Religion and Science - Why and How!

I recently attended a talk about Faith and Post-Darwinism and with the anniversary of Charles Darwin I thought it would make an interesting article.

A lot of people suggest that religion is completely based on faith, which makes it completely incompatible with science because science is based on empirical, provable facts. Although it could be argued that even science needs an element of 'faith' this doesn't hold up very well because a scientific 'faith' is a reasoned point of view that is continually empirically tested. Religious faith is different in that it is unconditional devotion.

Yes, science explains the world around us and yes, religion gives us an element of virtues and morality and yes, both are ways of explaining Truth. That's all well and good but can religion and science truly fit together?

From a non-theistic perspective, the argument that religion is a source of morality/ethics can be more or less equated to 'religion is useless' because one can for example draw on virtue, utilitarian or Kantian ethics for morality. So what's left? Nothing?

From a more theistic perspective, true religion is a way of life. It governs ultimately our behaviour, in an open and non controlling way. The aim of which is to ultimately unite with the Divine (that's probably more of a Sikh take on religion, but I see it as the essence of all religions). OK, so that all sounds very nice and cosy, but what's the divine and what does it mean to unite? Isn't it all just 'faith'?

Science helps answer the why questions. Religion (or more accurately Dharma, way of life) helps answer the how questions. The essence of true religion is spirituality. It is only in the recent few centuries that the why questions have played a more important role in our western societies than the how. The reasons for this are huge but one influence certainly seems to be gradual loss in experiential Dharma. Over the last few hundred years the role of Dharma in our everyday lives has reduced. It has become an idealist theory that people think about. We don't live it, but simply think it. We now and again pop into the religious places of worship and if we're open enough, feel inspired and uplifted. But our habitual day-to-day activities take over soon after. They take over because we have no daily spiritual practice.

With the loss of this we have lost the knowledge of what it means to live Dharma. Obsession with power, control and the ego take the reigns and has now lead organised religion to be thought of as narrow minded, political and external. The paradox is that religion is about returning to the origin, to our origin, our higher conscious, the divine. We are God but we have forgotten that.

The thing is we don't like to simply go back to the experience because now, it has to make 'sense'. It has to fulfil our 'why' questions to stand a chance of changing our behaviour. Its a funny paradox because in an age where we ask why to everything which might challenge our habitual behaviour, we are happy to drink away the problems, get absolutely drunk and act in completely irrational and emotional ways in name of 'fun'. Fortunately, science explains our world, and spirituality is part of that world. So beginning with the questions of why, will eventually end up in the 'how'. Although not fully there yet, the boundaries of science, philosophy and spirituality are gradually merging. I genuinely strive to understand scientifically how these spiritual things work and this knowledge simply adds to my fascination with the 'how'. When you experience you know it works. The why just makes it easier to explain to others and yourself.

Its easy to think science provides us with progress and is more important than how to live a religious/spiritual/dharmic life. Don't get me wrong, its amazing! Its allowed us to as humans shape the world we live in and have all these cool things like the Wii!! But we have to remember to make progress in internally understanding ourselves, within our selves.

We are living in a very fortunate time. We are able to ask why and get empirically proven answers. But until we integrate our spiritual practice into our lives we'll simply not progress spiritually and spiritual progression is part of being a human. Of course that's until we hit our next evolutionary jump as humans and become far more aware of our spiritual selves!

Lets not be afraid of change. We should embrace it. Expand the thirst to understand our environment to our own souls and use religion and science together to progress in a balanced way.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin