Science And Religion

Science-and-religion: On science, society & religion Willem B. Drees Leiden University

Science-and-religion ? Thesis 1: ‘Science-and-religion’ is not about the relationship between science and religion. The Bridge image, as if the two sides are given, fails.  What are issues, in context of science, society, and the study of religions.

Science as Context Thesis 2. ‘Science-and-religion’ functions as advocacy for science.  

Popularization & apologetics ‘Natural theology’ served these roles too

Science as context (2) 

Apologetics for science  

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Where distrust in science (USA?) Values and meaning are not undermined

Apologetics for religion Where science is threatening (USA & EU?)  epistemic arguments, against ‘scientism’ 

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Useful strategies   

Popular science with a pious gloss Parallels: no threat (& rel. priority) Compatibility: science limited  

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Limit questions (Laws, origins) Morality & meaning

Consonance, harmony found (or constructed?) Support, arg from science to theology

Which science? Thesis 3. ‘Descriptiveexplanatory’ sciences and ‘transformative sciences’ are theologically different. 

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physics, cosmology & biology in natural theology: design, ‘best of all worlds’ chemistry, medicine and engineering: the world can be improved.

Theology as a science? Thesis 4. Debates about theology as a science stand in the context of academic politics.     

What is the norm for scientific? Can theology live up to that norm? Should theology live up to that norm? What is the nature of belief? Even if theology is not scientific, the confrontation of convictions and knowledge is important.

SOCIETY as context of Sc &R Thesis 5. Controversies over evolution are primarily controversies over social issues.

After ‘Colombine’ (1999) 

DeLay in a debate in US House of Representatives (June 16, 1999): not the guns, but broken families, day care centers, TV and computer games, small families due to sterilization and contraception, abortions, and “because our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of some primordial soup of mud.”

Perceptions of religion    

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Outdated, but harmless & social Social problem: minorities (Islam) Intellectual problem: pluralism Existential problem: fragmentation and bricolage, no firm identities Source of law, morality, & identity

Religion & science in society Thesis 6. Religion is used instrumentally as a source of motivation or as a brake on scientific-technological developments.

Using religion in relation to science & technology 

Religion as a source of motivation 

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Earth Charter, Religions of the World & Ecology (Harvard) Science as separate resource: ‘evolutionary epic’, ‘biophilia’ (EO Wilson)?

Religion as a ‘brake’ on developments  

E.g. genomics, not ‘playing God’?

Religion in Public Debates 

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If not generally accepted, not acceptable? Why not? Procedural politics Why not? “conversation … parties express their premises in … whatever idiom they may wish, try to make sense of each other’s perspective, and expose their own commitment to the possibility of criticism” (Stout, Democracy & Tradition, 10f)

THE STUDY OF RELIGION Thesis 7. Behind ‘religion-andscience’ debates are major disagreements on the meaning of ‘religion’. What is normative / central?  Tradition & identity  Morality & action  Worldview 

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Theism; transcendence & divine action, or panentheism, Spinozism/naturalism, … Magic, witches, vampires, … Life after death, soul, …

Secular study of religion Thesis 8. Secular religious studies are avoided in ‘religion and science’

Anthropological approaches 

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Immanent vocabulary conflicts with social and religious ambitions of R & Sc Competing: “God is not, like pain, a reality to be explained, but it is rather, like atoms, an explanation of reality” (Robert Segal). Methodologically agnostic & functional (e.g. Clifford Geertz, ‘sacred symbols function to synthesize a people’s ethos and their world view’.

Philosophy of religion Thesis 9. Philosophy of religion = science of religion + the investigation of truth or falsity. - Understanding religious ideas and practices and - evaluation in context of secular knowledge.

What is a theology? Thesis 10. A theology = a cosmology + an axiology  

the + sign crucial: how these together science underdetermines cosmology

Science underdetermines the cosmology T h e o lo g ie s C o s m o lo g y S c ie n c e s

A x io lo g y T r a d it io n s

C onsequences

Different +  theologies  

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scientism: axiology follows science autonomy of science and of morality, with existential theologies holding values and facts together in tension. cosmologies at odds with science (New Age, creationism) …

Cases in Religion-andScience Case 1: Galileo dispute - Conflict in scholarly community - Conflicts in the Church Case 2: Evolution in 19th century - Professionalization of science (Huxley) - Historical understanding of

Cases of ‘Religion & Science’ Case 3. Science for Buddhist monks: Dalai Lama versus the monasteries Case 4. Koran exegesis: Islamism versus liberals (Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur’an, OUP, 2004) Case 5. Creationism and ID Case 6. John Templeton’s ‘humility theology’: science, business and natural theology?

What is ‘sc & rel.’ about? Thesis 11. ‘Science and religion’ is about the truth of ideas, but as much about authority within religious traditions. It is a major battle ground between revisionists and traditionalists in each tradition.