{"id":28,"date":"2009-05-22T09:25:57","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T09:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html"},"modified":"2014-05-19T09:16:34","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T13:16:34","slug":"the-cold-hard-facts-of-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html","title":{"rendered":"The Cold, Hard Facts of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thumbnail<\/span> <\/p>\n

Source:<\/b> Celestial Photography \/ Flickr \/ All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n
With science becoming increasingly more capable at explaining both us and our world, what place is left for religion?\u00a0 After all, as many nonbelievers assert, doesn’t the church continue to exist only because of the indoctrination of children, who eventually should grow up and desert their childish beliefs?<\/p>\n

However, a recent study entitled “Faith in Flux,” conducted by the Pew Forum for on Religion and Public Life has found that most children raised in homes with no affiliated religion later join a religion, while only 14% of those raised Catholics and 13% of those raised Protestants break their ties with religion.\u00a0 It seems, then, that the movement from childhood to adulthood is not away from faith, but towards it.<\/p>\n

But how?\u00a0 Don’t the facts make belief seem ridiculous?\u00a0 Not at all.\u00a0 As Darrel discussed in his blog<\/a> on Tuesday, faith in God can withstand the rigorous application of reason and still stand tall; belief can indeed be rational.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Perhaps the facts alone seem unappealing precisely because they are cold and hard.\u00a0 In an editorial<\/a> published in The New York Times<\/i>, columnist Charles M. Blow discusses what he calls this “Defecting to Faith.”\u00a0 As Blow so wisely asserts, “We are more than cells, synapses and sex drives. We are amazing,
\nmysterious creatures forever in search of something greater than
\nourselves.”\u00a0 Despite all its efforts, science cannot fill that longing for something greater.<\/p>\n

This is not to say science has no place in the world, for it most certainly does.\u00a0 As we note time and again in this blog, science can be rewarding and faith affirming.\u00a0 Yet, as its own religion, science seems unable to fulfill our spiritual needs.<\/p>\n

The full report of the “Faith in Flux” study can be found at the Pew Forum’s website<\/a>.\u00a0 To read Charles M. Blow’s editorial “Defecting to Faith,” as well as other featured readings, head to www.biologos.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Celestial Photography \/ Flickr \/ All Rights Reserved With science becoming increasingly more capable at explaining both us and our world, what place is left for religion?\u00a0 After all, as many nonbelievers assert, doesn’t the church continue to exist only because of the indoctrination of children, who eventually should grow up and desert their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Cold, Hard Facts of Science - Science and the Sacred<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cold, Hard Facts of Science - Science and the Sacred\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: Celestial Photography \/ Flickr \/ All Rights Reserved With science becoming increasingly more capable at explaining both us and our world, what place is left for religion?\u00a0 After all, as many nonbelievers assert, doesn’t the church continue to exist only because of the indoctrination of children, who eventually should grow up and desert their…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Science and the Sacred\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-22T09:25:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-19T13:16:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/worship-thumb-355x284-5214.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The BioLogos Foundation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Cold, Hard Facts of Science - Science and the Sacred","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Cold, Hard Facts of Science - Science and the Sacred","og_description":"Source: Celestial Photography \/ Flickr \/ All Rights Reserved With science becoming increasingly more capable at explaining both us and our world, what place is left for religion?\u00a0 After all, as many nonbelievers assert, doesn’t the church continue to exist only because of the indoctrination of children, who eventually should grow up and desert their…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html","og_site_name":"Science and the Sacred","article_published_time":"2009-05-22T09:25:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-19T13:16:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/worship-thumb-355x284-5214.jpg"}],"author":"The BioLogos Foundation","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html","name":"The Cold, Hard Facts of Science - Science and the Sacred","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/worship-thumb-355x284-5214.jpg","datePublished":"2009-05-22T09:25:57+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-19T13:16:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#\/schema\/person\/89a95c0cac850e9d1dc14b3f19a29a9e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/worship-thumb-355x284-5214.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/worship-thumb-355x284-5214.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-cold-hard-facts-of-science.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Cold, Hard Facts of Science"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/","name":"Science and the Sacred","description":"The BioLogos Foundation","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#\/schema\/person\/89a95c0cac850e9d1dc14b3f19a29a9e","name":"The BioLogos Foundation","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4d1\/4d1de489def7820fba1c93cba53bea70x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4d1\/4d1de489def7820fba1c93cba53bea70x96.jpg","caption":"The BioLogos Foundation"},"description":"The BioLogos Foundation promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms, and seeks to harmonize these different perspectives.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/author\/biologos"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}