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POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS
Science and Religion in
the Twenty-First Century
William Grassie
A Metanexus Imprint
Copyright © 2010 by William Grassie.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010901676
ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4500-3849-2
Softcover 978-1-4500-3848-5
Ebook 978-1-4500-3850-8
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No
Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit
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Contents
1. Epiphany on the New Jersey Turnpike ......................................................... 11
Religion by Other Means ...................................................................... 15
2. Ten Reasons for the Constructive Engagement of Science and Religion .... 17
3. Metanexus: The Very Idea ........................................................................... 23
4. Beyond Intelligent Design, Scientifi c Debates, and Cultural Wars ............. 32
5. Which Universe Do You Live In? ................................................................ 36
6. Toward a Constructive Theology of Evolution ............................................ 39
7. Universalism and Particularism: Judaism in an Age of Science .................. 60
8. Resources and Problems in Whitehead’s Process Metaphysics ...................72
Peace by Other Means .......................................................................... 85
9. Sleepless in Tehran ....................................................................................... 87
10. Universal Reason: Science, Religion, and the Foundations of
Civil Societies ............................................................................................ 100
11. Science, Religion, and the Bomb ............................................................... 108
12. Engaged Contemplation for a Troubled World .......................................... 117
13. Leeches on the Road to Enlightenment ..................................................... 133
14. Nationalism, Terrorism, and Religion: A Biohistorical Approach ............. 142
15. Entangled Narratives: Competing Visions of the Good Lie ...................... 158
Evolution by Other Means ................................................................. 185
16. Biocultural Evolution in the Twenty-fi rst Century ..................................... 187
17. Useless Arithmetic and Inconvenient Truths ............................................. 207
18. Rereading Economics: New Economic Metaphors for Evolution ............. 218
19. Post-Darwinism: The New Synthesis .........................................................231
20. Eating Well Together: Donna Haraway’s Companion Species Manifesto .... 245
21. In the Heavens As It Is on Earth: Astrobiology and the Human Prospect .... 259
22. A Thought Experiment: Envisioning a Civilization Recovery Plan .......... 271
23. Millennialism at the Singularity: The Limits of Ray Kurzweil’s
Exponential Logic ...................................................................................... 280
Postscript .............................................................................................. 301
24. All My Relations: The Challenge Ahead ................................................... 303
Index ................................................................................................................. 315
23
3. Metanexus: The Very Idea
This essay is an adaptation of the opening address to
the Metanexus conference at the University of Pennsylvania, June 3,
2006
The juxtaposition of the concepts “science” and “religion” in our civilization
is a kind of Rorschach test for all kinds of deeply held prejudices and beliefs. The
terms are often thought of almost as antonyms and reflect a profound cultural
ambivalence in our postmodern civilization.
That is why we decided to create a new term, a neologism that in our wildest
dreams will eventually work its way into the English language and perhaps other
languages as well. We took the Greek prefix, meta-, meaning “transcending or
transforming,” and combined it with the Latin noun, nexus, meaning “connection or
core.” Philologists say that one should never combine Greek and Latin.2 Similarly,
it seems the terms science and religion should not be in too close proximity in our
culture.
The term “metanexus” means “transcending and transformational networks,”
and that is precisely what we hope to build with you. The world needs bridges
between different academic disciplines, different institutional forms, and different
religious and cultural traditions that will help us transcend and transform our
thinking and doing in wholesome and creative ways.
Of course, Metanexus is also a proper name for this remarkable organization,
the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science. Founded in 1997, it has grown
beyond its humble beginnings here in Philadelphia to become an international
network of tens of thousands of individuals around the world. Through our online
journal, research projects, and events, we promote interdisciplinary, international,
and interreligious inquiries, without flattening difference or reducing rigor.
2. “Television” and “automobile” are similar Greek-Latin hybrids that have worked their
way into the human language, in spite of the philologists.
24
POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS
All of this is the result of the leadership of a remarkable board of directors
and a highly dedicated and effective staff. All of this is the result of all of you, our
many members and partners throughout the world. And all of this is the result of
the vision and generosity of Sir John Templeton, whose foundation makes much of
this work possible. Metanexus is nothing without each one of you, contributing in
your own ways to making this complex distributed system transcend and transform
itself and the world.
