Yet, science and religion can help each other. They could be compatible in this respect.
Where there appear to be disagreements between science and religion, there may be opportunities for new discoveries.
Okay, let's start with the simple side of this equation: science helping religion. More specifically, we're talking science and the Judeo-Christian Bible and the Young Earth Creationist take on things.
Science has shown in multiple disciplines that humans and the cosmos are far older than 6,000 years. Humanity is at least 200,000 years old and the universe is 13.7 billion. To ignore reality is to court delusion — by simple definition!
Say the Bible is sacred and true. Okay, but that doesn't mean one interpretation is true, and there are so many conflicting interpretations.
In 1650 AD, Archbishop Ussher of Ireland published his timeline for everything. His excellent scholarship is still valid today for many of the dates he determined. For the early patriarchal period, his timeline sucks. He took Genesis too literally. If he had known the science of today, he might have agreed.
If Genesis is true, then we need to greatly lengthen the already outrageous ages of the early patriarchs. There is precedent for this in the Bible. This is part of a code. And the result of that code is a timeline compatible with those found in science. Is this the right timeline? I don't know, but it seems pretty cool.
Take Ussher's date for the Flood, for instance. He says Noah's Flood occurred 2348 BC. Not good for the biblical literalists. Three years after this date, Egypt's sixth dynasty was founded. If Noah and his family were the only ones on planet Earth after the Flood, then from whence did all those citizens of Egypt come? Thirteen years after this date, Sargon the Great conquered Sumer. I venture to guess that Sargon was more than thirteen years old.
The new Genesis timeline (detailed in my upcoming book, "The Noah Mystery, God's Reason for the Flood") pegs the Flood at 27,970 BC, and Adam's birth at 10,454,130 BC. I bet some anthropologists are going to have a laughing fit on that one. But hey, in the search for truth, what's a little heckling amongst friends.
Personally, I think scientists who heckle or ridicule should be barred from the hallowed halls of science until they learn a little humility. Be tough, yes, but not pig headed and arrogant. Arrogant scientists missed out on Troy, leaving that to an amateur. Arrogant scientists missed out for over a century after Troy the burial kurgans of Southern Russia where proof of Amazon warriors was found. Arrogant scientists put a choke hold on North American anthropology for years with their "Clovis first" dogma.
Arrogant biblical literalists have held onto the deluded idea of a young Earth, concocting their own very silly version of science.
There are many answers derived from the code discovered in Genesis. The answers may not track with other people's interpretations of science or the Bible, but they possess an internal consistency that reads like a good novel, or a good thesis. And there remain many millions of square miles of land yet to be unearthed by anthropologists. There are many more bones yet to be discovered.
The new date for the Flood coincides with another event found in science. This reveals the likely target of the Flood — the real "daughters of man," and the real meaning of the "corruption of flesh" that threatened humanity and the future of civilization.
Science and religion working together can be a beautiful thing, if done right. It doesn't have to be an adversarial relationship.