So who is right, science or religion? The question centers around the third component of Life's Cosmic Equation (CP + RC + F (Faith) * T = CL ), the topic of Faith. Faith is normally a word associated with religious beliefs. Most of the time we don't think of faith being a part of the secular scientific approach to solving the mysteries of the universe.
When we Dance With The Elephant, faith is the common link that bridges both communities. A scientist places belief in a theory or a hypothesis on the basis of limited evidence and as a starting point for further investigation. It is faith that motivates the cosmologist to venture into the unknown trusting and confident that new discoveries will be made. That same faith is present in the religious belief system based on spiritual apprehension rather than scientific proof or validation. God and the doctrines of the specific religion become the unknown requiring the believer to have faith.
Both science and religion are witnessing what Ray Kurzweil calls the law of accelerating returns. We live in a world where the advances made in human-created technology are expanding at an exponential rate. Not just one plus one, but two times two times two. Think of walking 30 steps in a linear world and you just walked the distance of each step times 30. Walk 30 steps in the exponential world and you just covered the distance of a single step times 1 billion. Science and religion are both facing an immediate future involving exponential rates of change and only through faith will civilization have the capacity to dance with it.
In a world of exponential accelerating change, both science and religion are pitted against the same great unknown. Hopefully, through our common star dust origins, there is a story that can bridge and unite the divide that existed in the past between these two faith based groups. Each of us must apply the entire Life's Cosmic Equation to our lives and dig deeper into the question of what will bring purpose and meaning to our lives in this new exponential evolving world we're now entering into.
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