• Science and religion

• Science and religion

• Science and religion
• Science and religion

Science and Religion

ALS patients' religious beliefs
clash with slim hopes for cure
• Wilbur Newton has
Lou Gehrig's
disease. He and
his wife, Edith,
prayed – and then
decided to try a
stem-cell
procedure in
China.
 Tumor diary

• BBC News Online science and

technology writer Ivan Noble was
diagnosed with a malignant brain
tumour in August 2002.

• Since his diagnosis, he has been

sharing his experiences in an
online diary.

• It's obviously healing! The staples

came out on Day 8 and little by little
the residual scabs are washing away.
 Alternative Medicine
• BBC News Online science and technology
writer Ivan Noble was diagnosed with a
malignant brain tumor last August.
• So I have decided to spend two days at a
centre which specializes in complementary
treatment for cancer and a holistic approach
to health.
• I have always had the strong feeling that
besides all the treatment I have had, there
ought to be something I could do to help
myself.
• I am already doing some of the things which
the center's literature describes.

• I am trying to keep up with my tai chi

exercises to keep me strong and relaxed, I
take a cocktail of vitamins every day and
most of the time, birthdays and holidays
notwithstanding, I stick to a meat-, egg- and
dairy-free diet.
• But I am hoping that the stay at the holistic
centre will help me pull it all together and
above all get to grips with the fear.
 Antony Flew Considers
God...Sort Of
• Antony Flew is considering the possibility that there might be a God.
Sort of. Flew is one of the most renowned atheists of the 20th century.
If he has changed his mind to any degree, whatever you may think of
his reasons, the event itself is certainly of his "conversion" this time
came from a number of avenues, The fact of the matter is: Flew hasn't
really decided what to believe. He affirms that he is not a Christian--he
is still quite certain that the Gods of Christianity or Islam do not exist,
that there is no revealed religion, and definitely no afterlife of any
kind.
Antony Flew Considers
God...Sort Of
• Flewis increasingly persuaded that
some sort of Deity brought about
this universe, though it does not
intervene in human affairs, nor does
it provide any postmortem
salvation. He says he has in mind
something like the God of Aristotle,
a distant, impersonal "prime
mover." It might not even be
conscious, but a mere force. In
formal terms, he regards the
existence of this minimal God as a
hypothesis that, at present, is
perhaps the best explanation for
why a universe exists that can
produce complex life
 Groups from different
faiths prayed for patients
•
• Praying for patients undergoing
heart operations does not improve
their outcomes, a US study
suggests.

• A study found those who were prayed

for were as likely to have a setback in
hospital, be re-admitted, or die within
six months as those not prayed for.

• The Duke University Medical Center

study of 700 patients, in the Lancet,
said music, image and touch therapy
did appear to reduce patients' distress.

• Heart experts said patients could

benefit from feeling more optimistic.
 Science and Religion
• What is Religion?

• What is Science?
 Science and Religion
• The word religion derives from the Latin
word to bind or to ligate (tie).

• It means bind to the gods

 Science and Religion
• The word science comes from the Latin
word for knowledge

• It occurs in the word conscious

 Science and Religion
• Religion is a belief in something
• The belief is unsubstantiated by physical or
material evidence
• Religious knowledge obtained through holy
writings, authority, and revelations
• Religionists have faith or trust in religious
knowledge
 Science and Religion
• Religious knowledge is qualitative not
quantitative.
• Religious knowledge is not gotten through
measurement
• In religion knowledge is taken as either true
or false.
• Religious knowledge is neither progressive,
nor tentative.
 Science and Religion
• Scientific knowledge is a relationship between
observations
• The observations are subject to refinement
• Scientific knowledge is progressive and tentative
• Scientific knowledge is neither true nor false, but
rather consistent with the observations and
consistent with prior knowledge
 Science and Religion
• Science formulates quantifiable questions
• Science uses units, numbers, direction along with
mathematics to express knowledge
• Numbers are quantitative.
• Units are not a quality. Units are dimensions
representing time, energy, weight, volume, length,
brightness. Dimensions are independent variables
 Science and Religion
• Religion and science ask different kinds of
questions and define words differently

• Religion and science appear as if they were

two incommensurate paradigms addressing
the identical information arena
The Religiousness of Science

• “You will hardly find one among the

profounder sort of scientific minds
without a peculiar religious feeling of
his own. But it is different from the
religion of the naive man. For the latter
God is a being from whose care one
hopes to benefit and whose punishment
one fears; a sublimation of a feeling
similar to that of a child for its father, a
being to whom one stands to some
extent in a personal relation, however
deeply it may be tinged with awe. But
the scientist is possessed by the sense of
universal causation.”
The Religiousness of Science

