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Science vs. Religion
Ever since the Renaissance a war has been raging throughout the western world and now that western culture has become exported to every country on Earth that war is truly a global one. It is the war between science and religion, at least religion as it is understood by western culture. Religion, we are told is about belief.
“Religion: a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.”[1]
Theory vs. Truth
Yet science is also about belief and while it remains unhelpful about the possible causes or purpose of the universe it has been spectacularly effective at explaining its nature. The “beliefs” of science are called theories and in spite of the fact that they are by their very nature are not susceptible to closed proofs, scientific theories constructed rigorously in accordance with the rules of empirical thought or the “scientific method” as it is commonly called represent the most certain knowledge we humans have about our world.
Science has cogency. When theory makes a prediction and through experience or discovery that prediction comes true, it takes a willful mind indeed to reject it, one of those people who “refuse to let facts sway them in the presence of a higher Truth.” Where the beliefs of science come into conflict with those of religious dogma – science is generally the victor.
The theory continental drift provides an excellent example of scientific cogency. When Alfred Wegener first proposed it in 1915 he made himself a laughing stock within the scientific community. In fact, the reaction to his theory was so hostile that it also serves as a cautionary example of just how egotistical and cruel scientists can be for all of their supposed objectivity.
But over time, the supporting evidence continued to accumulate and with refinements the theory was able to make ever more powerful predictions. One by one Wegener’s critics were forced to admit they were wrong and he was right no matter how much personal humiliation it cost them.
The Triumph of Science
Today, the 500 year long war between science and religion seems to be drawing to its conclusion, at least in those lands where science is common-place in the schools. The tide has turned dramatically in the last 50 years. An openly proclaimed atheist in the United States was a rarity (and somewhat of a social pariah) in the 1950s. Today, in the name of separation of church and state, Christianity itself is under attack and on the verge of being driven from public life.
The defeat of religion is even more advanced in Europe where less than 10 percent of the people attend church. The great cathedrals are silent except for the footsteps of tourists who look upon them as relics of a bygone culture.
Is this cause for celebration? Is our culture, freed from the bane of religion and superstition about to enter into a period of shining sanity at last? Many people think so but even more do not feel inclined to celebrate even if they are not sure why.
A Godless Society
Religion, the word is from the Latin, and means literally, “to bind together again,” a sense largely absent from current common usage. Throughout history the very definition of a people was their religion; their gods and central myths as well as the customs, social observances and moral values that derived from them.
Is the concept of culture even meaningful without a binding spiritual sensibility? If not, a society that has no religion is either no culture or it has some kind of common “spiritual sensibility” that it does not understand to be a religion.
The emerging social values collectively referred to as “political correctness” (mostly by skeptics) look much like a religion when seen from this perspective. Is dutifully sorting our trash and placing it in the correct recycling bin really a rational choice with scientifically proven benefits or is it a ritual by which we identify ourselves as an environmentally responsible person so we can recognize and draw together with our brethren? Is Al Gore a Prophet of Doom; are Global Warming Deniers, apostates?
Religion without Dogma
We must re-examine our understanding of religion. It should not be understood to be about belief at all in the sense we believe in the things we learn through science but about a certain kind of experience.
Religious or spiritual experience is not the same as experience of the world presented to us by our senses. It is the experience of subjective rather than objective phenomena. We must pursue it, not because it can tell us about the origin of the universe or anything about the external reality, but because it can tell us what is truly important about the experience of being human.
What is the source of these phenomena that we experience subjectively? Are they messages from a supernatural plane of existence or elements of human psychology, as much a product of natural evolution as our arms and legs? It may not matter from the standpoint of the quality and significance of the experiences since they are not products of the intellect but it is up to the intellect either to open the door or dismiss as them as irrelevant, as we seek the best possible life.
If these experiences come from the supernatural, we can only understand them by means of some system of metaphysics. But all metaphysical systems have proven intractable to empirical considerations; they are all logically equivalent as explanations of reality. This should be no surprise because our intellectual powers evolved in nature to comprehend nature, not the supernatural.
The Theory of the Sentient Mind describes the source of all subjective emotional experience including those we call spiritual, as evolved elements of a control system that predates the evolution of human sapience, that is, the intellect and the self-aware consciousness, but remains fully functional. The theory holds that we must learn to develop and educate this part of ourselves with as much dedication as we devote to the education of our intellects.
The result, which is one of the founding pillars of New Atlantis, would be a society bound together by a common spiritual sensibility that is uttering lacking in either religious dogmas or metaphysics.
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