• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Scientific Method is useless in religion?

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
As its name suggests it is useful in science only. It has not been designed for religion. Right? Please

Regards
 

buddhist

Well-Known Member
The historical Buddha and early Buddhism is basically all about the scientific method applied to mental and conscious states.
 

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
The Oxford Dictionaries Online define the scientific method as "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses".[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

How can that possibly apply to religion? So I'd say the answer to the question is "yes, the scientific method is useless in religion", at least in religion as traditionally understood.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
Science is the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

Religion and gods fall outside this definition therefore science has nothing to say about magic.
 

Native

Free Natural Philosopher & Comparative Mythologist
Scientific methods is usefull in the cultural religious tellings of creation and this is already taking place in the science of Comparative Regligion and Mythology.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
Scientific methods is usefull in the cultural religious tellings of creation and this is already taking place in the science of Comparative Regligion and Mythology.
Gotta say, never having heard of "the science of Comparative Religion and Mythology" before, I Googled it and only came up with references that appeared to have nothing at all to do with the scientific method. "Science" was used in it's most broadest sense, meaning nothing more than a rational study.


.
 
Last edited:

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
Gotta say, never having heard of "the science of Comparative Religion and Mythology" before, I Googled it and only came up references that appeared to have nothing at all to do with the scientific method. "Science" was used in it's most broadest sense, meaning nothing more than a rational study.
.
I agree with one.
Comparative study of religions is simply a method . One could say it is an art or equally one could describe it to be science in general terms being rational. For sure it is not a discipline of Science.
Regards
 

leibowde84

Veteran Member
As its name suggests it is useful in science only. It has not been designed for religion. Right? Please

Regards
The scientific method is designed for testing and verifying theories. It isn't designed for anything specifically. Of the theory that God exists and has certain characteristics cannot be verified or dismissed through repeated experimentation and observation, that merely means that the theory is unfalsifiable. That doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with the method itself. It means that the theory that God exists is lacking in that it cannot be verified.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
Science research today is very different from how things were not long ago in Europe when most research was performed under the Patriarch system, usually focused on war technology and did not involve much peer review. A researcher/engineer/doctor would seek a patron to support them. Then their research would be bound to the wishes and religion of their patron. Science now is hopefully a departure from that. Sometimes researchers today do have patrons, however if they want their work to be known then they have to submit it to public discernment, rather than to royal discernment.
 
Last edited:

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Religion may and should be studied by science (mainly anthropology).

Whether religion itself as a place for the scientific method will depend a lot on how that religion is defined and practiced. Generally speaking, though, one of the main reason for having religion is to provide answers that science does not.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
The scientific method is extremely useful in religion.
When applied, it helps people become atheists.
This might sound facetious, but it isn't.
I know many who took this path.
And it's helped me as a believer because it illuminates the beauty and precision of God's world.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Religion may and should be studied by science (mainly anthropology).

Whether religion itself as a place for the scientific method will depend a lot on how that religion is defined and practiced. Generally speaking, though, one of the main reason for having religion is to provide answers that science does not.
I agree in that sense - religion and science are orthogonal to each other.
 

DawudTalut

Peace be upon you.
As its name suggests it is useful in science only. It has not been designed for religion. Right? Please

Regards
Peace be on you.

If you mean this:

450px-The_Scientific_Method_as_an_Ongoing_Process.svg.png


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Data and observation reveal that a true religion brought by a noble human with words of God [when he stands alone against the rooted evils of society, and he announces the prophecy he will win at the end] ultimately spreads..........It has been becoming true everytime and anywhere.... In this way it is scientific.
 

ENTP Logician

Advocate for Reason
Peace be on you.

If you mean this:

450px-The_Scientific_Method_as_an_Ongoing_Process.svg.png


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Data and observation reveal that a true religion brought by a noble human with words of God [when he stands alone against the rooted evils of society, and he announces the prophecy he will win at the end] ultimately spreads..........It has been becoming true everytime and anywhere.... In this way it is scientific.

No its not.

Anyone can say they received the words of a deity.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Well... I utilize the sciences all the darned time in my religion. Pursued a graduate degree in a science because of my religion and as a way of expressing devotion to the gods. So... no, it's not useless in religion? At all?
 
Top