by God exists above all, and in God’s will and beneficence do we exist. Since man questioned the unknown, he ascribed explanations to the intricacies and machinations of a higher power. While the world is seen to be one of God’s many creations, the continued effort of scientists and philosophers to understand and control the world around us has been met with resistance by almost every form of religion at one point or another.
During the Scientific Revolution, an acclaimed scholar and polymath, Galileo Galilei, was persecuted by the Italian Inquisition of the church for having suggested and supported theories that refuted the word of the bible. While he himself was a devout Christian who saw no fault with his work, his work on the Copernican model suggested a heliocentric system instead of the more popular geocentric model of the time. Of course, nowhere in the bible is there any mention of a geocentric structure of the heavens and the earth, but the church saw Galileo’s work to be a direct affront to their teachings, calling him before the Inquisition in Rome to defend his work. As it turns out, a letter he had written on the mistaken conflict between his work and the words of the scripture had been intercepted and rewritten, before being sent to the Inquisition as a means of incriminating Galileo.
While he was supported by several other scholars and theologians, Galileo was ultimately placed under house arrest until his death by the church, with his, as well as the writings of his peers, both inside and outside scientific and religious circles, were banned from the church. In addition, Galileo was forced to recant his work as he lived in shame and solitude within his own house until his death. The church only switched course on the theory of geocentrism in 1822, nearly two centuries after Galileo’s death. While we cannot feign to understand the actions of those in history at the time, it is an unequivocal truth that the church silenced one of the most influential and forward-thinking minds of the 17th century.
I myself am in no way religious, though I do often find myself subscribing to a similar school of thought as many mathematicians and scientists who do believe in God. I believe that should there be some God who governs the universe, who created the cosmos and breathed a spark of life into the vastness of creation, that he had created the world with myriad and nigh-infinite laws. If he indeed resides within us all, and if he works his miracles in subtle ways, then who are we to question scientific advancement, especially if it helps us better explore the reality given to us by such a creative God. The vaccine could have been an inspiration from above to better save people from the harshness of the world, and the discovery of the true movement of the heavenly bodies should be regarded as a revelation, a glimpse into a greater understanding of the infinitely complex world that some great mind had created. For us to silence those gifted voices and to refute such miraculous advancements would be to refuse the influence of God in the hopes of a more direct and supernatural answer to our problems is simply folly. It is the very essence of the story of the drowning man, which tells of a man who prays to God for aid as he drowns, only to turn away each lifeboat that comes to save him as he waits for a more recognizable miracle.
All in all, without any definite proof for or against the existence of a God in the modern world, any theory is equally valid. Religious beliefs are equal in their right to the claim of truth* and who should we be to stand in the way of that. Scientific advancement could be a God-given gift to humanity, to aid them in their struggles and understanding of the universe, or it could be an advancement under our own power, but either way, to stand in the way of the life’s work of someone else simply because you disagree with their interpretation of the world around them is ultimately an act of desecration of their right to free will.
*For those who wish to read more on the cause of religious equality, I’d recommend looking up Pastafarianism. While it is a rather goofy religion, the inception of Pastafarianism was a well informed and significant rebuttal to the right claimed by the church to teach the religious view of the creation of life in public schools over the more commonly held theory of evolution. It is very much so a worthwhile read.