Religion Versus Science

Religion versus Science
Science has often challengedreligious dogma, since Copernicus first upset the Church-approved, heliocentricmodel of the cosmos. However, after the Enlightenment, when the empiricalmethod of scientific enquiry was fully established, science has come to be seenas a competing, and viable method of explanation for all phenomena. Darwininitiated interest in the modern science of biology, in The Origin ofSpecies, which advanced the theory of evolution, and this was contra to thetraditional religious explanation. This stated that all animals, humansincluded, were evolved through natural selection from single-celled organismsto the multi-cellular ones that are extant today. This laid the foundationsfor the study of genetics, which was advanced by Watson and Crick whodiscovered the way DNA, the chemical code in each cell nuclei, could replicateitself. In June 2000, the first draft sequence of the human genome waspublished, representing a breakthrough for the Human Genome Project.
The religious explanation forthe origin of life is based on some form of creationist account. This, in themonotheistic religions, and most notably in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is adoctrine, often in the form of a story, of how a superior, divine being createdthe world according to a master plan, and for a teleological end. In theJudeo-Christian tradition, we find such an account in Genesis which manymodern, liberal Christians are content to take as allegory rather than as astraightforward factual account. This tells how God created the world in sixdays, and on the seventh rested. Mankind was created last, and given dominionover all the animals. Humankind is also made in the image and likeness of man,and is for this reason most like God. However, in a later part of Genesis,we learn that woman was created second to man, and was in fact formed out ofhis flesh (the rib of Adam) for the purpose of being a companion to man. It isobvious from this story that man plays a...