Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages. Today I present the biggest, brainiest bout of the year. The fight of the century. In the red corner, weighing in at over two millennia, is 'science.' The Heavyweight of How, the Master of Method, the Archetype of Answers. And in the blue corner, weighing in at over 6 billion believers, is 'religion.' The Mother of Mystery, the Father of Faith, and the Herald of Hope.
There is often a familiar tale of science versus religion, of evidence versus faith. But according to the philosopher Stephen Jay Gould, this is all nonsense. For the two to fight, they have to be in the same ring. But Gould believes that science and religion are talking about different things. How can we pit science and religion against each other when they are starting from different premises, working towards different goals, and talking about different things?
In the 1990s, Gould introduced the term 'non-overlapping magisteria.' The idea is that science and religion occupy different territories, and to imagine the two in conflict is just as ridiculous as imagining who would win in the fight between Darth Vader and Gandalf. The two occupy different lores. They belong to different worlds. They are completely different.
And so, if an atheist tries to undermine someone's belief with scientific data, they are speaking a different language. When a believer tries to explain the workings of the universe with holy texts, they are stepping out of their lane. Science and religion can be perfectly compatible and perfectly comfortable with each other. In the same way that you might read a book in the morning and ride a bike in the afternoon, we can do both science and religion in different ways and at different times. We can do both, we can enjoy both, and appreciating that they are different is important to understanding.