I start out with the assumption that Christianity is primarily a religion of Creed (or Belief), as compared to, say, Judaism and Islamism, which are primarily religions of Law, in order to prove the following propositions:
(1) There is no opposition between Christianity and science. Actually, modern science is a direct descendant of Christianity.
(2) There is no science without belief, that is, faith.
(3) Science is a subset of Religion and Theology is the mother of all sciences.
Christianity is a belief-based religion, more than any other of the major religions. Thus Christians, as compared to Jews and Muslism, hold in their minds a very large number of beliefs, or assertions that are purely based on faith (v.g., Christ is the Son of God).
The first question a rational man asks when he holds a belief, and the question he repeatedly asks when he holds a large number of beliefs , is: "Are they true?". It is from this question that the search for truth becomes the highest purpose in life for the Christian man. The search for truth about nature and man is also the purpose of science. Thus, there is no opposition between Christianity and science - both seek to reach the truth. It then follows that modern science could not arise other than in a Christian environment.
All propositions of science start out as hypotheses and these are beliefs in the full sense of the word, i.e., assertions that are based on faith (v.g., the earth is flat; the sun runs around the earth; all lions are black). Some of these hypotheses are confirmed by reality and become part of the reservoir of science whereas others fail the test of reality and are discarded. All of them, though, start as acts of faith, i.e., as hypotheses. (From here it follows that a purely atheistic culture, if it were possible, would never produce science because it would never be able to formulate a scientific hypothesis).
If we view Christianity as a set of beliefs about man and nature, then science is a subset of Christian religion, a subset which includes all those beliefs which thus far have been confirmed by reality, at least in a probabilistic way. Theology is the first organized intellectual effort to search for truth - the truth about God - and is therefore the first science of all and the Mother of all sciences. All other subsequent intellectual entreprises to search for truth in the realm of nature (v.g., physics, chemistry) and of man as a living and thinking entity (v.g., psychology, biology) or as a social entity (v.g., economics, sociology) are obviously their children.
(1) There is no opposition between Christianity and science. Actually, modern science is a direct descendant of Christianity.
(2) There is no science without belief, that is, faith.
(3) Science is a subset of Religion and Theology is the mother of all sciences.
Christianity is a belief-based religion, more than any other of the major religions. Thus Christians, as compared to Jews and Muslism, hold in their minds a very large number of beliefs, or assertions that are purely based on faith (v.g., Christ is the Son of God).
The first question a rational man asks when he holds a belief, and the question he repeatedly asks when he holds a large number of beliefs , is: "Are they true?". It is from this question that the search for truth becomes the highest purpose in life for the Christian man. The search for truth about nature and man is also the purpose of science. Thus, there is no opposition between Christianity and science - both seek to reach the truth. It then follows that modern science could not arise other than in a Christian environment.
All propositions of science start out as hypotheses and these are beliefs in the full sense of the word, i.e., assertions that are based on faith (v.g., the earth is flat; the sun runs around the earth; all lions are black). Some of these hypotheses are confirmed by reality and become part of the reservoir of science whereas others fail the test of reality and are discarded. All of them, though, start as acts of faith, i.e., as hypotheses. (From here it follows that a purely atheistic culture, if it were possible, would never produce science because it would never be able to formulate a scientific hypothesis).
If we view Christianity as a set of beliefs about man and nature, then science is a subset of Christian religion, a subset which includes all those beliefs which thus far have been confirmed by reality, at least in a probabilistic way. Theology is the first organized intellectual effort to search for truth - the truth about God - and is therefore the first science of all and the Mother of all sciences. All other subsequent intellectual entreprises to search for truth in the realm of nature (v.g., physics, chemistry) and of man as a living and thinking entity (v.g., psychology, biology) or as a social entity (v.g., economics, sociology) are obviously their children.
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