It has become customary in the West to think of science and
religion as occupying two distinct -- and even opposed -- areas of human
thought and activity. This dichotomy can be characterized in the pairs of
antitheses: faith and reason; value and fact. It is a dichotomy which is
foreign to Bahá'í thought…. The principle of the harmony of science and
religion means not only that religious teachings should be studied with the light
of reason and evidence as well as of faith and inspiration, but also that
everything in this creation, all aspects of human life and knowledge, should be
studied in the light of revelation as well as in that of purely rational
investigation. In other words… when studying a subject, [one] should not lock
out of his mind any aspect of truth that is known to him.
(Memorandum from the
Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, accompanied by a letter
written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice dated 3 January 1979;
‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)