DIFFERENT APPROACHES
The constructive engagement of religion and science means many different
things to many different people. I shall attempt to give an overview of the different
ways that scholars think about religion and science.
One can approach the topic with general philosophical and metaphysical
concerns: What is religion? What is science? How are they similar and different?
How do we know? What are adequate metaphysical categories? These are great
questions to contemplate and debate.
When we consider science, we are compelled to quickly break it down into
different disciplines and subdisciplines. The dialogue between religion and science
also breaks down into these different scientific disciplines.
One can approach the juxtaposition with special reference to physics and
cosmology. Many books have been written, and conferences were held to delve
deeply into the appropriate interpretation of contemporary physics and cosmology,
all of which has implications for our understandings of religion.
When we turn to evolution and biology, we end up with a different set of issues
to be philosophically interpreted, all of which have religious significance. Here,
we seek to get beyond the tired history of Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent
Design to explore constructive theologies of evolution.
When we turn to the human sciences, there can be no easy boundary drawn
between the domains of science and the domains of religion. More than anything,
religions are about what it means to be fully human, to realize our humanity. From
the human sciences come many new discoveries. Disciplines as diverse as the
neurosciences and economics offer important new insights into what it means
to be human. When we are ourselves the subject of scientif ic investigation, this
inquiry must also impinge upon and be informed by the world’s cultural traditions
and the acquired wisdom of our ancestors.
As subsets in the human sciences, we must consider both the scientific study of
religious and spiritual phenomena, as well as, the dynamics of religion, spirituality,
and health. Both of these interdisciplinary specializations have compelling practical
and clinical relevance for human well-being.
3. METANEXUS: THE VERY IDEA
25
The point of entry into this larger conversation varies for each one of us. Many
will have a particular interest and expertise in one of these areas and have little
interest or expertise in another area. “Science and religion” is a big field, not much
is excluded. So too is Metanexus. We expect you to chart a course through this
gathering based on your particular interests, but also to be surprised and delighted
by exposure to other ways of formulating the issues at hand.
Moving away from the more scholastic concerns, we confront the domains
of science, technology, and ethics. Let us call this the “power paradox.” Humans
have enormous new powers that would have appeared godlike and magical to our
ancestors even hundred years ago. What is not clear is whether we are any wiser,
more compassionate, and more moral than our ancestors. Only more powerful, it
seems. We lack historical perspective. We think nothing of flying around at thirty
thousand feet, complaining about uncomfortable seats and bad food. We think
nothing of cheap cell phones and googling for truth on the Internet. We have
life, more abundantly perhaps, but there are also dark and dangerous challenges
presented by all of this progress—the possibilities of global environmental and
economic collapse, the dangers of virulent new diseases, the horrors of modern
warfare—it could be a long list. The nuclear bomb is perhaps the most poignant
icon for the modern power paradox. As Einstein warned, “The splitting of the atom
has changed everything except our ways of thinking, and thus we drift toward
unparalleled disaster.” The world needs the best of science and the best of religion
to adequately address these challenges. We need to change our ways of thinking,
and the constructive engagement of religion and science helps to do so.
When we consider the conflicts ranging in the world today, we f ind that science
and religion have a supporting role to play in crafting healthy civil societies. Free,
prosperous, and peaceful societies will not thrive long or even survive in our global
civilization without an adequate understanding of the sciences, as well as diverse
religious traditions.
Finally, we recognize that most people do not approach their spiritual life
with the sciences as the point of departure. Most people begin with a profound
commitment to a religious tradition in which they were raised and of whose
profundity they have been convinced through community worship, meaningful
stories, deep study, and personal experience. If one believes in a God, for instance,
who is a Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of the Universe, then he or she is also
obligated to take science seriously as part of God’s revelation. What we don’t
agree about is how to appropriately incorporate contemporary science into the
interpretation of our traditions. Here is another great opportunity in the mission
of Metanexus, the opportunity to engage in deep, enriching, and transformative
intrareligious and interreligious dialogue.
