Science vs. Religion in Modern Mythology

My dad asked me today to order him a book called "War of the Worldviews: Science vs. Spirituality."  This, I'm sure is an interesting book, and I'm a bit jealous that I haven't had the opportunity to write at least one chapter for a book like that.

It's an interesting subject, and one that has popped up for me several times recently.  To summarize my view, I believe science is wonderful, but ultimately inadequate to whole understand the world we live in.  After all, no one hears a beautiful song, watches a sunrise, or hugs their child, and understands these experiences scientifically, or logically.  These are experiences that have to be understood intuitively and emotionally.

If you look at it in the terms of "one versus the other" it seems science and faith have always had a tenuous relationship.  Science and religion have struggled against each other for hundreds of years, and this is a fight that acts itself out in a myriad of ways.  I was considering this never ending struggle and how it plays out specifically in modern mythology

For instance, Frankenstein, a myth about as old as modern science, depicts a scientist that tries to create life and is capable of only creating an abomination.  In this myth science is the enemy of natural creation. 

In Planet of the Apes Dr. Zaius hides archeological evidence to protect his religion; skewering Christians who refuse to believe in evolution.  

These are two stories that I think really crystallize each side of the fight; however I think the two opposing viewpoints may be melding, at least in mythology, in recent years.

In modern classic films such as Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell, machines literally become human.   In these stories science and faith no longer struggle against each other.  The boundaries between creator and creation blur to the point that one is indistinguishable from the other.  There is no longer any moralization against scientific creation, or denial of the human soul.

This is an amazing viewpoint.  No longer is one side railing against the other; only acceptance.  The process simply plays out, for better or worse, with or without consent.  We are as powerless to stop the intrusiveness of scientific creation, or even to deny the existence of the "Ghost" in the machine,  as we are to stop the passage of time.

I feel it is important to point out that these stories are not set in idealized futures, as one might expect, but in very realistic "cyberpunk" settings.  That being a future of extremely complicated technology existing simultaneously with squalid poverty, violent crime, and low culture.

These myths also seem to be a modern sort of Pinocchio story, that also say a lot about the bond between creator and creation.   In Genesis God created man "in His own image."  In Pinocchio the puppet wishes to become human.      

I don't think it is helpful for  science and faith to be seen as opposing forces, but that one should learn from the other, because neither by itself is capable of understanding the universe or our human experience.