I have a friend who believes that there is a scientific explanation for everything—spiritual feelings, answers to prayer, miracles, and so on. What can I tell this friend?

Photo illustration by Lloyd Eldredge; graphic by iStock/Thinkstock

In one sense, your friend is right—all things probably have explanations that can be given in scientific terms (though we don’t have all of these yet). The ability of science to explain something does no harm to religion. Even if you accept scientific explanations of a spiritual experience or a miracle, science merely describes the event; science says nothing about its underlying truth, meaning, or purpose. That’s the role of religion. Our Father in Heaven knows all things and reveals to us what we need in order to return to Him and to develop faith, hope, charity, and all other divine attributes. Just as religious interpretations of natural phenomena do not destroy science, the reverse is also true—scientific explanations of religious experiences do not destroy religion.