which shows that the book is mere-mortal. But what of other religions. Doy uou also think Muslims represent energy or matter through Allah. You have to think of all wordly religions -which could be righ or wrong. ( What I mean is their faith may be right but their 'religion' and beleifs e.g. churches and rules in religoius books are man made. )

i do agree you, especially when I think that in the oldays people thought illness was God's punishment, and the world was flat etc.. all of which have been scientifically proved; yet you can sort of see some mild logic in it.

It is often remarked that, taken as metaphor, the story of Genesis bears some resemblances to the Big Bang theory.

Similarities:

1) A distinct beginning to things.

2) The beginning involves "light"---the early Big Bang is photon-dominated.

3) The beginning involves a "separation of light and darkness"---the actual Big Bang involves the separation of positive and negative energies.

4) The formation of the Sun, Solar System, Earth, and life come later.

Differences:

1) The timescale is billions of years, not days.

2) There is no evidence for an an intelligent, supernatural creator, aside from the initial creation of something out of Nothing (if that indeed is what happened). Most importantly, there is no evidence that the creator still acts in the world, or is in any way concerned with the lives or morality of individual people.

3) An enormous number of other stars and planets have also evolved.

4) Living species originated through evolution, not through individual creation.

5) Humans are animals.

The trouble is though that the bible was a book written by man. It's still being edited by man and it's purpose was really to control man without authority.

That's why it can't compete with the science, because it relied on info that was knowledge 1700 years ago.

The fact, from a scientific point of view, that not a single iota of evidence exists to actually support the notion of a god is the only thing that stops world wide acceptance.

If there was any evidence, everyone would believe the same thing, but there are tons of versions of religion simply because it's a pass-down behaviour to believe.

For some reason, people stop believing in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus and they hold the EXACT same principles in reality that God and Jesus do.

If God created man, then wouldnt he give man the comprehension you talked about ?

However, many things in the bible have been found, dug up, discovered and proven such as temples, rulers, artifacts and disasters. So things like Science and Religion can co exist on some levels. Science is about truth , if it turns out that there is a god (1 or many) then science will teach that.

Right now science doesnt show a creator god, and religion is based on a God, not energy, but some sort of alive super lifeform creating everthing we can realize through our meek sense's.

"Scientist (and followers of science) tend to discount Biblical explanation I think because of the word "God"."

I disagree. We discount Genesis because there is nothing scientific in Genesis. We know the earth wasn't created in 6 days. We know that women weren't created from a Man's rib. Your argument about energy is interesting, but it doesn't make the Bible a scientific treatise. It is not what the Bible was intended to be.

people like to see things as black or white. Those who are dogmatic on the creation side of things will insist that only a strict literal interpretation of the bible can be true. Those who are on the far end of the science spectrum would insist that no reference to God could be accurate.

The truth is that none of us really know and we'll probably never know(until we die) how things really went down at the creation. I have faith that God created the world. Exactly how He did it I'm not sure, but when I see the complexities of life, the odds of things happening by chance are so astronomical only a fool could believe that "we" just happened.

That is not to say that micro evolution does not happen. It obviously does.

I tend to believe god could be energy, a singularity, the luck of the draw finding order in chaos, or even just math.

(EYE OPENER!!!)

ACTUALLY a catholic priest, Georges Lemaître, was one of the first people to work on the big bang theory. The church finally accepted the idea of the big bang because IT DOES allow God to exist and doesn't attempt to disprove God directly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre

For quite some time, the scientists that came up with and supported big bang theory DID think god initiated it. Even looking at string theory and its ideas of multiple universes STILL supports the ability of a God to exist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_and_rel...

BUT!!!! why are there multiple religions besides Christianity that claim other GODs???

can they all be right or all be wrong, or (string theory again) are they both right and wrong at the same time?

are there really multiple Gods, just multiple beliefs or is god like we said energy, a singularity or order from chaos?

steve H has a good point too.

Well, with apologies to the movie, "Enemy Mine"....

Truth is truth. It belongs to no one, and everyone. The people who wrote the bible didn't have the understanding of quantumphysics, string theory, star formation or anything like what is known today. They wrote the version of the formation of the Universe they could understand - either the one they made up, or what was told to them - for their understanding.

And, we do that today - trying to explain a huge concept to a child - death, divorce, war, etc - we use simple terms that the child can understand, and ones that he can relate to. Perhaps that's how the shepards & scribes of that time *heard* how creation was performed.

Absolutely the two can co-exist! It is in fact a very good litmus test for religious doctrine or teaching. If any part of it is at odds with science, then that is obviously a faulty interpretation.

We did evolve from apes.

Eve did not see the devil and then eat an apple. Well, if she did see the devil, she obviously ingested something before she bit that apple!

"Like, wow, man! So that's what green sounds like! Duuude!"

I like your take, but nope, people take the bible as true fact and you can't argue proven facts with them. Faith is a wonderful and horrible thing. Once they are locked into their beliefs its really had to educated them in the truth. Religion is just a bunch of stories created at a time when man didn't understand the world as much as we do now. Unfortunately when mankind got a little education religion didn't change with it, it stagnated in its thinking. The majority of people are not smart enough to understand the world and universe, they are to stuck in their small minds and tiny lives to look around and think for themselves. Like these people praying for rain HAHAHAHA so far its a 1 out of 3 deal, guess their god just doesn't like them.