26
POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS
THE PRESENT MOMENT
The more humans learn about the universe through science, the more we must
look anew at ourselves. Science is a kind of “magic mirror” for human identity. As
science helps us to better understand the world and ourselves, it also transforms us
through remarkable new technologies and discoveries. The appropriate integration
and interpretation of these new scientific insights and technologies require the
creative collaboration of the world’s wisdom traditions. This is one of the core
assumptions that guide the work of Metanexus.
Today, humans can gaze out upon the fascinating complexity of the universe
with the Hubble Space Telescope, even as we discover that the elemental components
of our bodies are recycled stardust.
Today, humans can explore and edit the intricate chemical structures of life,
even as we understand that the cellular structures of our organs are condominiums
for DNA-replicating microorganisms.
Today, humans can ponder anthropogenic global climate change, even as we
recognize that the chemical composition of our bodies is a complex manifestation
of ocean water—thinking about itself.
Today, we can log on to the Internet and share in rich technological and
cultural legacies, even as we learn that this negentropic exchange of information
is as ephemeral as the vibrating subatomic particles which beam across fiber-optic
cables and bounce off satellites.
Today, vast global markets are transforming how we eat, live, work, love, fight,
and think, economic markets which are governed by a merely symbolic system of
value, i.e. money that nevertheless radically changes the material world.
THE NEW COSMOLOGY
Certainly, the modern scientific account of physical, biological, and cultural
evolution is an extraordinary discovery of our times. Many different scientists in
diverse disciplines have pieced together the “Epic of Evolution” over the last few
decades, but it really represents a cultural achievement spanning the millennia of
human existence.
Science gives us every year exponentially more seemingly disconnected
facts. The university becomes a new Tower of Babel organized around increasing
specialization and divisions of labor, also within the humanities. It is no longer C.
P. Snow’s “two cultures”; instead we are confronted with thousands of disciplinary
cultures within the academy. All is not lost though, because in spite of the lack of a
universal scientific or cultural framework transcending our disciplinary differences,
the threads of scientific facts are nevertheless woven on the warp of time and the
woof of scale like a magical Persian tapestry. Science has given us a chronological
3. METANEXUS: THE VERY IDEA
27
narrative of an evolving universe of emergent complexity, ordered in the scale of
entities from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic.
In brief outline, this omnicentric universe began some thirteen billion years ago as
infinite heat, inf inite density, and total symmetry. The universe expanded and evolved
into more differentiated and complex structures—forces, quarks, hydrogen, helium,
galaxies, stars, heavier elements, complex chemistry, and planetary systems. Some
3.5 billion years ago, in a small second- or third-generation solar system, the intricate
process called “life” began on at least one small planet. Animate matter-energy on
Earth presented itself as a marvelous new intensification of the creative dynamic at
work in the universe. Then some two million years ago, as if yesterday in the enormous
timescales of the universe, early humans emerged on the savanna of Africa with
their enormously heightened capacities for conscious self-reflection, language, and
tool making. And this unfolding leads us all the way to today, to this conference, to
tonight, with people gathered from the four corners of the world in order to consider
so many profound topics. Truly astonishing!
HOMO RELIGIOSUS
The word “myth” is popularly understood to mean an idle fancy, a fiction, or
a falsehood, but there is another meaning of the word in academic discourse. A
myth, in this latter sense of the word, is a story that serves to define the fundamental
worldview of a culture by explaining aspects of the natural world and delineating
the psychological and social practices and ideals of a society. Using the original
Greek term mythos is perhaps a better way to distinguish this more positive and
all-encompassing definition of the word.
So the question now becomes, can modern science provide a mythos for our
times? On the one hand, the modern scientific enterprise has assiduously sought
to avoid such questions of meaning, values, and purpose implied by the term
mythos. Science is about describing reality as it really is, not how it ought to be.
This is the famous is/ought distinction in the philosophy of science. Indeed, many
of the descriptions of how nature is in reality would be horrific guidelines for how
humans ought to think and behave. Using a description of nature as a prescription
for human behavior is called the naturalistic fallacy. In the ought-world of our
moral imagination, for instance, we should not have famine, death, predation, and
extinction, though this is true and necessary of natural processes. The is-world of
nature should not become normative for human behavior.
