Science meets religion

GAIL LICHTMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Ever since Galileo was hauled before the Inquisition in Rome, in 1633, to recant his scientific beliefs, there has been a growing perception that science and religion are mutually exclusive.

But now, a program at Israel's Bar-Ilan University (BIU) is showing how the two can increasingly interconnect to bring about a more complete picture of reality.

"When I was growing up, I was told that science and religion were at war," explained Dr. Noah Efron of the university's Interdisciplinary Studies Program. "But, in actuality, antagonism is the exception to the reality of the meeting of these two cultures. Sir Isaac Newton devoted more of his time to religious reflection than he did to physics. He saw both as the same endeavor – elucidating the grandeur of the world God created.

"Recently, many scientists, historians, philosophers and theologians have rejected the assumption that religion and science naturally conflict and are describing points of contact, similarity and mutual support between science and religion.

At BIU, we have been able to establish discussions that cross these borders."

The program – the result of a $100,000 grant awarded last year to the university by the John Templeton Foundation of Radnor, Penn. – is the first of its kind in Israel and was made possible as a result of a proposal written by Efron. Its two components include discussion groups involving an interdisciplinary group of academic faculty from BIU and other Israeli universities, as well as non-academic scientists and theologians and a high-profile lecture series given by leading intellectuals from Israel and abroad. These include Hilary Putnam of Harvard University, one of the greatest living American philosophers, who looked at the problem of evil in Buber and Levinas; Elia Leibowitz, chair of Tel-Aviv University's astrophysics department, who spoke on monotheism as a harbinger of science; Menachem Fisch of Tel-Aviv University, an historian and philosopher of science and religion, who spoke about science, religion and religious disputation in Judaism; Sam Schweber, a renowned physicist and historian of science from Brandeis and Harvard universities, who explored the moral dilemma of science and war; and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, one the greatest Jewish scholars of this age, who is scheduled to address the conflict and interaction of religion and science.

"We look at how the sciences and various religious traditions interact and come up with a richer view," said Efron, who heads the Templeton program at BIU. "These two vast cultures represent metaphysical efforts to make sense of the universe."

The program's students "problematize" science, trying to "tease out the ways in which different sciences partially constitute and are constituted by the culture and society in which they grow," according to Efron. "We think we are learning from science a collection of true facts, but the reality is much more complicated. A recent student paper that focused on global warming concluded that pollution is really an economic question," he related. "If we charge the right amount per pollutant – industry will put out only the amount of pollutants that the atmosphere can hold. This would turn global warming into a purely technical issue. My grandfather's generation would have seen pollution in terms of God's creation and human hubris, sacredness and holiness. Because of science, however, we see dead matter acting in a void, not holiness. By describing the world in a certain way, science has created a 'world-view.' "

A diverse interdisciplinary group of faculty members and a non-academic professional group also meet to address specific issues; reflecting not just different disciplines but also different perspectives in Judaism. "It is interesting to get Orthodox Jews, new-agers and secular Jews together and hear their different voices," said Efron.

"We also want to bring sociology, science, history, religion, etc., into the discussions and to ponder the different values reflected in scientific and religious activities, as well as the ideals of science and religion. One of our main intellectual goals is to explore things that are simply taken for granted and see them in their complexity."

Efron believes that the non-academic group, which is "looking at the ways in which religion and spirituality can be used to guide us to a reconception of science," is proving to be more ambitious. A neurobiologist in the group, for example, is looking to move beyond a mechanical understanding of the brain, while a physician is looking into alternative medicine and the role of spirituality in healing.

"This topic is becoming increasingly important in light of scientific development," said Efron. "Science has entered the stage where spiritual phenomena are more important to understanding things both ethically and overall. This is a compelling and exciting field."

Gail Lichtman is a writer with the Israel Press Service.

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