August 2, 2016
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 man, of examining the world by man. Each of them has its own instruments, its own methods of learning. They respond to their own questions,” the primate said at his meeting with scientists in Sarov.
He noted that “though throughout 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 meaning in life and attitude towards death.”
“It is naive to read Genesis as the textbook on anthropogenesis [a version of man’s origin – IF]. At the same time, it is counterproductive to search for an answer on the meaning of life in textbooks on Biology and Physics,” the patriarch said.