Furthermore, the objection to our enterprise would continue: the history of
combining science with preconceived ideals and ideologies for how the world ought
to be has resulted in bad science and bad societies. So the plea from this camp is
to leave science alone to do its methodical and myopic work of figuring out the
28
POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS
intricate details of how reality really works. No good will come from asking these
big mythological questions in the context of science.
On the other hand, it can be argued that science is necessarily and always
important currency in our cultural unfolding. It is not the least bit clear how the
rest of society can leave science alone to do its work in isolation. Nor is it clear
that a mythos-free society is possible or desirable. Indeed, humans might better
be classified as Homo religiosus, in our seemingly universal need to discover,
create, and tie together a seemingly chaotic reality into ordered and meaningful
narratives. In the name of demystifying one religious story, we always seem to
create new religious stories. For some, salvation through science, which we shall
refer to as scientism, is also one of these stories, another unprovable faith among
many. Nietzsche’s famous aphorism applies: “He who has a why to live can bear
with almost any how.” Humans are hardwired, beginning sometime around two
years of age, to ask why. We must develop deep cultural structures that are filled
with profound stories and meaningful symbol systems.
INTERPRETATION MATTERS
Modern science is an important part of this cultural process today, even as it
discovers new aspects of reality. Science itself is imbued at every level, consciously
and unconsciously, intentionally and unintentionally, with meanings, purposes, and
values. This is as it must be. Let us begin to talk about this as a global civilization
by rigorously examining both the content of science and the interpretation of
science. As we traverse the sequential changes in time-space and matter-energy
that have brought us to this moment of consciousness, let us ask the question why.
Is it so preposterous to think that the biophysical processes that gave rise to our
purpose-seeking species might themselves be processes imbued with purpose?
God’s purpose?
The universe and life that I experience through reason and faith are overflowing
with meaning, order, and values. Perhaps it is a peculiar kind of modern cultural
autism to think of nature otherwise. Science is begging for this kind of philosophical,
mythopoetic, moral, and cultural treatment today. From general science education
in public and parochial schools to the most advanced levels of research, science
and society will be left increasingly sterile and barren without such an engaged
discussion.
Religionists have something important to teach the scientists in how to interpret
this marvelous new story that they have quite unintentionally put together in bits
and pieces. Clerics and educated laity understand the importance of interpretation,
though they frequently disagree about how. All believers confront the problems of
interpretation in revealed scriptures, mystical epiphanies, and evolving traditions.
Though mystics seek a direct connection with the spiritual core of the universe, God
3. METANEXUS: THE VERY IDEA
29
by whatever name, they are also necessarily nurtured and limited by communities of
interpretation. While the Divine can powerfully manifest itself in human lives, humans
are nevertheless finite in their ability to embrace this fullness of Spirit. For better
and for worse, our understanding of and access to the Divine are always mediated by
an interpretative tradition, living community, and finite individuals. When religious
people are at their best, they engage in vigorous dialogue about their differences and
are enriched by this diversity. “The truth is one,” reads the verse from the ancient Rig
Veda, “but the wise call it by many names.”
There is not yet an interpretive tradition about science in our global civilization.
Neither scientists nor the educated public tend to understand the difference between the
facts of science and the interpretation thereof. If anything, there is an anti-interpretation
tradition. This is actually a dangerous situation, because cultural beings, like other
beings in nature, can be rather opportunistic and lazy when not challenged to be
otherwise. Precisely because science is a powerful revelation for our time, it is also
dangerous. As the saying goes, even the devil quotes the Bible. Here, I am referring
not to technology per se, which can be very dangerous indeed, but more to the cultural
appropriations of science. To the extent that science is used to justify an ideology of
cosmological meaninglessness, it undermines the pursuit of noble purposes in human
life. It is widely taken for granted in scientific culture that science has somehow
proven that the universe, evolution, and human existence are devoid of meaning and
purpose, even if the actual practices of scientists belie this purported conclusion.
Indeed, science is itself an example of the possibility of self-transcendence and thus
opens up a possibility space for other kinds of transcendence.
