Science & ReligionScience & Religion

Conflict or Conversation?Conflict or Conversation?

Questions … Questions ...

Is religion opposed to science?

Has science made religion intellectually implausible?

Does science rule out the existence of a “personal” God?

Does evolution do away with Divine Providence?

Haven’t recent biological and neurological discoveries made illusions of the concepts of soul or spirit?

Let’s define “religion”.

What is “theism?”

What is “religion”?A theistic belief in God

What does “personal” mean?

What is “theism”?A belief in a God who is actively engaged

with His creation—a personal God.

What is the Bahá’í conception of

God?

What does “personal” mean?

God as a physical being—in whose image we are created …God as a spiritual being—in whose image we are created...

To every discerning and illuminated heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men. “No vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vision; He is the Subtile, the All-Perceiving.”

— Bahá’u’lláh

There is a Spirit which is mind and life, light and truth and vast spaces. He contains all works, and all desires, and all perfumes, and all tastes. He enfolds the whole Universe, and in silence is loving to all. This is the Spirit that is in my heart, smaller than a grain of rice, or a grain of barley, or a grain of mustard seed, or a kernel of a grain of mustard seed. This is the Spirit that is in my heart, greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than Heaven itself, greater than all these worlds. This is the Spirit that is in my heart. This is Brahman (the Creator)."

— Chandogya Upanishad

God is one and alone, and none other existeth with Him—God is the One, the One who hath made all things—God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the spirit of spirits, the great spirit of the Egyptians, the divine spirit—God is from the beginning, and He hath been from the beginning, He hath existed from old and was when nothing else had being. He existed when nothing else existed, and what existeth He created after He had come into being, He is the Father of beginnings—God is the eternal One, He is eternal and infinite and endureth for ever and aye—God is hidden and no man knoweth His form.

— The Papyrus of Ani, Egyptian Book of the Dead

Definitions ...

What sort of statements are these?

What is “science”?Science is organized knowledge.

“...science is common sense which has become self-conscious.” — W. V. Quine, logician

“...science is a collection of statements or affirmations which are taken as truths about reality (or some portion thereof).” — William S. Hatcher, mathematician

Is scientific knowledge absolute?

What sort of statements?Empirical statements that are observably true (Quine’s “common sense”).

Theoretical statements that can only be derived through reason, extrapolation, and supposition.

What is science NOT?

Is scientific knowledge absolute?

“A statement with a high empirical component and a low theoretical component corresponds to the popular notion of a fact. … Often, but not always, the important statements of science are statements with a high theoretical component.” — William S. Hatcher

What Science is NOT ...

Science is not a “collection of facts”.

Factual statements are simply statements with a low theoretical component.

Facts comprise only a small part of our scientific statements, and sometimes the least important part.

Science is not a belief system.

Science Begins When ...

… we organize our assumptions about reality consciously.

... we examine and test the logical relations between our assumptions and their consequences.

… we’re led to a well-organized “body of knowledge” which describes a model of reality.

... we continually revise the collection of statements and the model it suggests in the light of new experiences, new assumptions, and new logical relationships.

The Scientific Method

“The scientific method is the systematic, organized, directed, and conscious use of our various mental faculties in an effort to arrive at a coherent model of whatever phenomenon is being investigated.”

— William S. Hatcher

Major Viewpoints

Conflation — religious writings are infallible; therefore, they can give us infallible scientific information.

Conflict — science and religion are fundamentally irreconcilable.

Contrast — science and religion operate in two completely separate areas of human life; there can be no conflict.

Contact — science and religion ought to be able to inform each other.

Confirmation — religion nourishes and supports scientific endeavors; science reveals the wonders of creation.

Conflation, Contrast & Confirmation agree ...

… when the true purpose and nature of science and religion are understood, there is no conflict, BUT ...

… they mean different things.

Conflation / Concordism

The Bible (or other scripture), taken literally, is in concord with science.

i.e., the 6 days of creation are 6 creation epochs or days of God.

i.e., fossils and seemingly ancient geological features can be accounted for by the Flood or by deception on the part of God, Satan, or man.

