Patriarch Kirill does not see contradictions between religion and science

Natalya Mihailova | 02 August 2016
Sarov, August 2, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes science and religion do not contradict each other, as they respond to different questions, and there is no sense in searching an answer to spiritual questions in works on Physics or Biology.

“We can say that science, religion and art are different ways of examining the world and the man, of examining the world by the man. Each of them has its own instruments, its own methods of learning. They respond on their own questions,” the primate said at his meeting with scientists in Sarov.

He noted that “though during human history relations between science and religion were very different, religious and scientific ways of examining the world do not have contradictions, as there are no contradictions between science and art, religion and art.”

He believes that science answers the questions “how and why” while religion answers the question “what for.” According to the patriarch, religious studies focuses on “the problem of sense in life and attitude to death.”

“It is naive to read the Genesis (the first book of the Bible describing how God created the world – IF) as the text book on anthropogenesis (version of man’s origin – IF). At the same time, it is counterproductive to search an answer on the sense of life in text-books on Biology and Physics,” the patriarch said.

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