INSURMOUNTABLE OPPORTUNITIES
We are at an extraordinary moment in the natural history of our planet and
the cultural evolution of our species. The exponential growth in human population
and consumption patterns, empowered in part by science and technology, is
significantly altering atomic, chemical, genetic, ecological, and geological
processes on Earth. Humans are a Lamarckian wildcard in the Epic of Evolution.
Our desires and abilities, our intentions and unintentions will significantly alter
the future evolutionary trajectory of our species and the planet as a whole. The
present moment and future challenges hold many known and unknown dangers
and opportunities.
I have long cherished the wisdom of a Walt Kelly cartoon, in which Pogo
announces “we are faced with insurmountable opportunities.” It feels like that
most days. So many opportunities, so little time. Friends, there is much important
work to be done. And we must use the best of science and the best of religion, if
we are going to succeed.
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POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS
How to interpret science as it continues to unfold and accelerate is neither
obvious nor simple. It requires knowing science in its complexity and diversity.
The details matter, so the challenge is something like acquiring fluency in Chinese,
Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, and English, all at the same time.
The educational, dialogue, and research programs proposed by the term
“metanexus” assume not that we possess truths at the outset, but that truth may
emerge through a rigorous, open, and exploratory encounter between the domains
of science and religion. We assume that a “fusion of horizons” is possible, even as
new horizons of human discovery and right livelihood appear.
We believe that the new view of the universe and ourselves offered by
modern science tends to minimize human ideological and territorial disputes,
and so also helps promote peace and conflict resolution. Friends, let us stand
shoulder-to-shoulder exploring and celebrating the many mysteries of the universe,
rather than going head-to-head in escalating conflicts.
CONTINUITY + CHANGE
In pursuing this vision, we will also need to reinvent the university. Humanity
has made tremendous progress through specialization and division of labor, but
we need a new breed of intellectuals, scientists, clergy, and citizen alike, who
are broadly trained in multiple disciplines and able to do and teach difficult and
creative integrative work without collapsing disciplinary rigor. Interpreting science
and religion in the twenty-first century will also require romantic vision and
philosophical rigor. It will require appropriate metaphysical concepts and inspiring
artistic forms. The challenge is really too much for any individual, so we must build
interdisciplinary communities for integral studies. These interpretative communities
must seek to integrate knowledge and wisdom from across disciplinary boundaries
of our compartmentalized modern university and our fragmented postmodern
society. The solution is evolution. Adapt!
In cultural evolution, as in biophysical evolution, there are both continuity
and change. New adaptive structures are built upon the old structures. Critical
components of the continuity needed to face the challenges of the twenty-first
century and beyond are surely to be found in the religious traditions of the world.
A blanket rejection of the spiritual insights accumulated over the centuries of
human experimentation in diverse contexts is cultural suicide. Indeed, many of the
frameworks best able to interpret science are already present in the world’s spiritual
traditions. Successful adaptation is built upon creative replication. We need ancient
wisdom upon which to build this new world.
3. METANEXUS: THE VERY IDEA
31
THE CHARGE
And hence the mission of Metanexus and the charge for this conference are
to build a community, to dialogue and debate, to hold each other accountable to
rigorous standards of scholarship, but also to learn from each other. To this, we
must add the challenge for many of understanding and expressing oneself in a
foreign language. For some, that foreign language will be English, for others it
may be a different religious tradition, for others it may be an unfamiliar scientif ic
discipline.
In this difficult endeavor, let us take comfort and hope in the presence of
a power and personality greater than us. Muslims characterize this Presence as
compassionate and merciful. Jews and Christians characterize this Presence as just
and loving. All religious traditions affirm these insights with different words and
in different ways. Albert Einstein suggested that “the curve of the universe favors
us.” We may take comfort that the Universe, God by whatever name, seems to favor
elegant improbabilities.
Our mission is also improbable, some would say impossible, but it is most
assuredly elegant and beautiful. The contemporary encounter between science
and religion is intrinsically one of the most fascinating conversations going on in
this corner of our galaxy. It may also be one of the most important for our future
well-being.