“Science and religion do not go hand in hand.” “Religion contradicts science.” “Religion is about faith, rather than the facts. You just have to believe.”

We have all heard these before. However, did you stop and question why? After all, it is a BIG claim. All religions are being generalized and what scientifically inaccurate statements from each religion allows one to confidently say such a thing?

The truth is, these claims are a projection of our thoughts of the Roman Catholic Church when it had power of Europe for centuries. It is well known that the Church did not have a good relationship with science. It, for example, opposed heliocentrism (the Sun being the center and the planets revolve around it) and instead claimed that the Earth is the center. Thus, the Church opposed people like Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo (1564-1642). In fact, Galileo was put on trial and considered a heretic. Also, throughout much of Christian history, Young Earth creationism was a prevalent belief. It states that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, rather than the scientifically backed ~4.5 billion years.

With all the restrictions the Church imposed throughout its existence and denial of clear scientific facts, people started to lose their faith in the Church and subsequently, the religion of Christianity. Take that, along with the Age of Enlightenment, rise of secular ideologies, agnosticism, and atheism, you have the current state of today. Over the recent centuries, the focus became the Theory of Evolution. I recommend reading this article to have a better understanding: Reason #19: Evolution doesn’t disprove existence of God

People in the West got tired of religion and sadly, projected it to all religions that believe in the supernatural. However, if we want to be academic and fair, 1) as mentioned, we have to look into all religions and see which statements are truly scientifically inaccurate and 2) we have to know what is actually true in the world of science. As we know, science is everchanging. What we thought was true or a strong theory yesterday can be disproven today with new data. It has happened before and will continue to happen.

It is important to note that with Islam, there wasn’t a tension between religion and science. In fact, there has been a great harmony. While Europe was in its Dark Ages, the Muslim Civilization was in its Golden Era. From the 8th to the 13th century, countless advancements have been made in medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, and more. For Muslims, it is common sense that, like true revelation, science is also from God because He obviously created everything. If God created both revelation and the Universe, logically there just cannot be a contradiction between the two.