Intro to the Discussion of Spirit and Science

The study of the dialog between religion and science is certainly not new, but it has taken a surprising turn in the last two decades of the twentieth century, and as a consequence, has stirred up quite a lot of conversation. It is my purpose in writing this blog to offer a synthesis of the dialog between religion and science that may help to eliminate some of the confusion in some people's minds.

The spiritual climate in the world today is complex. In the West, traditional spirituality has been on the decline for decades. Yet there is an unprecedented growth of interest in Eastern religions other than the Judeo-Christian variety. In the Middle East, Islam holds sway, but it is fragmented into almost diametrically opposite sects. In the Far East, Buddhism and Hinduism, the twin children of the religion of the Vedas, are predominant, although Shintoism , Taoism, and a few other religions are still alive. Needless to say, there are adherents of all major religions in each segment of the world: the last few sentences are perhaps an oversimplification. There is a great deal of interest in spirituality throughout the world -- a great many seekers -- in spite of the advances of modern science which, at the turn of the last century, were considered by many to herald the death of religion.

In order to intelligently discuss religion and science, we must begin with a definition of religion and of science.

What, then, is religion? Religion can be viewed from various perspectives: personal, institutional, or theological. In his introductory Gifford Lecture, William James defined religion as “The feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they consider the divine." Clearly this relates to the personal aspect of religion. Equally clearly, the institutional and theological aspects also relate to the personal. For purposes of our discussion, we will consider religion to be the feelings, acts, experiences, and beliefs of individual people in relation to whatever they consider to be the true or superior reality. This definition will allow us to include belief/behavior patterns that are not conventionally considered as religion, but which certainly affect the thoughts and behavior of some individuals in a religion-like fashion.

It is an unfortunate characteristic of humanity that we elevate our tribal culture to the status of religion: if someone thinks and acts like me, and professes to believe like me, then that person is OK; otherwise, (s)he is an infidel. I call this the religion of "like me." I know many who consider themselves Christian who actually belong instead to the religion of "like me." It is this religion that is largely responsible for the fracturing of religious movements into sects and denominations, although there are other and darker causes as well. Having mentioned Christianity, I will digress for a moment to point out that Jesus of Nazareth certainly did not subscribe to the religion of "like me." He spoke well of outcast Samaritans, and dined with outcast traitors (tax collectors for the Romans) and the morally degenerate (prostitutes). He also dined with the self-righteous power brokers (Pharisees). But if my personal religion consists mainly of the environment that produced a sense of warm fuzzies in my youth, and a sense that I was basically a good person, and if I then decide that I am the standard of the universe, I am following "like-me-anity", not Christianity. This same analysis applies to any other major religion.

Many people consider themselves to be religious because they mentally assent to a particular set of beliefs, yet if their actions are analyzed, they do not correspond with the professed beliefs. Such people speculate about religion, but do not engage it in their lives.

In our next post, we will examine the currents that are found in one major religion: Christianity. I chose this example because it is the one on which I am best qualified to comment, and because it has had the most powerful formative influence upon Western culture. Since modern science has largely arisen in the West (although the mathematical and philosophical roots certainly entwine the Middle East), much of the dialog between science and religion has occurred in the Western context -- between Western science and Christianity. And much of the numinous core of almost all major religions is shared. After discussing the currents within Christianity, we will proceed to a definition of science.

[-- Technorati token CP7WR6KGFW5T]