Science vs. Religion

Religion versus science, the debates and conflicts have been on for centuries. For both religious and scientific ideals, the faith people have drives them. In this paper, I will examine the story of “The Eye of Apollo” by G.K. Chesterton, and the episode “House vs. God” of House, M.D., in order to question this conflict. The main character—Father Brown—in “The Eye of Apollo” combines his reasoning with his religious ideals and beliefs, or we can say his faith in God leads him to the truth of the crime. However, if we try to have a deeper look at the both the rational and religious sides of Father Brown, his perspectives on the immortality and justice are similar to Dr House, who interprets his rationality based on science. Thus both the beliefs and faith in religion and science in some way reflect the faith and way of thinking of people, and the two different ideals don’t necessarily conflict with each other.

In The Eye of Apollo, Father Brown solves the mystery of Pauline Stacey’s death. Father Brown is a Catholic priest and serves and a detective. The story begins with a debut of a new religion of Apollo and the New Priest of Apollo, Kalon. The new religion claims “it can cure all the physical diseases”. Pauline Stacey was blind who was heiress of great wealth and power and believed in the New Religion. When Father Brown and Flambeau were in the building, the tragedy happened—Pauline Stacey fell down onto the elevator and died. After a short investigation of the sisters’ office and observation, Father Brown starts questioning Kalon with doubts. But Kalon gives a long speech in defense of his religion and his innocence of the murder. He believes that Miss Stacey died of her faith in the new religion, which is not strong eno...

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...tionalism and makes Boyd blind over the truth. So either the Chesterton story or the episode emphasizes on the “real” faith people have, no matter what is the basis for their particular faiths. Similarly, when the way of thinking is considered in both stories, both Father Brown and Dr House can be concluded as reasoners who hold their doubts or distrusts and keep being skeptical of everything that is contradictory to their own beliefs.

Works Cited

Burns, Timothy. “The Rationalism of Father Brown”. Perspectives on Political Science 34.1 (2005): 37-46. Print.

Iannaccone Laurence R., Rodney Stark and Roger Finke. “Religion, Science and Rationality”. The American Economic Review 86.2 (1995): 433-37. Print.

Sappinton, A.A. “The Religion/Science Conflict”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30.1 (1991): 114-20. Print.