A history of warfare between science and theology?

Katarina and I went to a talk on the above (without the question mark) by Nobel Laureate of Physics, Steven Weinberg.Google him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Weinberg and his remark on religion as an insult on human dignity.With that kind of title "A history of..." I was curious to find out which history he'd focus on.What kinda stand would he take (western scientists can surprise you.Some might quote the Quran in Arabic!) but Weinberg didn't surprise me one bit.In fact, that title was plagiarised from Cornell's first President (which he acknowledged).I find him NOT to be a true Scientist at all.Scientists are supposed to be value-free/impartial.You just report your scientific findings but no...and he admitted at the end of his talk: he would preach: for the death of religion so that science could grow and develop.

What was interesting was his bashing of Islamic 'stand' on science, claiming it died with Al Ghazali who caused the death of science since Al Ghazali advocated that everything happened by the grace of Allah.And then he went on and on equating suicide bombers with Islam and the rest of Muslims as motivated by the wish to die in the path of Allah (sacrifice)at the expense of others.He went on and on having a go at Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism etc.I can understand why he no longer teaches at Princeton or Harvard.This man is offensive (as well as sexist..objectifying woman as a plaything...good for dancing etc) What is so intellectual saying things the non-schooling people would say in response to FOX/CNN news of suicide bombers, etc.

When I googled him, I found out that the Nobel Prize he won was not based on his work alone.THAT was NOT mentioned in the introduction on him or that he took the trouble to acknowledge his scientist buddies (one happened to be an Ahmadiah Muslim, Abdus Salam who unfortunately would never get to tell his stand on science and religion cos' he died in 1996 in Oxford, UK) But Abdus Salam was a Muslim and one write-up on him is this :

Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, who saw his religion as integral to his scientific work. He once wrote: "The Holy Quran enjoins us to reflect on the verities of Allah's created laws of nature; however, that our generation has been privileged to glimpse a part of His design is a bounty and a grace for which I render thanks with a humble heart."[1]

During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Physics, Salam famously quoted the following verses from the Quran

"Thou seest not, in the creation of the All-merciful any imperfection, Return thy gaze, seest thou any fissure. Then Return thy gaze, again and again. Thy gaze, Comes back to thee dazzled, aweary."
He then proceeded to say: "This in effect is, the faith of all physicists; the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze." [3]

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam)

I had to stand up and pointed out to Weinberg that even after Al Ghazali's death, there were still great scientists making great discoveries especially at the height of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.Who was he kidding?Also it wasn't because of religion that we were left behind in scientific explorations...colonisation suppressed many of the Muslim countries..there were lacks of fundings and grants for scientic researches, etc. I should have said every time a Muslim country wants to do anythimg scientific...they would be accused of developing Weapons of Massive Destruction..look at Iran and its nuke scientific project(but I was the only Muslim in a crowd of 100 over people and my knowledge of Islamic science isn't as great as some of my collegues back home. I also said we have big Science faculties back home and have started on space exploration programmes which he said good, he's happy to know there's a return and may it weaken religion.Darwin's pet!)When you are not just a scientist but a scientist with an agenda...you will get Steven Weinberg.

My take is to all who want to believe, who feel that religion has helped them cope with so many things and tragedies in ther lives...fear not of scientists like Weinberg.He's not the only one.There are better scientists who do not see the divide between religion and science (like his co-winner of the Nobel Prize, Abdus Salam).