So much of the way we talk about religion and science in the West is about reconciliation. Some great injustice has torn the two asunder, and the debate rages on between those who think they should meet again on a level playing field, and those who say they should remain in their own dugouts, each eyeing the other suspiciously. This debate results in individuals who are also torn, divided between their religious and scientific selves.
Many great words have been issued here to bring understanding between the two "sides"; scientists and religious scholars both have illuminated the darkest corners of this ongoing conversation. But recently I have found that there are, in fact, people out there for whom this debate is non-existent, or at least unnecessary.
Since January, I have been working in the Writing and Communications Center (WCC) at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Many of the students I see on a daily basis are international students; a great number of whom hail from China. These students come to the WCC seeking editing assistance for technical documents they have written in English, a language they are still learning. They also come for conversation practice, tips on pronunciation, or sometimes just to listen to native English speakers talk.
In my interactions with the Chinese students, I have been surprised to learn that many of them possess strong Christian faiths. I learn this about them in a variety of ways. In some cases, it comes out in conversation practice as we search for a topic we can discuss with relative ease. Other times I learn about a student's faith when I ask if he or she does any reading for fun. On more than one occasion I've learned that the only book a student reads in English outside of her field is the Bible. On another occasion a student bristled at my suggestion that he listen to talk radio to familiarize himself with American accents, but jumped at the alternative, audio books. You can guess what book he wanted to listen to.
Perhaps this should not have surprised me, as some estimates say there could be as many as 100 million Chinese Protestants or, as a recent NPR story pointed out, more Christians than Communist Party members. But, how is it that these students, brilliant scientists in the making from a country that has a tumultuous history with religion, live at such relative ease with what many of us in the West might call their "two selves"?
One explanation actually comes from religion itself, though not the Christian faith. Unlike Christianity or Islam, neither Taoism nor Buddhism, the traditional religions of China, preaches exclusivity. For this reason many faiths can and do grow alongside one another in China.
This ability to live in harmony with other religions may also allow for seemingly disparate ideas to coexist, says Tim Sigman, the New York Metro Area Director of International Students Inc., a Christian ministry that reaches out to international students studying in the United States. Sigman meets regularly with several of the Chinese students whom I work with in the writing center.
"Asian culture is generally pragmatic," he says. "It is also circular in reasoning whereas we in the West think more linearly." He suggests that the Chinese students "can embrace things that may seem contrary, if they are pragmatic."
Sigman also noted that in his experience Chinese students who convert to Christianity "deal with many of these issues on the front-end." He explains that before they make the decision to become Christians, they have already thought through much of what that decision might entail.
One of Sigman's students, Wenlin, a Ph.D. candidate at Stevens conducting research in the field of Automatic Control has been trying on Christianity for some time. He agrees with Sigman's assessment that Chinese people tend to be more open to differing viewpoints, but goes on to say that in the West, science seems to be on equal ground with religion. In China, he says, "Science is a tool to change one's condition, to fix a problem, or make a living." It is not held in as high esteem as religion is. As to any potential conflict between scientific theories in his field and his beliefs, he explains, "They are not on the same level of understanding about the world."
Wenlin says that his first encounter with Christianity came on a college campus in China when he met some very charismatic new converts. Indeed, many Chinese Christians come to the faith in their twenties, often because they meet an evangelist at a university, either in China like Wenlin, or abroad. This was the case for Dr. Z, a Christian Chinese scientist and professor who, like many of his colleagues, according to the recent book Science vs. Religion by Elaine Howard Ecklund, prefers anonymity when it comes to matters of religion and asked that I not use his real name. He explains that the age at which a person converts is very important, as the tenets of Christianity and what it teaches about the world add depth and fill in the spaces in one's prior education, explaining things that the sciences do not. In this way, the two work as partners, as opposed to antagonists, to create a cohesive worldview.
Whatever the reasons, there are certainly lessons to be learned by those of us in the West. If being more open allows for seemingly disparate ideas to co-mingle, and if understanding the value of a comprehensive worldview that comes from merging religion and science gives rest to the debate, perhaps it is time we follow our Chinese colleagues into these spaces in between our "two selves."
Follow Jonathan D. Fitzgerald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jon_fitzgerald
Karl Giberson, Ph.D: Mathematics and the Religious Impulse
Relationship between religion and science - Wikipedia, the free ...
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No. He is confused between science and technology. The latter is an (and not the only) application of science. Science is true (verifiable) knowledge.
Personally, I have no problem what an individual wishes to believe, but there can never be reconciliation between science and religion (with the possible exception of Buddhism, if that's a region).