• “The future, to him, is every whit as

necessary and determined as the past.
There is nothing divine about morality,
it is a purely human affair. His religious
feeling takes the form of a rapturous
amazement at the harmony of natural
law, which reveals an intelligence of
such superiority that, compared with it,
all the systematic thinking and acting of
human beings is an utterly insignificant
reflection. This feeling is the guiding
principle of his life and work, in so far
as he succeeds in keeping himself from
the shackles of selfish desire. It is
beyond question closely akin to that
which has possessed the religious
geniuses of all ages.”
 Science and Religion
• Some questions of religion:
• Is there a God?
• Are we free to choose?
• Does God act?
• Is God theistic or deistic?
• Does God set aside the laws of the universe
in answer to prayers?
 Science and Religion
• Some questions of science:
• What is observed?
• What is the material explanation for the
observation?
Scientists explain observables by non-observables the
properties of which are consistent with the observation.
• What is the relationship among the
observations?
 Science and Religion
• There is no conflict between science and religion
per se. The world wide conflict arises from
replacing agricultural societies by
technology-based societies.
• The transition began during the Enlightenment
(18th and 19th centuries)has accelerated since.
• The conflict started in Europe, then disseminated
world wide.
 Science and Religion
• Modern science started in Europe
• Religion is not intrinsically anti-science
• Religion was the first information gathering paradigm
• The conflict between fundamentalist Christians and Darwin’s
description of species formation by natural selection is due to fear
that a way of life will be lost. The way of life codified in the Bible.
 Science and Religion
• Religion offers certainty

• Science is tentative
Should I take vitamins? What’s the best birthing method? How do I brush my teeth?
Is the Pritikan diet the best or is a vegan diet better?

• Though science is tentative; it is also efficacious and progressive

 Science and Religion
• Fundamentalism is not confined to Christianity
• Examples of anti-scientism: new agers, deconstructionist, alternative
medicine, animal rightists, creationists, communists,
Organic food fadists, veganists, the green partisans etc.
• The problem with Fundamentalism is that it’s not possible or
desirable to achieve it in a scientific world.
• Terrorist would not think of charging a tank battalion on horse
back or refuse antibiotics to cure a wound or choose a sword
over an AK-47
 Science and Religion
• Religions and their client cultures are at a disadvantage
technically and ethically
• The Biblical, Torahanic or Koranic exegete faces ethical
issues not anticipated in holy books: brain death, cloning
babies, chimera, organ transplants, plastic surgery, pre-natal
sex selection, artificial insemination, euthanasia, rapid
transportation, cell phones, computers, internet etc.
• Some religious groups live in isolated communities to avoid
this conflict: Amish, Hassidic Jews, Shakers
 Science and Religion
• Is a compromise possible between science
and religion? Or more precisely can pre-
scientific and scientific societies co-exist?
• The answer is no. The advantages of the
scientific society out weighs the benefits of
the pre-scientific, certain society.
 Science and Religion
Where do we go from here?
• The conflict between pre-scientific societies will
continue, but pre-scientific societies will die off.
• The world will oscillate emotionally between the
the two culture.
• New scientific religions will arise.
Einstein's Faith
• 'Science without religion is lame, religion
without science is blind.' So Einstein once wrote
to explain his personal creed: 'A religious person
is devout in the sense that
h e has no doubt of the significance of those
super-personal objects and goals which neither
require nor are capable of rational foundation.'
• His was not a life of prayer and worship. Yet he
lived by a deep faith--a faith not capabIe of
rational foundation--that there are laws of
Nature to be discovered. His lifelong pursuit was
to discover them. His realism and his optimism
are illuminated by his remark: 'Subtle is the
Lord, but malicious He is not' ('Raffiniert ist der
Herrgott aber boshaft ist er nicht.'.'). When
asked by a colleague what he meant by that, he
replied: 'Nature hides her secret because of her
essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse'
('Die Natur verbirgt ihr Geheimnis durch die
Erhabenheit ihres Wesens, aber nicht durch
List.').
Science and Religion
Science and Religion
Science and Religion
Science and Religion
 Science and Religion
• More fundamental than the conflict between
religion and science or between pre- and
scientific societies is the conflict between
our egoistic (individual) and altruistic
(social) brains.
• The social brain is religious. The egoistic
brain is logico-empirical or scientific
 Science and Religion
• The social brain considers others, the
individual brain is self- oriented.

• Social brain is faith based and emotional.

• The individual brain is not self-rewarded by

altruistic acts.
 Science and Religion
• The social brain is atrophying. Once there
was a pride of belonging to families, cities,
tribes, nations, religions. Now the loss of
isolation and exposure to a larger
community exposes us to cultural relativism
• Science provides means of travel and
communication not anticipated by pre-
scientific societies.