Two Issues that Have Torn Apart The North American Country

There are two issues going on in the world today. These issues have torn apart the North American country straight down the middle, leaving it with two dominant sides, and a minor sliver of neutrality. Religion and science, are the dominant sides, and neutrality is the minor side. The dominant sides are facing and fighting a war with society, which has been ongoing for thousands of years. Those who place all their belief in science believe, society should lean more on their side, because religion is overrated. Whereas, those who put all their beliefs into religion say, society should join their side to be saved from evil and harm, since science is void. This question has been asked, fought about, and researched for many years, but perhaps an unbiased person on the sidelines can help dig further into this issue to figure out an answer to these questions.

Society can and will have different point of views and attitudes as the years progress forward. In the words of John Polkinghorne, “People sometimes say that science deals with facts but that religion simply trades in opinions.” (Polkinghorne Pg. 1). In some eras, science was victorious, whereas in other eras, religion was the king of all the land. Some reasons as to why science is a foe of religion are; Science always progresses forward, revealing new ideas and concepts to our naked eye, researches cures to diseases that can rule out the population, generates new ideas of how the human population can live better, and figures out the answer to most “Why” questions that ponders society’s mind every day. “Perhaps the first thing to say about science is that it has been wonderfully successful in its quest for understanding.” (Polkinghorne, Pg. 2.), science also examines how the universe became one, how earth was created, and analyses the question, “What is life”? In return, religious groups in society are often appalled by the way scientists think, and try to convert more people to join the religious side, before science ‘grabs ahold of the future’. Resulting in a tug-of-war game between science and religion, trying to educate the future generations’ different things about the same subject.

Religion plays a different ball game on the same field though, when up against those who represent science. For instance, Polkinghorne expresses his opinion as to why people in society have such a strong belief in religion, “Religious belief can guide one in life or strengthen one at the approach of death, but unless it is actually true it can do neither of these things and so would amount to no more than an illusionary exercise in comforting fantasy” (Polkinghorne, Pg.2). Most people look into religions for some sort of comfort, to help push them along in life. The downfall to religion though, is how outdated some sources can be with the same concepts from the times of B.C., and ideas that cannot be applied to today’s current events. Even though there are some who try hard to apply those concepts and ideas, their efforts end up OMIT, and shot down with a terrible crash in the end of its fall.

Neutrality is the other part of society, that has very few and plays the role of referee in the game of Science VS Religion. Most want to say they are neutral, but when a controversial topic arises, they either fall to science or religion as back up. Becoming neutral prevents one to have one-sided thinking, which is tough to argue with. In order to become neutral, one must understand each side and fully comprehend the reasons why people split up into these groups. Most will stay neutral, since who really wants to argue? It takes a lot of energy to get someone’s point across, and most do not have time for that.

Religion can help people through life, as stated before, whereas science helps prove facts in life. People simply cannot fall back on science for hope and support, as they can with religion, since it is constantly changing. Which is where society starts to structuralize different groups of believers that argue about how religion is the way to go, or how science is the way of life. Most of the arguments root from which subject is older, and ‘wiser’ some would say. Religion can successfully win this round, but when science comes up to the base, most will be shocked. Without the help of science and its roots, the roots that form religion would not have even formed. Scientific research helped religion figure out which sub-religion belonged with what main religion and helped figure out the ancient scrolls, papers, books, and antiques whereabouts are in this world.

Some might even admit that without science, religion would have most likely never existed to the extent is has today in current times. Even though the dominant sides still yank at the rope of tug-of-war, it is really up to the future generation to decide which side they choose, or they can become part of the little neutral sliver. Neutrality helps figure out the problems of these groups, and tries to find a median that both sides can agree on. On that note, the conclusion of this debate will be, religion has been around for a while, and science has helped religion progress forward more. Those of society that stay neutral, are doing no harm, they just sit back, observe, and wait for their chance to help out. It’s all up to society to work things out in the end.