Rector’s Reflections
Thursday 13th March 2025
Science and Religion in the Modern World
In yesterday’s reflections, I wrote about how over the last forty years or so there has been an increasing move to bring the two worlds of Science and Religion closer together. To date, this initiative has largely come from the Religion side of the Science and Religion divide, and while there has been progress in this area, its wider impact has been fairly limited. But I think things are beginning to change. I sense that the world of Science is increasingly feeling that it can benefit from the particular insights and perspectives which Religion can bring. So my third reflection is this : Science is no longer quite so scared of Religion as it used to be. It is sensing that the world of Religion might be its friend. Why is this so?
To start with, the battle for Truth is no longer quite what it was. In the old days, some Scientists believed that Science contained all the Truth there was, and some religious folk made a similar claim about religious belief. Nowadays, truth claims are usually much more modest. Most Scientists and most religious folk would say that Science and Religion explore different kinds of truth, and there is no need for them to be in competition with each other. So contemporary Scientists usually don’t have to worry about the claims of religion getting in the way of good Science.
It goes further than this. Both Scientists and religious folk tend agree that there is such a thing as Truth, and that Truth matters. There may be disagreements about what the Truth might actually be, and how this is best expressed, but there is agreement that Truth is important. This is in marked contrast to those who propose or peddle the alleged virtue or reality of a “Post-Truth” world. Scientists and religious folk know that they need to make a united front against the claims of those who would say that Truth doesn’t matter. The idea of a “Post-Truth” world cuts at the heart of both Science and Religion.
Scientists themselves are increasingly worried about the prevalence of disinformation and outright falsehood in some scientific communication aimed at the general public. Indeed, falsehood is increasingly a problem in the world of scientific research. Everyday, hundreds of research articles are published in scientific journals, and a small but significant proportion of these are entirely worthless, the product of a clever piece of Artificial Intelligence or reporting the results of an experiment that actually never took place. There can be great pressure on scientists to produce the “right” result – the result which will make them famous, or attract the necessary funding, or simply ensure that they will have a job to go to when the current contract runs out.
So Scientists are increasingly wanting to assert the importance of the traditional scientific values , such as transparency and honesty, in a world where these are very much under threat. Scientific truth matters. It really matters. We cannot afford to sacrifice it on the altar of expediency.
Scientists are also wishing to raise questions relating to ethics. What is happening to the results of their research? Is it making the world a better place, or only making the rich richer and the powerful even more powerful? Are Scientists being allowed to research the issues and questions which really matter, or is their research being limited to the particular interests of whoever happens to be paying the bills?
And what of scientific research into matters which have the potential to change the whole idea of what it means to be a human being? For example, how far should we go in matters of genetic engineering, or in matters relating to the development and application of Artificial Intelligence?
It is rare for any modern Scientist to be able to conduct their Scientific research in a context entirely immune from such ethical dilemmas. Very few Scientists are given an entirely free rein to do Science simply for the sake of it. Almost always, someone or some organisation is paying for their research, or setting the agenda, and the funder usually calls the shots.
So I think it is not surprising that Scientists are no longer as sacred of religion as they used to be. Scientists can see that religious folk are also people who care about the truth, who see the importance of ethical issues, and who seek to wrestle with the deeper questions of what it means to be a human being in our modern world. What Science and Religion have in common is what really matters; the differences are neither here nor there.