The post-secular convergence of

science and religion

A philosophical prognosis
 Vasil Penchev
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences:
Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge:
Dept. of Logical Systems and Models
vasildinev@gmail.com

Religion in a Secular Society. Challenges and Perspectives

International conference
June 19-20, 2017
Ovidius University of Constanta (Romania)
Prehistory and background
 Religion vs. science: history
The outbreak of science in the modern age in West
Europe was accompanied by the most violent
confrontation of religion (first of all, catholic Christianity
in Europe) and science
oThe latter wanted emancipation and freedom
Two significant events, both stake of Giordano Bruno
and forced renunciation of Galileo, symbolize that fight
and liberation
 Science vs. religion: principles
Furthermore, almost all principles of science and religion
contradict to each other:
o For example:
Causality versus supernatural miracles
o Doubt, skepticism and criticism versus belief
Experience and experiments versus authority and mana
o Many scientific tractata versus one Bible
Tradition versus development
o Etc. and etc.
Science vs religion: the picture of the world

Each of them built an own picture of the world,

absolutely inconsistent to the other
o The methods or approaches of the one refuted the
contribution of the other fundamentally
Nonetheless, both managed to dominate society and
people, the separated human beings
My motivation
 About me
Anyway, I am a scientist rather than a theologian and my
viewpoint will be from the science
o However, I hope a dialog with theologians
I do not belong to that large group of scientists tended to
reject religion initially and fundamentally as wrong, false,
misleading, and primitive
o Nevertheless, I self-determine myself as an atheist
 Science and religion

I think both science and religion are two great achievements

of humankind, though
o They might join and unify their efforts and approaches in a
whole much bigger than the sum separately
To take place that, they should overcome the age-old
hostility and mutual misunderstanding
o I intend my presentation as a quite, quite modest and
humble gesture in that direction
The position of philosophy in
that conflict
 The intermediate position of philosophy
Philosophy maintained, supported, and kept a more or less neutral
position
o A few parts of it were closer to religion (e.g. the so-called
continental philosophy nowadays), others to science (e.g. analytical
one)
In thus, it was that neutral state, where peaceful talks could
have taken place anyway
o Philosophy is strongly interested in that peace treaty and future
cooperation for its role and importance would increase sharply as
the field of dialog, mutual understanding, translation, and
reinterpretation for science and religion
Problem
 Problem

Shall the confrontation and divergence of

science and religion conserve in the close or
far future?
Theses
 Theses: 1 Science and religion
The real emancipation and liberation of science nowadays tends to
the dialog of science and religion
o Both contain elements and doctrines (theories in science) allowing
of reconciliation and joint efforts for a common and much more
generalized viewpoint to the world
Those propensities activate and develop the corresponding
doctrines and theories and deactivate the rest, especially in religion
o So, whether religion or science influences or even conditions the
change of the other
Ecumenism and the unification of religions can be extended even to
scientific atheism
 Theses: 2 Post-secularization
Post-secularization can be defined as the historic period in
which the secular views are emancipated and liberated
absolutely.
o They are equal to any religious ones, without claiming any
superiority or monopole of truth
Particularly, science and religion, both being able to be
considered as post-secular as far as both belong to that
historic period, tend to converge
Prognosis on that convergence from
the viewpoint of philosophy
About a peace treaty of science and religion
The option of peace treaty of science and religion seems
possible at last, in the global and more and more globalizing
world obeying informational technologies and thus
information
o Information, being a scientific concept, can be reinterpreted
as the spirit or as a fundamental spiritual element
underlying the material world studied by science
 About a separate peace treaty within
philosophy

Philosophy can assist that process in many ways, one of

them would be a small or separate peace treaty of the
continental and analytic philosophy
o It would increase its role of mediator for the
confrontation of science and religion to be overcome in
the close or far future
An example: the instructions of Feynmans
pathways interpretation of quantum
mechanics for philosophy
 Feynmans interpretation of quantum
mechanics
Quantum mechanics was forced to resolve the problem of
how to describe uniformly both discrete and continuous
motion. Its mathematical formalism is the separable complex
Hilbert space
o Feynman suggested an equivalent interpretation
generalizing the discrete motion as if in all possible
trajectories, each of which with different probability
 Hodology
Hodology is the defined as the research of pathways in
a broad, abstract and generalized sense
o For example, it may include counterfactual analysis, e.g. in
history or comparative analysis of different approaches to
a shared aim
One may generalize Feynmans interpretation
hodologically as a formalized methodology for hodology
o After that, the equivalence of the jump-like insight inherent
for religious cognition and the continuous and causal
method of science can be seen in turn as similar to
Feynmans approach generalized hodologically now
 Religious cognition by means of scientific
cognition
Then, the cognition by religious experience can be both
justified by, and decomposed into a fan distribution of
alternative scientific theories or disciplines
inconsistent, irrelevant or contradictory to each other
o Each of them would represent the religious cognition
only probably, in a single hodos, pathway, but
achievable by a reliable and causal method repeatable
by many others
 Religion cognition and practices
On the contrary, religious cognition is fundamentally
random.
o It cannot be linked to any definite method and even to any
certain religion
The origin of different religions or religious practices should
be searched for in different traditions and societies
representing in turn different religious pathways rather than
in the essence of religious cognition by itself
 A philosophical idea about theology
as a rigorous science
One may generalize Husserls idea about philosophy as a
rigorous science on his phenomenon identifying form and
content, to religious cognition defined consistently and linked
to science
o In fact, philosophy would coincide with theology after form
and content are identified to each other
Philosophy as a rigorous science is theology in essence
o Spiritual reality researched by theology is therefore that realm
which may be defined philosophically by the identification of
form and content, or as Husserls phenomenology
Conclusions
 Conclusions:
Post-secularization: science and religion are equal
o Convergence of science and religion: they might share aims
and approaches as well as assist each other
Philosophy as a mediator: it may facilitate the mutual
understanding and interpretation of science and religion
o Generalizing Husserls idea about philosophy to theology as
a rigorous science
Extending the unification of religions to science: it can
include even scientific atheism
 V mulumesc pentru atenie!

Salut ntrebrile!