WEEK 14 - SCIENCE, COMMON SENSE AND RELIGION

Group 5

         The last group for this week to present is Group 5. The topic is Science, Common Sense and Religion and the presenters are Firdaus, Arisha, Sakinah and Najihah. The presenters start the class with greetings and giving us a question to give an opinion about the relationship science, common sense and religion. Then, they give us their video presentation and a slide to refer. This is what I can summarize from their video and slide.

       The meaning of science is systematized knowledge derived from observation, research and experimentation to assess the nature of concepts of the what being studies. We have known that science is a way of knowing. While, religion is the belief in and worship of superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. There are many types of religions in this world such as Monotheism; belief in one god or Polytheism; believe in multiple gods. Some people do not believe there is a god which we called atheism. Common sense is where information gathered from everyday knowledge. It is different than science because common sense has no structure to it, it is explicitly subjective, and is subject to all manner of cognitive biases.

         Science and religion incompatible because they use a different method to determine what is true. Science observes nature, experimenting to test the hypothesis but religion have authority, revelation, dogma, and indoctrination as their methods and there is no way of proving their beliefs false. Besides, there are some theories of the relationship between science and religion which are hostility theory, harmony theory and indifference theory. Hostility theory states that science and religion cannot coexist since each makes claims that the other side denies. For example, conflict Charles Darwin in his theory of evolution in 1859. Then, harmony theory states that science and religion can coexist together because both are compatible such as baby’s development in pregnancy. Lastly is indifferent theory. Indifference theory suggests that religion and science exist in two different domains. Science and religion can exist simultaneously in human life and both have different properties to each other. Example of an indifferent theory is fatwa. Thus, we must be equally committed to religion and science, as it can contribute to the holistic and balanced growth of the individual in physical or spiritual terms.

       After one hour, the presenters held a Q&A session where students can ask a question regarding the topic. One of the questions that got me interested is why does common sense is applicable in daily life and not in science?. Common sense is applicable but in suitable condition and situation. For example, some company test our logical thinking during the interview so it does important to have a high common sense. But in science, we cannot trust common sense because it has no evidence to prove it. However, it can help scientist to observe the world. After the Q&A session ended, they gave us an activity group which is a quiz. It is a random pick so everyone has an equal chance to get selected to answer the quiz. Then, madam asked us about our opinion of science in Islam. From my point of view, Al-Quran has talked about science a long time ago since thousands of years before the scientist discover about science. We can see that Muslim scientist exists many years ago such as Ibnu Sina, the father of medicine. So, we cannot deny the fact that science cannot be separated from Islam and we must believe in our religion as a Muslim.

This is a video from Group 5 about topic Science, Common Sense and Religion.