This document discusses the historical conflict between science and religion. While science is based on empirical evidence and measurement, religion is based solely on faith. The conflict intensified in the 16th century when the Catholic Church opposed scientific advances that questioned religious dogma. Some key points of divergence are how the universe began - religion says it was created by God, while science points to the Big Bang. Quantum physics now provides natural explanations for phenomena that were previously attributed to God by religion. However, quantum physics also needs to explain the existence of natural laws themselves to fully resolve the conflict between science and religion.

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CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Fernando Alcoforado *
Throughout human history, the relationship between science and religion was marked
by numerous conflicts. While science is based on empirical measurement from research
to advance scientific knowledge in what is tangible and palpable, religion is supported
solely on faith. Somebody believes that both can go together, but there are also those
who consider totally incongruous. The conflict between science and religion has
intensified in the sixteenth century, when the Catholic Church intensified its activities
against the advance of science that put into question the religious dogma.
The difference between religion and science is one of the great issues of the modern
world. The reason appears as the sole criterion of truth and religious dogmatic
assertions are now also subject to reflection, mediated by reason. Thus, God was being
discarded by science as a plausible hypothesis, because it is not verifiable by the rules
of scientific rationality. The great physicist Albert Einstein had never made very clear
his view on religion, despite being cited as the author of the phrase that "science without
religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
An unpublished letter from Albert Einstein to Gutkind dated 1954, the year prior to his
death, brings first sharp criticism from the physical to religion. According to Albert
Einstein, the word God is nothing more than the expression and product of human
weakness for whom the Bible is "a collection of legends honored, albeit primitive" [See
the text Em carta inédita, Albert Einstein ataca Deus (In unpublished letter, Albert
Einstein strikes God) available on the website <
http://forum.antinovaordemmundial.com/Topico-em-carta-in % C3 % A9dita - albert -
einstein - attacks -god>] .
In the letter to Gutkind, Einstein, who was a Jew, does not spare the Jewish religion. For
Einstein, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most
childish superstitions". Einstein, a Jew who was instrumental in the creation of the State
of Israel, says to Gutkind also that does not believe that the Jews are a people "chosen"
by God. There is no doubt that in the light of science, religious faith has no more sense,
especially when trying to explain the Universe, life and the laws that regulate them. But
when you step back to the origin of the universe, science and religion has always
struggled on a wide divergence on how the universe came about.
According to Paul Davies, a British physicist and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the
Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University in Sydney, the first
question concerns the creation or formation of the Universe. By whom and how was the
Universe created? The response of all religions is that it was a planned act of a deity
(God) that existed previously. The answer of science is that the Universe appeared there
about fifteen billion years ago due to a massive explosion, which was popularly known
as the Big Bang. After the Big Bang, the universe began its expansion [See the article
Pode a ciência crer em Deus? (Can science to believe in God?) available on website
<http://super.abril.com.br/religiao/pode-ciencia-crer-deus-438364.shtml>].
Paul Davies states that most researchers agree that the Cosmos at the time of creation of
the world time and space were infinitely distorted, a situation called uniqueness. This
singularity can also be called boundary or edge of space and time. In other words, in a
state of singularity there is absolutely nothing, neither space nor time. This means that

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in the state of singularity, it is excluded the possibility of time before the Big Bang.
Likewise, there was no empty space. Time and space came out of nothing at the time of
the explosion.
With the advent of the Big Bang theory there was much discussion among scientists,
because even among those who imagine that they had not come, after all, no explanation
for the sudden emergence of the universe from nothing. And one could also explain
where they came from matter and energy that appeared at that time. For many scientists,
therefore, continued to look still possible to believe in something like the creation of the
Universe by God as described in religious books. The key to understanding this whole
set is, however, in quantum physics. Normally, its laws have only explanation for
processes that occur within the smallest things, such as atoms, or nuclei of atoms that
characterized the early Universe.
From the perspective of quantum physics, particles move in and out of existence all the
time and nothing is so unstable that it created in our case, the Universe. Paul Davies
says there is still another mystery to explain: why the Universe took shape and
organization we know today? According to Davies, the state of the Universe
immediately after the Big Bang was so extreme that it was possible that the effects of
"quanta" (particles) have led to its structure as we know it now. Calculations already
performed show that many of the peculiarities of the Cosmos, which today still seem
mysterious, are perfectly natural explanation when analyzing based on the laws of
quantum physics.
It should be noted that the old religious concept of God that touched with your finger
any button and set in motion the entire Universe, and is now engaged in contemplating
the development of his work, it was totally discredited by quantum physics and the new
cosmology. It should be noted that the old religious concept of God that touched with
your finger any button and set in motion the entire Universe, and is now engaged in
contemplating the development of his work, was totally discredited by quantum physics
and the new cosmology. According to Lawrence Krauss, American physicist, author of
The Universe from nothing (Publisher Simon & Schuster, New York, 2012), nothing has
produced not just one universe, but multiverses (different universes) past, present and
future. This thesis is based on quantum mechanics that shows us that even in an empty
space, no particles coming out of nowhere, constantly. The Universe would therefore be
an accident that happened without the supervision of a higher being, God.
However, one point remains unclear: if today we have laws that can explain just about
everything, how to explain the existence of these laws themselves? But it is the laws of
nature and its mathematical form that Paul Davies presents a demonstration of the
existence of a plan that, for many centuries, theologians provided the necessary
arguments to support the existence of God as creator of the Universe today denied and
demonstrated by Physics quantum. Although we have nowadays a consistent
explanation for the origin of the Universe, matter and energy in which both come out of
nothing without the need for a Creator (God), quantum physics must face the challenge
of also explain why there are laws of nature to put an end to the conflict between
science and religion.
* Alcoforado, Fernando, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic planning, business planning,
regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,

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1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,
Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011) and Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), among others.