Hand in Hand with Science and Christianity

Is it of utmost significance that we have to do everything what our religious leaders told us to? Is it by following such order, we certainly will be saved from eternal damnation? That in every phrase written in “The Holy Bible” came from the holy words of God, and with this, we should never go against it. For by doing so, the gate of hell will be opened for us. Although many people claim that through their unending faith, they were saved from the dreaded diseases, when actually they were taking daily medications to maintain a healthy body. Furthermore, when one was being trapped after an earthquake, news was spread that he was saved by a miracle. However, then again, it was actually a bulldozer that got them out from the piles of crushed walls and the heat-seeker device was the one that traced their location.

We in these modern days where we are greatly influenced by our discoveries of science and technology are able to answer many things in this world. One example to this is the time when Lord Jesus turns the world into a dark place, when, in fact, it was just an eclipse. Fortunately for us, other stories like rain of fire, plagues and much more, we are able to answer many questions in this world we are living in, and it is all through the big leap of science discoveries. However, there is but one question that science alone can never answer—that is the reason behind of all the things’ existence.

With our modern technology, science can show that billions of the nuclear bombs are to be combined to partially equal the intensity of the sun’s tremendous heat. At least with this, we are able to come up of such fact. However, can science come up with an answer of why does the sun exist in the first place? Moreover, what about what lies beyond our solar system? What is the sole purpose of the existence of the entire galaxy?

Science in general can be defined as a study to know a particular thing that exists around us. It can explain things but only if we ask “how”. We should never disregard science because of religion for in such approach, both help us in their own sole purpose way. One example to this is to know the fact on how humans evolved. Through science research, DNA was the answer. However, if we want to know the reason of our existence, this is where religion helps us in finding the answer.

One example of religious belief is the Christianity faith. It is a religion based on Jesus Christ’s life and teachings. If one is to be a follower of such faith, they are called Christians. Although Christianity has been divided into many religious groups (Roman Catholic, Seventh day Adventist Church, Eastern Orthodox, etc…) they all consider Jesus as the centre of their devotion amidst the different beliefs and teachings. They all believe that Jesus is the Son of God, sent into this world of ours as our Saviour and by following His teachings and examples; we will achieve eternal salvation. However, is it true that by following His teachings, we will be saved from suffering or able to know all the questions in this world and beyond?

Many of us are not fortunate enough to see the true meaning of “The Holy Teachings”, that we are not able to value the gift of such guidance that has been shown to us. That to live life with all the material things needed is the sole purpose of living and nothing more.

A writer once said that “A world without God can only be a selfish world”; it is a world susceptible to hate, suffering and death. And even with good intentions, whenever men are left to themselves—war ensues. Let us consider that through Religious beliefs such as Christianity, we will be guided for a selfless act of giving and respecting people. Thus, through Christianity, we will be able to know the true meaning of our existence and that is to love and live in an unselfish way to all the things around us.

All in all, we use science to make a thing move. On the other hand, we use Christianity to make the thing do what it’s supposed to do. For science and Christianity are two different things, just as our reasoning knowledge from our conscience. However, even so, they all act for the good at all and nothing more.

Modern Christianity

Christianity, the largest of the world’s religions, was born into the Greco-Roman world. At the outset, it appeared to be a sect of Judaism, but it took its distinctive character from the fact that it centered in Jesus Christ. It seemed to have a scant likelihood of winning a continuing role in history. The public career of Jesus lasted at most three years, and he met the implacable opposition of his people’s religious leaders. One of his inner circles of chosen friends betrayed him to his enemies. He died on a Roman cross, presumably frustrated and a failure. However, his disciples were convinced that he had been raised from the dead. They proclaimed him as Savior and Lord and declared that those who acknowledged him as such would enter upon the kind of triumphant, radiant, eternal life which they saw in him.

The post 1914 decades again brought new challenges to Christianity. From lands and people which had traditionally been Christian came forces, which worked at a vast revolution- political, economic, and cultural- in the entire human race. Two world wars fought with weapons devised in what had been called Christendom embroiled the entire globe. Beginning in 1945 atomic energies, first released in the United States, threatened mankind with extinction. In Europe and Asia old forms of government toppled. In wide areas, notably Russia and China, they were replaced by frankly and at times militantly atheistic Communism. Land after land was industrialized, with attendant challenges to religion. In both Western and Eastern Europe church attendance declined. Outside the Occident, the colonialism which flourished in the nineteenth century was being shaken off. The Christianity which had been associated with Western imperialism was challenged as a cultural phase of that imperialism. Here and there, were resurgence of non-Christian religions- chiefly Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. However, the general trend throughout the world was toward a religion-denying secularism.

In striking contrast to these challenges, there was mounting vitality in Christianity. This was seen in at least seven ways.

1. Christianity was continuing its geographic spread. This was chiefly through Roman Catholic and Protestant missions and to a lesser extent by the Eastern churches. In spite of the increases in population during the half-century which followed 1914, Christians, though, still minorities, increased their portion of the populations in India, Indonesia, and Africa south of the Sahara.
2. Christianity became deeply rooted among more people that it, or any other religion had ever been. The reaction against Western imperialism might have led to a recession in the Christian tide because of the association of missionaries with colonial powers; but instead it hastened the development of indigenous initiative and leadership.
3. Christianity persisted in lands controlled by Communism. In Russia, after a period when the anti-Christian measures of the Communists greatly reduced the number of church members, Christianity revived and grew, even though not to the same numerical dimension as before.
4. New movements were emerging and old ones were being strengthened. In the Roman Catholic Church the Liturgical Movement, Catholic Action, Eucharistic congresses, Christian Democratic parties, the Legion of Mary, many youth organizations and new translations of the Bible into the vernaculars gave evidence of a larger participation of the laity.
5. Efforts to take account of the intellectual currents of the age were made. In the Roman Catholic Church on the Eve of World War I, Rome had taken empathetic measures to eradicate the “modernism” which threatened to corrode the faith of many of the clergies. That action did not, however, eliminate scholarly activity.
6. Christians were coming together as never before. They were still far from being united in one ecclesiastical body, but rapid progress was being made toward presenting a common front to the world. The trend was especially marked in Protestantism, by its very nature the most divided wing of Christianity.
7. Christianity was having a wider moral influence on mankind outside the churches than ever before. For example, it contributed greatly to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, the most influential Indian of the century, and through him influenced many of his fellow countrymen. Clearly, Christianity was not dominant in the world of the twentieth century but, while vigorously challenged, it was widely influential in the affairs of men.

Christianity has spread in the world big time. Through the efforts of many of our ancestors, it has flourished and later developed us into a valued person making us holistically competent beings. Are you proud you’re a Christian?