The conflict between science and religion is playing out across the
American public sphere today, from schools to churches to popular
culture. ‘Intelligent Design’ and Darwinian evolution have become
wedge issues causing people to see science and religion as
incompatible. But many thinkers are trying to recast the debate,
showing that science and faith aren’t as polarized as we
think.
One person trying to reconcile the differences between science
and religion is Bernard Haisch, the author of the book
The God
Theory. In an interview with the Jewish magazine
Tikkun, Haisch explains that ‘there
is no contradiction’ between science and spirit. Religious
people can believe in Darwinian evolution, the Big Bang, and
other scientific principals ‘and still believe that there is
room for a God behind it all.’ There is, Haisch argues, a third
way that bridges the gap between science and spirit.
A similar point is made by Deepak Chopra, writing for the
spirituality website
Beliefnet. Chopra, an author and medical
doctor, sets out to debunk the assertions made by atheist and
evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his recent book
The God Delusion. Chopra asserts that
science is very good at understanding the ‘objective reality’
but falls short in understanding many of the ‘subjective
experiences’ of human beings. It is only by looking at both the
subjective and the objective that a ‘quantum leap in
evolutionary theory will be possible.’
While Chopra and Haisch present a third path between science and
religion, the spirituality magazine
What Is Enlightenment? identifies 12
different schools of thought in the debate between science and
religion. Neo-Darwinists,
Transhumanists, and even ‘Intelligent
Designers’ are placed by the magazine’s editors on a line that
extends from science to spirit in an easy-to-navigate chart. The
idea is to shift the debate from ‘an artificial polarization’
between science and religion to a discussion ‘that is broader,
deeper, subtler, and much more profound.’
Go there >>
God and Physics
Go there, too >>
Debunking ‘The God Delusion’
And there >>
The REAL Evolution Debate
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