Science is fallible, but the Scripture is inerrant and infallible and can give us the best scientific information.

Conflation’s children

Creation Science&

Intelligent Design

Conflict

Scientific fundamentalism” (aka, scientism) argues that science and religion are fundamentally irreconcilable because science ...

... is not absolute, whereas religious dogma claims to be absolute.

... can be tested, whereas religious ideas cannot be tested.

… is self-correcting because it deals with empirical knowledge.

… is rational, whereas religion is irrational.

Conflict

Religious fundamentalism argues that science and religion are irreconcilable because science ...

… is NOT a neutral way of knowing, but rather a subversive and demonic force.

… robs life and the universe of meaning.

... destroys the spiritual foundations of culture.

... is morally corrosive.

Both sides agree...

One cannot be a committed scientist and a person of faith.

William of Occam, monk-scientist

Contrast

Science and religion operate in two completely different streams of existence.

Ergo, there can be no real conflict between the two.

But don’t cross the streams!

Contrast

Science and religion are like chess and baseball. They aren’t playing the same game, so can’t be held to the same rules.

Each “game” needs to be understood and appreciated in its own terms.

They cannot be played on the same field.

Contrast allows us ...

... to distinguish between the objectivity of science and the subjectivity of “scientism”.

Sam Harris, scientism advocate

“Science is concerned with particular truths ...

… religion is interested in explaining why we should seek truth at all.”

— John F. Haught, theologian

Contact

There should be dialogue, interaction and even consonance between science and religion, especially where science influences theological understanding.

Contact

Scientific knowledge can broaden the world of religious faith.

Religion can deepen the meaning and application of scientific discovery.

Contact recognizes ...

… that science textbooks tend to downplay the amount of uncertainty and outright conflict in the scientific community over new or divergent ideas.

… that there are no uninterpreted facts.

Science is not as objective and free of interpretation as we once thought, nor religion and theology as subjective.

Contact recognizes ...

Confirmation

At a very deep level, religion feeds and promotes the entire scientific enterprise.

The desire for knowledge of ourselves and our world is confirmed by religion.

Confirmation

Science begins with the faith that the universe is knowable, rational, and orderly.

Religion begins with that same faith in the rationality of reality.

If religion indeed confirms the faith assumptions at the heart of science, and not an alternative source of scientific theories ...

… then it will promote rather than obstruct or oppose the work of science.

Confirmation suggests that ...

… we can avoid conflation and conflict if we recognize that the role of religious faith is to remind us why we should seek truth and knowledge about ourselves and our universe in the first place.

The Bahá’í View

“Bahá’u’lláh declared that religion is in complete harmony with science and reason. If religious belief and doctrine is at variance with reason, it proceeds from the limited mind of man and not from God; therefore, it is unworthy of belief ... real faith is impossible. ... Reason is the first faculty of man, and the religion of God is in harmony with it.”

— Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 231 (14 July 1912, New York, NY)

The Bahá’í View

“God has given man the eye of investigation by which he may see and recognize truth. He has … conferred upon him the gift of reason by which he may discover things for himself. This is his endowment and equipment for the investigation of reality. ... Each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in the creative plan of God. ... Turn to God ... that God may rend asunder the veils that obscure your vision.” —Abdu’l-Bahá

Faith & Reason—Only in Oz?

There is no inherent opposition between faith and reason—faith and reason are part of the human process of knowing and living.

Faith must be rational, and reason must operate within the context of our assumptions about reality—i.e., our faith that the universe is knowable.

The reason for having faith in the scientific method is that it works.

Questions … Questions ...

Is religion opposed to science?

Has science made religion intellectually implausible?

Does science rule out the existence of a “personal” God?

Does evolution do away with Divine Providence?

Haven’t recent biological and neurological discoveries made illusions of the concepts of soul or spirit?

“Do not be afraid of being free thinkers. If you think strongly enough you will be forced by science to the belief in God, which is the foundation of all Religion. You will find science not antagonistic, but helpful to Religion.” — Lord Kelvin

“Science is an effulgence of the Sun of Reality, the power of investigating and discovering the verities of the universe, the means by which man finds a pathway to God.” — Abdu'l-Bahá