The Faith of Science and the Method of Religion

Abstract

A fundamental teaching of the Bahá’í Faith is that science and religion are harmonious and complementary. Two themes are presented. First, religious faith, in its best form, is shaped by a process of critical inquiry instead of being defended against such a process. By comparison, science does not operate by logical deduction alone but also by a process of generalization. That is, the validation of a scientific theory involves a process of gaining confidence in its predictive power based on its consistency with a limited set of experimental observations. This confidence is the scientific analogue of religious faith. Second, the limitations of science should be acknowledged and questions beyond its scope must be addressed in order to build a just, peaceful, and humanitarian society. Science must be used to aid the quest for and the implementation of appropriate human values.