Will science and education render religion obsolete?

[dazzleman]

No.  There are certain things that will never be explained by science and religion, and certain human needs that science and religion can never meet.

[dazzleman]

I don't see why it would.  I believe in both science and religion.  The two can easily be completely compatible; it only depends on whether you want them to be or not.

That's right.  They're not inherently in conflict.  I also believe in both.

[dazzleman]

Indeed, angus - one more reason some degree of religion will always exist. Science can't tell us if there's an afterlife and what it's like.

Science also can't tell us the real origins of life.  They can tell us how it developed after a certain point, but how was the first life formed?  There's no answer to that from science.

[dazzleman]

Because we see it every day, we sometimes forget that life itself is a miracle, one that cannot be adequately explained with all our scientific advances.

With all our technology, we are not able to create an object that thinks for itself, grows, changes, and becomes any more than we made it at the beginning.

The thought that each of us developed from an egg about the size of a pin-head, coupled with a microscopic sperm, is almost mindboggling when you think about it.

Even the idea of food growing right out of the ground is a miracle if you really think about it.

Science can explain these things within certain narrow parameters, but science can't give a full explanation for how these things happen.  The reality is that life is unique, and we can't create it, and neither can we bring it back after it is gone.  Until that changes, religion will be around.