When the circle completes...

Coincidences are amazing. In fact, it's easier to think that there is no such thing as coincidence and that everything happens by design.

Approximately one year ago, I wrote this post talking about some weird coincidences, and a handful of people... no, I'll say it openly, a handful of idiots in my town who do not believe in evolution and go around trying to convince others of the same thing.

Full circle. Another weird set of coincidences has brought up the same topic.

- First, I wrote this story which hardly anybody read but it basically uses a fantasy world to talk about how men of religion love to put men of science in poor light, when it is the latter who actually have a better grasp of the ideas of good and bad, being trained to think impartially.

- Then, I joined this science blog at Born a Libran's suggestion, my posts wandered of their own accord to the complexity and order observed in nature, and I talked about how such behaviour springs up easily in a distributed system.

- Today, I read this post on Sakshi's blog talking about a bill that scientists and engineers are pushing for, and some points on it reminded me of how irked the scientific community is by the the government's tacit support of the Intelligent Design theory.

The difference is that this time around, I have a lot more scientific background, as my research touched upon control theory, complexity, biology and a lot of things that actually conspire to add up to the same thing.

Scientists will make far better priests, spiritualists and theists than the most ardent of religious devotees.

The reason is that a scientist knows to separate religion from God, doctrine from morality, mythology from history. In his quest for knowledge, a scientists uncovers more wonders about the universe than other people. And after applying the scientific method and sifting painstakingly through fact and fiction, if he still believes in God, his faith is that much more unshakeable.

There is no evidence to say that spirituality and science are irreconcilable. There is evidence to say that man evolved from apes. By saying that evolution happened, nobody is saying that God does not exist, or that religions are wrong. At best, it says that holy books can be written or interpreted wrongly, which theologists will tell you themselves. It is my understanding that a great number of scientists, including Albert Einstein himself, were and are Theists.

I'll not go so far as to claim that scientists have done no wrong. Just as a great deal of wrong has been done in the name of religion, a great deal of wrong has been done in the name of science.

But science and religion should not be at war. Since I brought up Albert Einstein, I'll drop one of his quotes here:

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

Amen to that.

Cheers,
Prashanth.