What do religious texts say about science and religion?

Something extraordinary is happening across these texts: the oldest of human institutions — religion — is insisting, in its own voice, that it must answer to evidence. The Bahá'í writings say it with remarkable directness, and the Buddha's Kalama Sutta says it from a different angle entirely: trust your own mind before you trust any teacher. These are not grudging concessions to modernity; they are ancient and principled commitments to the examined life.

Drawn from 21 passages across Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu

Must religion agree with reason and empirical findings?

The Bahá'í texts are unambiguous: religion that contradicts science is simply ignorance dressed in sacred language. That bluntness is rare in religious literature, and worth sitting with.

Baha'i

Religion must conform to science and reason.

Religion must be in accord with science and reason.

Baha'i

Religion unreasonable by scientific standards is mere superstition.

Religion and science are in complete agreement. Every religion which is not in accordance with established science is superstition. Religion must be reasonable.

Baha'i

God-given reason demands religion accord with scientific principles.

Religion must be in accord with science and reason. If it does not correspond with scientific principles and the processes of reason, it is superstition. God has endowed us with faculties of reason.

What role does independent inquiry play in spiritual life?

Both Bahá'í and Buddhist sources insist that blind acceptance — even of one's own tradition — is a failure of the spiritual life. The examined belief, not the inherited one, is what these texts honour.

Baha'i

Free, independent inquiry is the foundation of spiritual life.

The basic principle of the Cause is independent investigation of truth. This applies to us as much as to our children. They should be free to choose for themselves any religion they wish.

Baha'i

Inherited belief without personal investigation leads the soul astray.

Each individual is following the faith of his ancestors who themselves are lost in the maze of tradition. Reality is steeped in tradition and hereditary forms.

Baha'i

Students must actively correlate faith with philosophy and science.

It is hoped that all the Bahá'í students will be led to investigate and analyse the principles of the Faith and to correlate them with the modern aspects of philosophy and science. Every intelligent and thoughtful young Bahá'í should also be able to answer intelligently such questions.

Buddhist

The Buddha forbids intellectual submission even to his own authority.

The Buddha taught them, and us, not to accept or believe anything immediately. He gave ten basic conditions to beware of in order to avoid becoming the intellectual slave of anyone, even of the Buddha himself.

Buddhist

Personal intelligence, not received teaching, is the Buddha's standard.

The ten examples of the Kalama Sutta are a surefire defense against intellectual dependence: that is, neglecting one's own intelligence and wisdom in dealing with what one hears and listens to.

Do faith and empirical discovery ultimately converge?

Several passages argue that apparent contradictions between scripture and science dissolve under careful investigation — that time vindicates both. It is a bold claim, and these texts make it without flinching.

Baha'i

Science and religion mutually sustain and explain each other.

Religion must agree with science, so that science shall sustain religion and religion explain science. The two must be brought together, indissolubly, in reality.

Baha'i

Patient investigation vindicates both scripture and corrected science.

After centuries and ages it has now become clear and evident, due to the careful examination and investigation of scientists, that certain explicit divine utterances are correct while certain scientific theories of the past were mistaken.

Hindu

India's tradition treats religion and science as a unified inquiry.

In India the attempt has been made from the earliest times to reach a science of religion and philosophy, for the Hindus do not separate these as is customary in Western thought.

What do sacred texts teach about the age and origin of the cosmos?

Only one tradition appears here, but it speaks plainly: the world is of very great antiquity, and scripture need not resist that finding. A single specimen, clearly observed.

Baha'i

Scripture supports the world's great age, not a short one.

Bahá'u'lláh defends a long chronology wherein the world is of very great antiquity.

Baha'i

Ancient texts encode a cosmos of immense, pre-human age.

The long-lived sage Bhusunda is depicted as recalling a succession of 11,000-year epochs in the earth's history before the advent of humans, when lava, forests, or demons predominated.

Is the pursuit of knowledge a sacred duty or a secular distraction?

Science is described not as a rival to religion but as one of its two wings — and a wing that has failed to fly without the other. The image is striking precisely because it refuses to rank them.

Baha'i

Science and religion are equal, necessary partners for human progress.

We may think of science as one wing and religion as the other; a bird needs two wings for flight, one alone would be useless. Any religion that contradicts science or that is opposed to it, is only ignorance.

Baha'i

Religion and science are equal, inseparable wings of human flight.

We may think of science as one wing and religion as the other; a bird needs two wings for flight, one alone would be useless. Any religion that contradicts science or that is opposed to it, is only ignorance.

Baha'i

Humanity cannot advance on religion or science alone.

Religion and Science are inter-twined with each other and cannot be separated. These are the two wings with which humanity must fly. One wing is not enough.