This is the question that many great thinkers - theologians, philosophers and scientists - each with their own way, have tried to answer for millenia. If history is any indication, this question does not - and probably will not - have a single answer.
I have often wondered why this is so. Over the next few posts, I intend to pen my thoughts about why this is so, or rather why this should be so. The first obvious reason for multiple explanations of reality could be the different 'axioms' adopted by people. For a theologian, each model of reality must include the notion of a God overseeing the universe. Most interpretations of Abrahamic religions (with exceptions like Kabbalistic Judaism) are strongly theistic, and this perhaps explains why these models of reality are often (or seen to be) at variance with other contemporary models, most notably the scientific model. I think religious dogma is an important reason why this is so.
Science, on the other hand, attempts to explain reality in terms of a minimal set of axioms, which are empirically derived. Most of these axioms are only provisionally true. Therefore, all scientific theory, by the very nature of science, is provisional. Until now (atleast!), science did not need to include the notion of a God in its framework. The scientific model of reality is at the very least agnostic, and more often atheistic.
I have often wondered why this is so. Over the next few posts, I intend to pen my thoughts about why this is so, or rather why this should be so. The first obvious reason for multiple explanations of reality could be the different 'axioms' adopted by people. For a theologian, each model of reality must include the notion of a God overseeing the universe. Most interpretations of Abrahamic religions (with exceptions like Kabbalistic Judaism) are strongly theistic, and this perhaps explains why these models of reality are often (or seen to be) at variance with other contemporary models, most notably the scientific model. I think religious dogma is an important reason why this is so.
Science, on the other hand, attempts to explain reality in terms of a minimal set of axioms, which are empirically derived. Most of these axioms are only provisionally true. Therefore, all scientific theory, by the very nature of science, is provisional. Until now (atleast!), science did not need to include the notion of a God in its framework. The scientific model of reality is at the very least agnostic, and more often atheistic.
