How can Science succeed, when Religion already has such a firm foothold?

We are quite lucky that religion and science are like oil and water, unlike the internet which is a confusion of blacks, whites and greys which you must filter.

Were the church to give up 6000 years, dinosaurs are fakes, 6 days, and evolution did not happen stance, I suspect a lot of people would be secretly relieved, Christians included.

Hypothetically it would make much more sense for the Church to be an organisation of professionals with up to date training for dealing with the mind, something psychologists, marriage counsellors and others do at the moment. A worldwide organization for dealing with measurable problems would be something incredible and have the support of everyone on the planet. Sadly it will never happen.

Science is the new overlay, "the truth". It celebrates those who contribute to knowledge even when their ideas have been found wrong. Respect is still due to them for helping others. In contrast religion persists in being wrong because it has no way out of a blind alley, other than to do a 180, which is not allowed. Religion will always be with us because as humans we need it, distorted as it is.

A God not confined by human ignorance would be so nice.

GL>

Science has its stakes in reality. Understanding nature. Utilising its principles for the betterment of the future of human existence.

What it does not provide is placebo for people who have a hard time accepting the harshness and cold indifference of the universe to their emotional turmoils.

When reality needs an alibi, this is where religion comes in.

Science is, and has always been, everywhere and in everything we see, while religion is only on the minds of those who believe. The notion that religion has a foothold on anything concrete is just a perceptional illusion.

Just wanna let you know, it was also a "fact" that the earth was flat and all the planets revolved around earth, because Aristotle said so. Don't be so confident in human knowledge, cause all the knowledge we possess, doesn't even equate to one grain of sand on the beach of universal knowledge. Then you blatantly say "science disproves religion" which is completely false, anybody who has taken a basic Physics course knows the two don't mingle. They are two totally unrelated things. It's like using an apple to disprove that an orange is an orange. Facts are fun and all, but you are using them out of context.

No. They aren't even comparable. There isn't any practical application of religion....save to soothe a troubled soul. The reason you can ask this question on this site isn't because someone prayed for it. It was practical, rational, logical application of the scientific process. It's nothing but a way to take our observations and turn them into applications; nothing more. Trying to demonize science by needlessly pitting it against something as tenuous and intangible as religion is silly.

Science requires understanding and questioning and so can only succeed where people are capable of understanding and have free thought. Religion is about following and not questioning, understanding is optional. Religion's foot-hold is only greater than that of science when it comes to the unintelligent.

One of those things is just trying to tell us what to do, control poor people and take money from them. And one of those things leads to objective truth as well as advancements in the state of humankind at every level, especially measurable technological and medical achievements. Both of those things go on at the same time.

I don't believe they have to be mutually exclusive.

@Chris- not a bad start to answering the question, though it ignores one of the vital tenets if the Protestant Reformation that demanded believers not rely on the interpretation of priests but must discover answers on their own. Of course, I am only addressing one tiny sliver of the many different brands of Christianity in a sea of many different religions.

science represents new style, since science is the increasing sopistication of man's knowledge. religion was just a faithful guess by people who had no clue

Science was a tool for finding truth. Once we have the truth; the truth will set us free. That was also the goal of religion.

awesome first comment just gotta say that but,

tbh it really already has i am pretty sure we use more science daily than religion.

let me simplify for people who do not understand

phone is greater > than church

here is the full mathmatical phrase

phone > church

this is to say more people use and rely upon thier phones than they rely upon church.