Science and Religion - Chapter 1 (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Science and Religion1 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

Preface

In our life journey, we encounter two types of people. Some deny religion in the name of science, while others are distrustful of science for the sake of religion. There are also those who have managed to find harmony between these two needs of the human spirit. Shouldn't such harmony be the norm that a person ought to strive for? After all, both needs are rooted in the depths of human nature. Is it not the crisis of the educated individual that their "mind is not in accord with the heart"? Is it not this one-sided "intellectualism" that has driven a wedge between the intelligentsia and the people in Russia? Furthermore, the very fact that atheism and anti-Christianity are being presented to the public under the banner of science, which supposedly long ago disproved religion, compels us to deeply reflect and thoroughly resolve the question: does science contradict religion?

Chapter One: What is Science?

Socrates taught that in order to draw correct conclusions we must be able to define concepts. Therefore, we will try to give precise definitions of both concepts under consideration – and then compare them. Science is a system of acquired knowledge about the phenomena of reality that we observe. Let us delve into each of these words. Science is a system, meaning it is not a random collection of knowledge, but a coherent, ordered combination. This is achieved through classification, which is the distribution of homogeneous data into groups and generalizations – that is, the establishment of those common formulas and laws to which nature conforms. Science encompasses the knowledge that has been attained, meaning not all knowledge, but only that which has thus far been achieved. Scientific activity is dynamic; it is a process of "creating truth through experience and reasoning." This process in science is something that is dynamic and becoming: it undergoes questions, searches, doubts, and hypotheses, which may later turn out to be false. Only knowledge, that is, genuine reflections of reality, constitutes the established, static content of science — knowledge that is proven, universally binding, widely recognized, and objective judgments that are substantiated both logically and empirically, through reasoning and experience. This is knowledge about phenomena, that is, manifestations of life and nature, but not about their essences (phenomena, not noumena), about the world as we see it, observe it, but not about the world as it exists in itself, in essence. Phenomena are those elements that are evident to our five senses (as it is commonly believed, although there are more), for our five-sensory logic, armed with the technical enhancements of our cognitive organs in the form of microscopes, telescopes, and other scientific instruments. Thus, the field of exact science is limited just as the organs of scientific cognition are limited in their capacity for understanding.

But man wants and must know what lies beyond science, what has not yet been achieved by it, and, by its very nature, lies outside its boundaries. For example, psychology is the science of mental phenomena. Yet we want to know more; we want to understand the soul, because all of life consists of encounters and interactions of human souls, and the soul is the person itself. It would be strange to assert that science knows or can know all of existence. "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," says Hamlet in Shakespeare. Meanwhile, we also wish to comprehend this transcendental aspect; we seek to resolve the questions that so fill the soul of Heine's youth: "What is the mystery from ages past? And what is the essence of humanity? Where does one come from, where is one going? And who is there, above, beyond the stars?"2 Knowledge transcends science. It is attained through those higher abilities of the spirit that science does not possess. Primarily, this is intuition, that is, the immediate sense of truth, which anticipates, perceives, and prophetically foresees what lies beyond the reach of scientific methods of cognition. This intuition has increasingly captured the attention of philosophy in recent times. We live by it much more than we assume. It leads us into another, higher realm of the spirit – namely, into religion.

Notes:

1. Written in 1954. During the life of the Saint, the book was not published and was published for the first time only in 2000.

2. "The North Sea" by Heinrich Heine (1797–1856).

continued...

 

The "Noble Catholicity" Between Religion and Science (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

By its interference, religion can inspire science, and again science by its interference can purify religion. The most beautiful spectacle in human society is a priest contributing to science and a scientist contributing to religion. The one-sided man is always an imperfect man; and an imperfect man as a teacher of perfection is a dangerous teacher for young generations.

Two Slavs, Nicolaus Copernicus, from Thorn, and Ruggiero Boscovich, from Ragusa, both Roman Catholic priests, were at the same time both ardent scientists. Copernicus postulated the heliocentric planetary system instead of the geocentric. This happened soon after Columbus made a great revolution in geographical science by discovering America. Some people thought the end of the Church had come after Copernicus' discovery that the sun and not the earth is the centre of the world. But Copernicus not only did not think so, but continued quietly in his vocation as a priest and dedicated his famous work to Pope Paul III.

Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens on the Distinct Roles of Faith and Science

Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece (+ 2008) was absolutely clear on the distinct roles of faith and science.

Speaking at a scientific conference on organ transplantation, he remarked that "in our Orthodox Church we do not confuse Science with Faith and Religion. I could say, paraphrasing the word of the Lord, that we practice 'render the things of science unto science and the things of God unto God.' Our Church, during the centuries of the birth and development of modern science, not only did not oppose its discoveries, but its clergy themselves translated the new scientific data into Greek and were the teachers of the nation in its very difficult time of slavery to the Ottomans... In our Church you will not find cases of condemnation, such as those of Giordano Bruno or Galileo. On the contrary, you will find Aristotle and Plato, Solon and Thucydides painted in the exonarthex of its churches... For our part, we rejoice in the successes and in the progress of science and technology, and we do not hesitate to capitalize on their achievements."

Scientist and Christian, An Excellent Combination

 By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

(Homily Delivered on June 30, 2022)

The Holy Unmercenaries Kosmas and Damian, whom we celebrate today, came from Rome and lived in the 3rd century. By studying medical science, they cured many people and even animals from their diseases. They did not receive money as a reward. They were unmercenaries. However, they would tell the healed to believe in Christian teaching.

Both were martyrs for Christ. They were even called Wonderworkers because even after their martyrdom they performed many miracles for the sick. In the Protaton of the Holy Mountain there is a wonderful fresco of them, a work of Panselinos of the 15th century.

These Saints also show us the value of the cooperation of religion and science. They were doctors, but that did not prevent them from being faithful Christians. This is a beautiful ideal. A proper scientist and a conscientious Christian. An excellent combination.

Homily Concerning Those Who Consider Science Incompatible With Religion (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Homily on Science and Religion

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on May 30, 1948)

 

"Considering modern science, as it was developed by Lamarck and Darwin, we find a direct opposite, an absolute inconsistency between the statements of science and the statements of religion in the field of basic questions of being and cognition. Therefore, an enlightened and consistent mind cannot recognize both at the same time. He needs to make a choice."

So wrote 65 years ago the famous German zoologist Haeckel, an ardent admirer of Darwin, in his then sensational book "The Riddle of the Universe", which, as it seemed, completely refuted religion. He says that all enlightened minds must choose between science and religion, reject one or the other. He considers it necessary to reject religion, for the enlightened minds of science will not be rejected.