Synthesis of Science and Religion

For a long time, science and religion have had common roots in different human civilizations. The origin of both science and religion has been human desire for knowledge and especially transcending the world of daily and shallow manifestations and achieving the world of facts behind the trivial and single phenomena. Science and religion are two important instruments for better understanding of the human beings in particular and the world in general. In primitive civilizations, there was no distance or conflict between science and religion, therefore, primitive man, with no trouble, appealed exclusively to a series of religious beliefs for better perceiving himself and the outside world. However, with the rise of novel thoughts and techniques for observation and explanation of natural phenomena, gradually, a new vision emerged and developed that shrunk from the idea of the noble religious beliefs, and confined to the components of the material world and interaction rules of the natural manifestations, little by little. Since then, the followers of two religious and scientific visions distanced from each other gradually, in the way that since 17th century and with extraordinary developments in natural sciences, this separation turned into controversies, so that in the late 19th century, it seemed that there was no possible compromise between these two groups.
Fortunately, this kind of strict and biased viewpoint did not last for a long time and in the first decades of the century, some scholars of natural sciences on the one hand and some theologians and religious speakers, on the other hand, realized that there should be no conflict between science and religion because, it was completely unfounded or impracticable. It became clear that proponents of both scientific and religious worldviews could achieve a common delight that was useful not only for both of them, but also for all human beings in the world, if they put aside their scientism on one hand and religious dogmatism on the other hand. Harmful effects of technology, that become more and more severe even these days, necessitated this kind of understanding and were increasingly considered especially in the recent years from 1960s onwards.
In recent years, different attempts were made in order to achieve this unity and to find a common background for convening the scholars of natural sciences and religious leaders. One of these was World Congress for the Synthesis of Science and Religion in India, organized and sponsored by Bhaktivedanta Institute. This non-profit and independent institute was established by Srila Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada and has two centers in Bambaei and San Francisco. According to those responsible for the leadership in the institute, the common background that can unify science and religion is awareness. Because religion means our awareness of super global facts and basic secrets of the world and science means our awareness of whatever may be studied and verified objectively by the scholars or scientists of natural world. Unity of science and religion occurs in a common world of human awareness where there are objective and scientific concepts as well as spiritual values that indicate divine origin and destiny of human beings. Raising awareness in this regard not only can resolve the destructive conflicts between science and religion but also can bring different religions together. Therefore, one of the main goals of this institute is to develop consciousness research in a modern scientific framework in the fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics, the origin of biology and bioethics as well as philosophy of science. This institute has scientific, research programs, and publishes specialized books and journals. Moreover, it offers MA and PhD courses in consciousness research in India in corporation with Biral Institute of Technology and Science. Besides, this institute aims to set up a center for comparative studies of East and West philosophies in a framework of new sciences.
'New sciences have presented new vision and knowledge and resulted in raising basic questions that caused a stronger relationship between science and religion. Therefore, concerning the attempts for better understanding the inside and outside worlds by the scientists and theologians, common backgrounds for convergence of religion and science should be sought.'
'Recognition is one of the distinctive characteristics of human beings. Only man benefits from worldview. Other animals have only an emotional world. Worldview, namely interpretation and justification of the world has three types: scientific, philosophical, and religious. Scientific worldview is limited and for this reason, cannot answer the basic questions of the ontology; it has no theoretical value and merely considers the scientific and technical aspects. Philosophical worldview is based on a series of principles. Religious worldview is similar to philosophical worldview in one way, although there is a difference in the origin of recognition. Religion appeals to divine revelation for recognition of the world, but philosophy draws on analogy and argument. Islamic worldview is monotheistic. In Islamic philosophy, system of creation is based on the goodness and helping the creatures to reach perfection. Great chain of being begins with God and all other creatures in the world belong to Him. The world is a sign and shadow of Ever-living, Almighty, and Omniscient God. It is the manifestation of names and attributes of God and therefore, the world is living, mighty and omniscient. According to this kind of interpretation, the system of creation is not only a mechanical world for Muslims, but it is organic. All the particles in the world are completely related to one another based on a predetermined order.'
'Contemporary physics scholars and cosmologists consider the world a single point with an endless density; mystics refer to it as a sign of monotheism of God that cannot be described. Nevertheless, both of them believe that world of multiplicity has originated from this single point. Human wisdom considered two different but complementary strategies in order to understand the origin of the being: first, scientific strategy that helps to know all about the endlessly small particles and unimaginable depths of the world, and second, spirituality and mysticism that pave the way towards the inner world. However, in both cases, we try to find out our origin and finally understand the secrets of the world in order to know our Creator.'
'The World is existentially separated and distinct from God and the its existence is dependent of act of God that should be considered as the primary cause, and is the effect of a cause in nature of the world that is regarded as secondary aspect. Therefore, miracle is a sign of primary cause of creation that is manifested in a framework through the secondary causes and in Christianity, it is unavoidable. Natural sciences are based on the God's wisdom and act of God. Based on God's will, human beings travel around the wonderful world and explore it in order to know the facts and the rules of the world. Therefore, the conflict between science and religion in Christianity is a destructive mistake that originates from scientism on one hand and religious dogmatism on the other hand. Science and religion with their rich epistemological sources should put biases aside and help people to reach a higher level of thinking.'
'There is difference between two kinds of causation: descending causation (from awareness to material) and ascending causation (from material to awareness) in which material is known as the basis of existence. Today, new interpretations in quantum mechanics make it possible to consider the natural sciences and spiritual traditions as a single entry as well as to take the descending causation of spirit and awareness into account; moreover, it helps us to improve the recognition in western thought between soul and body.'
'Based on scholars of natural sciences, mystic elements show formulating the ideas based on the direct and intuitive understanding. Einstein believes that material elements show that these kinds of intuitions should be explained by the emotional perceptions. Thus, if we accept Einstein's idea, religious mystic experiences, and revelations are directly related to the growth of natural sciences.'
'In the West, since Greeks until the end of the world war I, human awareness studies were associated with natural researches and scholars of physics, biology and psychology considered both the objectivity and subjectivity. However, since the early in the 20th century, coincidentally with the emergence of power-based movements such as Nazism and Leninism, scientific methodology came to a deadlock and studies on awareness were ignored and confined to the observation of rigid external realities; in this methodology, religion was regarded as an old eternal enemy. Fortunately, since the beginning of present decade, interest in awareness as well as religious and spiritual experiences made in scientific works.'
'Darwin's theory in which spiritual and mental element has been ignored has misguided human beings. It should be mentioned that only by synthesis of scientific thinking and religious thinking modern problems such as was, terrorism, environmental degradation and addiction may be remedied.'
'Our personal awareness is limited to our body, but general awareness contains all around the world and brings different kinds of personal awareness together that have different names in different religions and nothing is higher than it. Personal awareness is synthesized with general awareness; it is influenced by general awareness. If personal awareness is separated from general awareness, it decays and dies like a leaf which falls off a tree.'
'With recent developments in life sciences, 21st century can be called 'century of biology'. New technologies and researches on breeding, genesis, and genetic characteristics necessitate a new definition of human being; in this regard, only biologists are not responsible; it needs a spiritual and moral leadership, too.'
With a comprehensive explanation about the United Nation's humanitarian objectives and goals of connecting various national, cultural, and religious visions in human communities, it was hoped that researches and conferences similar to those of International Bhaktivedanta Institutes, might bring different human communities together and help to make global peace through synthesis of science and religion and arguments between various religions.