Religion and science are two seemingly separate planes, two dominions often believed to lie at opposite ends of the spectrum—as if believing in one would mean renouncing the other. This is the common assumption, that in some dimension they exist as living juxtapositions.
But I believe religion lies within science. Religion forms the very foundation of what drives those in the scientific field. You may think I am making delusional claims under the pretence of profundity, perhaps even indulging in utter lunacy, but what really is religion? Is it the statues you pray to? The sacred books you read in hopes of engraving their words into your mind?
I think religion is nothing more (and nothing less) than belief. Beliefs so powerful you almost worship them. You kneel at their altar and pray to be right. Your values. The principles you live by. Where you choose to place your faith.
Somewhere at its core, science too rests on faith, and not the kind that worships a deity, but faith in the rational order of the universe. Faith in cause and effect. Faith that the world operates according to laws that can be understood and put into word equations. Scientists believe that everything in the universe can ultimately be explained through science. But has that belief itself been scientifically proven? No. It is a conviction, deeply rooted, that fuels their studies.
Einstein often spoke about how science and religion share a common root: the desire to understand. The longing to comprehend the world and translate it into human terms. He distinguished between institutional religion, and what he called a “cosmic religious feeling”, which refers to an awe-filled response to the universe. Not belief in a personal god, but a profound sense of wonder at existence itself.
That cosmic religious feeling is precisely what many scientists experience.
Science and religion are not inhabitants of separate universes nor do they simply walk hand in hand. Rather, they are two expressions of the same human impulse: the need to believe, to understand and to prove both woven into the fabric of what the universe is made of.
Gayatri Kapoor is a student of École Globale International Girls’ School, Dehradun. Views are personal.
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