My 2 Greatest Passions are Improperly Labeled as Oil and Water

I'm studying neuroscience at Brigham Young University. BYU apparently has the largest undergraduate neuroscience program in the United States. I've always had a passion for science, and sometimes people wonder how that can mix with the faith I profess to have in my religion. For a while now, I've been working on my philosophy of how science and religion are more compatible than most people realize. In fact, a desire to express this belief was one of the determining factors in starting this blog.

Science is wonderful; it has allowed us to gain a great deal of understanding about the world as we create, test, and alter theories through an endless chain of research and discoveries. However, these are all theories and one of the fundamental bases of true science continues to be the fact that things can and should be proven wrong if possible, change is good, and new understanding will eventually replace or re-define what we currently understand. Hence, we cannot claim that we know for certain how the world around us operates because the very theories we base our so-called "knowledge" on are set up to change as we gain further intelligence.

I will continue in my passion for science, but even true science can never match up to true religion in terms of bringing understanding to mankind. While a temporary theory may enlighten us on how to operate a little better in this life, a testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ's Atonement can provide profound motivation and edification in this life and eternal life with God after we finish our mortal sojourns. One may call me foolish, but I sincerely believe that the philosophy of a solely scientific approach to life, where we point our fingers at an article and say "this is truth, this is right, we must abide by this" one day and then a week later point at the same article and say "this is old, this is out of date, we know better now" and then refuse to believe that we will one day say exactly that about our current "knowledge."

This is probably not my most refined or even understandable blog post (I'm more than a little tired), but I hope I'll eventually do this concept justice. It's so important, and the world teaches contrary so often...