In science, one questions everything (including "established" knowledge) and one requires evidence/proof for every claim. In religion, one is not allowed to question what "god" said, one goes by "belief" without requiring evidence or proof.
The above said, science doesn't deal with the "god hypothesis". Science doesn't care. Atheism (not science) deals with the question of god, and refuses to accept the god hypothesis because there is no evidence or proof of its validity.
Look what they are doing in India. You don't want this in China.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dmwTuhmfEA
But of course, everyone knows that. And it's quite disingenuous to claim that this does not reflect an extreme antagonism to freedom of thought and expression.
The medieval Church held that scientists should not seek to overthrow theological doctrines. It is not true that they circumscribed speculation or investigation of the natural world in general, since generally they didn't think such study would touch these doctrines. This is another one of those extreme exaggerations that can be (and has been) refuted. Historically, science arose out of Christianity, so to suggest that they are antithetical to each other simply doesn't work. A recent book on this is God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science by James Hannam, just nominated for the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books. Hannam points out how science began in the Middle Ages, often at the behest of the Church. He also wrote a short essay on "The Mythical Conflict between Science and Religion" (http://www.bede.org.uk/conflict.htm).
So to suggest that I'm being disingenuous by simply repeating what most historians who write on the subject affirm doesn't fly. "Everyone knows that" Christianity and science are at war with each other: it's only the people who have actually studied the subject that disagree.
Both deserve being held accountable roe their misrepresentations and ignorance. If not, they must be ignored.
Pursuit of a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry taught me a great many things, but one of the most important was that the amount unknown is so vast as to be nearly incomprehensible. I have certainly learned nothing in physics, chemistry, or biology that would to my mind preclude the existence of a deity, or for that matter several. Nor have I seen any serious scientific inquiry that could begin to answer the fundamental question of religion.
You see, science seeks to answer "how". Always "how". Although we phrase things in causality (so we use "why") we mean the logical this-happens-then-this-then-this type of causality. There is no deep meaning.
Philosophy and religion seek to answer the "why". For what purpose are these things laid out? Is there a deeper meaning?
There is NOTHING contradictory between successfully as capitalists (the Chinese had been traders and businessmen for thousands of years) and being good to your fellow men. Famines and natural disasters were frequent in history, and it often were the rich (who had to resources to save and build food inventories) who save the day.
How do you merge something the requires rigorous examination such as the scientific method, with a belief system built on "faith" - i.e., promises that by definition CANNOT be fulfilled in this lifetime? One is based on facts and observations, and the other is based on promises that cannot be fulfilled (in the scientific method that'd have to be labeled "FALSE").
It truly is OK to have freedom of religion, as long as you keep it between you and your God (or gods, whatever blows your hair back). But seeking to "merge" it with reality is BAD for human progress.
Because religion and science seek to answer entirely different, but complimentary questions, they may work remarkably well in a whole-person view of the universe as long as neither sphere is forced to dictate the other.
Please make it illegal to evangelize there.. This is not about faith.. its really foreign policial mischief where they train the 5th column in your country and then they would fight to secede.
This is what happened in east Timur.
Its also happening in North East of India. The Southern Baptists are arming those hill tribe people and now there is a war like condition going on.
China, please save your nation by arresting any foreign agents who are sending money to recruit this fifth column.
Please make it illegal to evangelize there.. This is not about faith.. its really foreign policial mischief where they train the 5th column in your country and then they would fight to secede.
This is what happened in east Timur.
Its also happening in North East of India. The Southern Baptists are arming those hill tribe people and now there is a war like condition going on.
China, please save your nation by arresting any foreign agents who are sending money to recruit this fithf column. Treat them as spied and h ang them like the mangie d0gs they are.
then they can have a wall street.
a gov owned by corp fascism.
prisons overflowing.
a massive war machine with its nose in everyone's business.
divide the nation in half of those going to hell and those going to heaven.
lovers of individualism and capitalism.
the best part teach them how to make mega profits off the sick and needy and how to identify those with pre existing conditions so they can max corp profits.
oh it gets better the christian folks love that aspect of their health care as long as they have insurance and then congradulate themselves on how compassionate they are each sunday.
massive imperialism supported by the christian churchs.
one way to have a country self destruct bring it christianity.
dont invade with armies just bring to them the american brand of christianity. :-)
by all means lets bring christianity to china then when they self destruct there goes our wal marts.
There is no "merging" of religion and science. There is compartmentalizing too philosophically contradicting ideas.
Nothing difficult about that, humans are quite good at it.
You can rephrase the question falsely all you like, no one is arguing, or has ever argued, that someone can't be religious and science oriented at the same time. Grasp this obvious fact and stop beating up the poor straw man