Paganism and Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list asks \u201cAre Science and Paganism mutually incompatible?\u201d No more so than science and any other religion, which from my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paganism and Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list asks \u201cAre Science and Paganism mutually incompatible?\u201d No more so than science and any other religion, which from my\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-01T16:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html\",\"name\":\"Paganism and Science\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-01T16:55:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-03-01T16:55:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list asks \u201cAre Science and Paganism mutually incompatible?\u201d No more so than science and any other religion, which from my\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Paganism and Science\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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{"id":439,"date":"2010-03-01T16:55:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science\/"},"modified":"2010-03-01T16:55:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T16:55:00","slug":"paganism-and-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/03\/paganism-and-science.html","title":{"rendered":"Paganism and Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list<\/a> asks \u201cAre Science and Paganism mutually incompatible?\u201d No more so than science and any other religion, which from my viewpoint is a firm \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paganism is a Nature religion, and science is humanity\u2019s collective effort to explain and understand Nature. Most Pagans have at least a passing interest in science and a strong respect for scientific knowledge \u2013 I\u2019ve yet to meet a Pagan who argued against evolution. But we see Nature as poetry as well as mathematics. We understand the astronomy and physics behind a lunar eclipse, but that doesn\u2019t stop us from watching one with a sense of wonder and awe.<\/p>\n

In most of its forms, Paganism makes claims that are beyond the realm of science. Do our gods and goddesses exist as distinct beings? Science has no evidence that they do, but many of us have experienced them. Do our ancestors return to visit with us at Samhain? Science has no evidence that they do, but many of us have experienced them. Do our spells and rituals affect anything beyond psychological programming? Science has no evidence they do, but again, many of us have experienced results we can only call magical.<\/p>\n

Perhaps someday science will be able to identify, classify, and quantify the spiritual experiences of Pagans and practitioners of other religions. But as much as I\u2019d like to know for sure, I think we\u2019re better off with faith. Throughout history, too much good has come from people who either didn\u2019t know or refused to believe that something was impossible until after they had already done it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"