Sir, - Dr William Reville's assertion that science and religion operate in separate domains is quite incorrect (Science Today, December 7th). The questions to which science and religion offer answers are fundamentally the same. They concern our origins, our place in the universe, and our destiny. The shared function of science and religion is to provide an understanding of reality.
Religion no longer opposes science's Copernican description of the physical structure of the universe, but to claim, as Dr Reville does, that religion "no longer barks at science" is quite untrue. When religion makes claims about virgin births, about the procurement of wine from water, and about blind men seeing again, it is making claims that are inherently scientific in nature, as they involve actual, observable, physical changes in the material world. Religion barks at science by using unscientific means to answer questions that are scientific in nature.
Religion uses scientific claims to promote its cause, but then claims as below the belt any scientific challenge towards them. So long as it continues to take its a la carte approach to evidence, highlighting any which supports its cause but celebrating as mystery the contradictions which exist in its absence, religion will be barking at science.
The disciple John says that if we seek the truth, the truth shall set us free. Science seeks the truth by uncovering the laws of nature and human behaviour, while religion takes a far more mysterious and supernatural route. I know which I would prefer to take in my quest for the truth. - Yours, etc., Donal Mountain,
Clonkeen Drive, Foxrock, Dublin 18.