Life is like a laboratory. Not in the sense of somebody doing experiments on us.
During life, we as individuals, are continuously learning, experimenting, passing exams.
As we are thinking beings, there is no person on earth without a philosophy about life. Some of us are believing in a Creator and a purpose for our existence. Others are guided by the belief we have appeared by randomness and there is nothing beyond the matter we can see and touch therefore we have no final purpose.
As rational beings, during our history, we have observed, thought about our observations, and come up with explanations. Some explanations are crystalized in Philosophy, others in Religion and others in Science.
Nowadays, we are told that the only valid form of explanation is Science. Philosophy and Religion are at best ranked as precursors of science, or ridiculed as irrational and not sustained by proof. Only a novice would take as true the statement that Science is the only way to understand our lives. It is like seeing a movie about science and imagining that all you see in that movie is true.
In reality science has core ‘beliefs’ that cannot be proven, similarly with religion and philosophy.
Some would say that the most brilliant minds are inclined towards science and against religion. If you take a peek behind the drape imposed on us, and look at the real history of science, not the one painted by the movies, surprisingly there are science geniuses that are religious. Take a look at Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal. They are profoundly religious and driven by their religious beliefs in all their discoveries.
The person who ignores any of the three (philosophy, religion, science) is robbing himself of the chance of an understanding that is more sound and complete. The science has an explanation how atomic particles are interacting, but cannot define what gravity is, we can only observe and define formulas about how gravity operates, but not WHY.
Science is not the ultimate way of understanding life, it has its important part, to investigate how the visible gears of life are interacting, still, by its definition it is not able to explain why the clock of life exists and why it is so precisely calibrated. Such explanations are the realm of Religion and Philosophy.
Life is like a laboratory. So let’s go together – parents and kids – through all life’s classrooms and learn, experiment, and finally pass the exams.
Readings
https://www.johnlennox.org/shop/20/can-science-explain-everything
https://www.johnlennox.org/resources/113/has-science-buried-god-rice