The outbreak of science in the modern age in West Europe was accompanied by the most violent confrontation of religion (first of all, catholic Christianity in Europe) and science. The latter wanted emancipation and freedom. Two significant events, both ditch of Giordano Bruno and forced renunciation of Galileo, symbolize that liberation.
Furthermore, almost all principles of science and religion contradict to each other: for example, causality versus supernatural miracles; doubt, skepticism and criticism versus belief; experience and experiments versus authority and mana; many scientific tractata versus one Bible; tradition versus development; etc. and etc. Each of them built an own picture of the world, absolutely inconsistent to the other. The methods or approaches of the one refuted the contribution of the other fundamentally.
Nonetheless, both managed to dominate society and people, the separated human beings.The position of philosophy in that conflict:
Philosophy maintained, supported, and kept more or less neutral position. A few parts of it were closer to religion (e.g. the so-called continental philosophy nowadays), others to science (e.g. analytical one). In thus, it was that “neutral state”, where “peaceful talks” could have taken place anyway. Philosophy is strongly interested in that peace treaty and future cooperation for its role and importance would increase sharply as the field of dialog, mutual understanding, translation, and reinterpretation for science and religion.
Problem: Shell the confrontation and divergence of science and religion conserve in the close or far future?
Thesis:
1. The real emancipation and liberation of science nowadays tends to the dialog of science and religion. Both contain elements and doctrines (theories in science) allowing of reconciliation and joint efforts for a common and much more generalized viewpoint to the world. Those propensities activate and develop the corresponding doctrines and theories and deactivate the rest, especially in religion. So, whether religion or science influences or even conditions the change of the other. Ecumenism and the unification of religions can be extended even to scientific atheism.
2. Post-secularization can be defined as the historic period in which the secular views are emancipated and liberated absolutely. They are equal to any religious ones, without claiming any superiority or monopole of truth. Particularly, science and religion, both being able to be considered as post-secular as far as both belong to that historic period, tend to converge.
Prognosis on that convergence from the viewpoint of philosophy:
The option of “peace treaty” of science and religion seems possible at last, in the global and more and more globalizing world obeying informational technologies and thus information. Information, being a scientific concept, can be reinterpreted as the “spirit” or as a fundamental spiritual element underlying the material world studied by science.
Philosophy can assist that process in many ways, one of them would be a small or “separate peace treaty” of the continental and analytic philosophy. It would increase its role of mediator for the confrontation of science and religion to be overcome in the close or far future.#
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