Does Religion Believe in Science?
I grew up with a very scientific mind. If this, than that. I always had to experiment with topics I was told or taught. I usually didn’t believe something I was told until I had tested it out, or studied it more. I was also raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Some people think religious people can believe in science, and scientific people can’t believe in religion. Since I grew up with both, I am going to lay out my experiences and let you decide.
First off, I’d like to say that I believe in what I was raised. I believe Jesus is the Christ, I believe He died for everyone so that we all can live again after we die. I believe in the Book of Mormon, I have read all of its pages many times. I believe that we have a prophet here on the earth today who leads this Church and is guided by God. President Russell M. Nelson, the current prophet, is a very scientific man. Being a surgeon by trade, he also helped revolutionize the human heart. He built his own heart-lung bypass machine and performed the first open-heart surgery in the state of Utah.
The Book of Mormon is a scientifically written book of scripture. Throughout its pages, it tells us to test out and experiment on what it says. “If ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith…” And in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon, it challenges everyone with this experiment: “Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”
Now I’d like to tell you about an experience I had in my high school physics class. He told us how scientists work. He said it is easier to prove something wrong than to prove it right. So scientists work on proving theories and experiments wrong, if they can’t prove it wrong then it must be right. I tell you this story because many people think that since in the Book of Mormon is states “ ask….if these things are not true…” that we are supposed to find out if it is wrong. In a way this is correct, but a scientific mind reads this as a way to find the truthfulness of the book.
Let’s now take a look at a story from the Old Testament. Elijah the prophet has been struggling to get people to believe his word. Many of the people are torn between two different religions, worship Baal or God. Elijah comes up with an experiment, “If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” He then tells the priests of Baal to gather all the people onto a nearby mountain. He had the priests build and alter and have them pray to Baal to come and light the altar. They pray and nothing happens, Elijah tells them maybe Baal is asleep and so they need to pray louder, still nothing. Elijah then stepped up to the plate. He had the altar be drenched in water three times. “Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice.”
Throughout the scriptures, there are experiments being done, and also experiments we are being asked to do. I don’t want you to believe me, I don’t want you to take my word for it, I want you to do these experiments and find the answer for yourself. I am a religious person and I also believe in science.
