Pius XII decided that the church would accept the big bang as a theory because it does not go against their theory that time itself started with a creation.That shows us that today we are becoming more acceptable of scientific findings. Before, in 1642, the church prosecuted Galileo for his beliefs and theories of the universe that the Earth is not the center of the universe . Now times have changed, but not enough to the point where we can say whether science or religion can prove the creation of the universe. "These are two very popular views, which brings us to something very significant metaphysically or philosophically. If the big bang theory is true, then we can conclude God is not the same as the universe (a popular view) and God is not contained within the universe (another popular view)," (http://www.lightandmatter.com/evolution/). With the different beliefs that make up the creation of our universe, we still cannot prove which theory is true. Can we say that due to the theory of relativity or because something had to create the universe, that the big bang theory or God created the universe? As of where we stand right now, we cannot do so. All we have is faith and facts to help support both theories.
Because there is no absolute
proof of God, the term "Atheism" has been created for people who just don't believe in a higher being. "Fuel for the atheist perspective subsequently was supplied by the writings of Sigmund Freud, who argued that belief in God is just wishful thinking," (Collins, 218). However, more powerful than Freud is Darwin and his beliefs in evolution that contradict religious beliefs. This was and became "a powerful counterweapon against spirituality," (Collins, 218). Though there are the controversies betweens science and faith, there are beliefs that they will come together and unify. "The potential conflicts between science and faith will continue to appear. But i will argue that if we wisely apply Saint Augustine's advice, crafted well over a thousand years before there was any reason to be apologetic about Darwin, we will be able to find a consistent and profoundly satisfying harmony between these world views," (Collins, 116). What this is saying is that if the existence of God is true and scientific conclusions are true, then they cannot contradict one another, they can meet harmoniously. This is also shown through other forms of religions conversing to form a "bridge of friendship," between the Pope Benedict XVI and a Rabbi at a Jewish Synagogue. "It was the first time a pope had set foot inside a Jewish house of worship in the United States, a visit made at the invitation of Rabbi Arthur Schneier, who broke the silence in the synagogue by saying, "Your Holiness, a heartfelt shalom ... warm, warm welcome," (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/pope.fri/index.html). As we have evolved from prosecuting beliefs/theories into accepting them, now bridges are starting to be built between religions. This shows us since the beginning, we have come far in trying to connect and solve this mystery of creation and make up for hard feelings in the past. Forty years ago, the church would not apologize to the the jews who survived the holocaust, but now things have started to change. "Benedict has made other strides toward reaching out to Jewish leaders. As theological adviser to Pope John Paul II, he is credited with playing a key role in John Paul's decision to apologize to Jews for the role Catholics played in the Holocaust," (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/pope.fri/index.html). As of where they are now, this shows that progress is being made in uniting.
"Ahead of the pope's speech, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told him, "In so many ways, our mission unites us with yours."
The pope expressed admiration for the U.N.'s mission, saying its founding principles -- "the desire for peace, the sense of justice, respect for the dignity of the person, humanitarian cooperation and assistance -- express the just aspirations of the human spirit and constitute the ideals which should underpin international relations," (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/pope.fri/index.html).
Now that we are starting to see pieces of the puzzle come together. According to Collins quote above, we can find harmony between all views of creation. If God is true, then God gave us the mind set to understand sciences and other forms of beliefs, but people in recent years, have manipulated it to be something that is separate from God. But if you believe in God, science is a part of God's creation.Looking at science and religion today, it is hard to imagine them two coming together. However, one day they may form an answer to all natures questions. However, i still pose the question, how can we ever be absolute certain of how we came to be? Right now we have spent our years since birth of man trying figure out how we came to be and have not yet found an agreeable answer amongst everyone. But, why do we have such of a desire to know where we came from? Is it because we fear death? However, we do know we came from something rather than nothing. " The idea that something came from nothing has been totally rejected in the history. With not being able to prove God and not having enough evidence to prove the big bang, it could be so that we will never have the complete answer to our questions of life and purpose. Society craves to know this answer and try to solve it through religion, and others are still trying to know through sciences, which currently puts a barrier in between. Maybe we are just not meant to know; and we should let that be.
But man has made his purpose in life to find out how he came to the point of creation; questioning science and god. Myths are dated back since the age of man. They were created because we have always wanted to know how the universe was created and myths solved primitive mans questions. Once society started to evolve, science was created to logically solve the equation that lays within our universe. Findings on gravity, our nearby galaxies, atoms, relativity, the speed of light...However, we still have this desire to know all the answers to our questions in life, and i believe we will never be able to answer all of them. Because 86 percent of our worlds population is religious, the fact that a theory could disprove the concept of god could have a huge impact on society. Sciences are furthering their technology and studies to find this equation of the universe, to prove how the universe came to the point of its creation. If we find the universal equation, it will solve everything we have wanted to know with the help of science and math. Because we want to know how we came to be, technology will only advance, changing and affecting our society and how we function. Science will affect the way people think and try to discover. However, what if science does prove the creation of the universe? Would that make religion collapse and cause religion to fall? That is up to society and what people chose to believe. Due to family tradition, personal experiences and belief in religion, people have formed their experiences with their beliefs. Even if evidence is in front of someone's face, it does not mean they will accept it as the truth. Ultimately, scientific evidence wont prove the creation of the universe to society, society will determine what is to be believed: you cant force a belief on society. This will allow religion and beliefs to exist and not allow science to make it collapse. With this as our situation, it now brings up a controversy between faith and empirical evidence: faith and proof from an observation or experiment. This shows how faith and scientific evidence will be fighting for societal acceptance.
In the end, I believe we cant make it our personal goal to find where we came from and how that came to be. If we do eventually find the answer, I have learned through personal experiences, that we wont be have a society that all agrees on everything. When one person is happy, it doesn't mean everyone else will. No one will never be content with what is present today, and that will lead to more questions that will want to be solved. Once we do possibly get the answer to the creation of the universe, that won't be the end to discoveries and findings. There will be more questions and desires to find new discoveries. In the beginning, I wanted to know and I craved to find things that would disprove God and religion, but in the end, I realized what good will that do? It wont change anything, it will just help support my ego, and thats what I think this whole controversy is about: ones ego.
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