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Scientific and Religious Methodology
The methods (from the Greek words meaning "along a road") employed by both science and religion appear to be roads traveling in opposite directions. Science is viewed as objective, universal, rational, and based on solid observational evidence. Religion is viewed as subjective, emotional, and based on traditions. However, a better way to view the relationship between science and religion may be as roads that over the centuries have intersected at times, run parallel for great distances, diverged dramatically, taken short-cuts through each others territory, and eventually may even reconnect as they remember their common source and discover their common destination.
Ian Barbour, in his book Religion and Science, presents several different ways in which the relationship between science and religion can be viewed. The first position is that science and religion are essentially in competition with each other. ... Barbour suggests that this conflict is due to both science and religion misusing science by failing to observe proper boundaries. ... Religion begins with a mystical experience and then develops a theology to make scientific claims. ... In scientific materialism, science swallows religion. In biblical literalism, religion swallows science. ...
The way to avoid conflicts between science and religion, according to Barbour, is to view the two as totally independent and autonomous. ... " (Pandian, 2001)
An effective way to look at the different domains of science and religion is to view the difference as one of language. The language of science might be equated with prose and the language of religion with poetry. ...
This postmodernist view of science is gaining acceptance within the scientific community, according to Janet Raloffs Science News article, but it is not without its critics. The controversy stems from the idea that science, like religion, is just another philosophic concept, another story. Physicist and science historian Gerald Holton of Harvard University worries about the effects of postmodernism on science education. He contends that science students are being encouraged to construct a personal meaning from observations rather than search for universal truths. ... (Raloff, 1996)
Religion, however, is not immune from the tendency to sacrifice imaginative poetry for unambiguous, prosaic control. In fact, for anthropologist Jacob Pandian, this may be the definition of religion. He maintains that religion was developed during the medieval period by Christians in an attempt to link supernaturalism with scientific knowledge. By conceptualizing religion in this way, Christianity was able to distance itself from the idea of superstition and paganism.
Approximate Word count = 1949
Approximate Pages = 7.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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