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 Feynman’s pathways interpretation of quantum mechanics for philosophy
Feynman’s 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 Feynman’s 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 Feynman’s 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 “hodosâ€?, 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 Husserl’s 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 Husserl’s “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 Husserl’s idea about philosophy to “theology as a rigorous science” • Extending the unification of religions to science: it can include even scientific atheism
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