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COMPATIBILITY OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION

by Aspen

work in progress..................

Knowledge is the goal for both science and religion, and both claim authority on the subject of reality. In the process, these two have historically been archenemies, as their ideologies, on the surface, may seem to conflict. This conflict may be caused by the adoption of dogmatic ideas clung to for the security and comfort they provide, what Francis Bacon would categorize under his idea of the Idols of the Theater (421). The process of obtaining knowledge is emphasized in religion as an intuitive one, and in science as a rational one.

There is no reason for these two to conflict, however, as they can also complement each other. Religion is the spirit of scientific inquiry. Science is the frontal lobe of religion. After all, the first scientists were those clerics and philosophers who were curious about the world created by their gods. The universe was, and still is, full of mystery that even the most rational physicists tag a mystic flavor to it. Michio Kaku, physicist, writes “Einstein once asked himself if God had any choice in making the universe” (Black Holes, Worm Holes and the 10th Dimension). To decipher the mysteries of the cosmos can be seen as knowing the mind of god. Religion being the compliment of science, science being the compliment of religion, a concept of deity, therefore, must be one of an immanent presence.

The Book of Job covers the trials and tribulations of Job, God’s most faithful servant. In Job, God is depicted as a separate entity residing in a place separate from Earth- his creation. He reminds Job that He created all these things and, incidentally, to know more than that is on a must-know-if-I-tell-you-I’ll-have-to-kill-you basis. Yet, with all of this emphasis on God’s participation in the creation of the world, one could almost read an immanent presence of deity into it; “For he says to the snow, 'Fall to earth’, and to the rainstorms, 'Be fierce.’ And when his voice is heard, the floods of rain pour down unchecked....at the breath of God the ice-sheet is formed, and the wide waters are frozen hard as iron“(Job 37:6,10). And “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?...Who watched over the birth of the sea, when it burst in flood from the womb?- when I wrapped it in a blanket of cloud and cradled it in fog...”(Job 38:4,8-9). There is definitely an intimate relationship betwixt the deity and nature.

In the Baghavad Gita, Krishna is one’s very consciousness, intrically weaved into the fabric of our immediate and eminent existence; “[Lord Krishna speaks] Who sees Me in all, And sees all in Me, For him I am not lost, And he is not lost for Me....But striving zealously, With sins cleansed, the disciplined man, Perfected through many rebirths, Then(finally) goes to the highest goal”(Baghavad Gita 6:30,45). The immanence of deity in nature may also be read into the following; “Earth, water, fire, wind, Ether, thought-organ, and consciousness, And I-faculty: thus My Nature is divided eight-fold. This is My lower( nature). But other than this, My higher nature know: It is the Life (soul),...By which this world is maintained”(Baghavad Gita 7:4-5). And; “Of the whole world I am the origin and the dissolution too(7:6)...I am taste in water...I am light in the moon and sun...sound in ether, manliness in men(7:8)...brilliance in fire am I, Life in all beings(7:9)...I am intelligence of the intelligent...”(7:10). The elements are the domain of our scientists, but also that of the Gods, it seems.

The philosopher, a cross between a cleric and scientist in Plato’s day, is described by Plato as one who finds truth when liberated from the dark cave of ignorance. Truth, or the really-real, already exists in the world, one needs only the eyes, physically and mentally, to see it; “The bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye”(Plato 320). In Plato’s Cave Analogy, knowledge of reality is a sort-of sleeping beauty waiting to be awakened. It is already an integral part of our being. Mysticism is only still mysterious to those looking in all the wrong places, giving validity to the illusions of our preconceptions regarding Truth. But “if, I say, they had been released from these impediments[the illusory distractions of everyday distractions] and turned in the opposite direction, the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now”(321). The Book of Matthew has something to share on this; “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness”(6:22-23).

The idea of enlightenment, or perception of reality with deeper understanding, requires the inquiry of a seeker; “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”(Matthew 7:7). Deity, Principle, Reality, Knowledge, Truth, seems to be readily at hand. In Matthew, Jesus uses nature to model his parables” see how the lilies in the field grow(6:28)…If that is how God clothes the grass of the field...(6:30)...every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit(717)...” thus also suggesting truths to be found immanently beneath the possibly illusory façade of outer appearances that we may otherwise take at face value. This would apply to Bacon’s idea of the Idols of the Tribe, that being a human tendency to observe the universe through the tainted eyes of preconceptions. Human nature is inclined to believe in more orderly function than what it actually discovers, Bacon says(420). A Taoist would perhaps agree with Bacon, rephrasing it this way; the order we seek in the cosmos is the very disorder we see as chaos-something in need of tidying up a bit; “The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them. She lets them go their own way, and resides at the center of the circle...Ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos“ (Lao-Tzu 29:16,28). Lao-Tzu also touches on the immanence of spirit, avoiding illusion; “Therefore the Master concerns himself with the depths and not the surface, with the fruit and not the flower....He dwells in reality, and lets all illusions go”(26:29).

Approaching science with this mystical idea is complimentary. This unites the best of religious and scientific thinking into a more holistic, unified approach to reality theories. Scientists thinking out of the box. Yin and Yang, imagination and application, quantum theory and theory of gravity, intuition and intellect, macro and micro-universe. This brings us to Kaku. Kaku’s writing on superstrings, membranes, multi-dimensionality, super-symmetry, and the like read not unlike the memoirs of a medieval alchemist; “Einstein once said, ’Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size.’ Einstein [spent 30 years] searching for the ’tail’ that would lead him to the ‘lion,’ the fabled unified field theory or the ’theory of everything,’ which would unite all the forces of the universe into a single equation. The four forces (gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces) would be unified by an equation...Capturing the ’lion’ would be the greatest scientific achievement”(Black Holes). To me, this sort-of resembles the internal search for the Philosophers Stone of the medieval and (today) not so medieval mystics. Kaku, and others like him, are stretching the imagination, creatively, to see what information we can glean from any results observed. His talk of Duality theories resembles the abstract concepts, metaphorically, of Tai Chi. One can almost envision gravity theory and quantum theory taking their respective places in the Yin-Yang symbol in the search for a unified theory.

Therefore, our own brains, as a species, contain the knowledge we seek of Deity and the universe inherently, and the knowledge we are obtaining seems to reflect in many ways that inner-reality. Krishna, in the Gita, touches on spirit and knowledge by emphasizing in his teachings that the application of discipline, for the seeker, surpasses religion itself. The one closest to truth is the one who possesses knowledge and applies discipline and devotion. Though these are spiritual teachings, they are equally appropriate for the scientist: knowledge, discipline, and devotion- leading to the acquisition of a heightened awareness, of specific or general knowledge, previously of a mysterious or unknown nature. Enlightenment for both the cleric and the scientist involves the same general process, it seems, and share the ultimate goal- knowledge of reality, and a deeper understanding of life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baghavad Gita. “Meditation and Knowledge” World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Jacobus, Lee A. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 703-718.

Job. “The Book of Job“ A World of Ideas: Essential Readings For College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. New York: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2002. 665-690.

Kaku, Dr. Michio. Black Holes, Worm Holes and the Tenth Dimension. 2000<http://www.mkaku.org/blackhole.htm>.

Lao-Tzu. “Tao Te Ching”. World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Jacobus, Lee A. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 19-34.

Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Jacobus, Lee A. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 312-325.

St. Matthew. “The Sermon on the Mount” World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Jacobus, Lee A. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 691-702.

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