Science and
Technology of the third millennium has grown so fast and quick for the last
thirteen years. Hand in hand together, both contribute abundantly to the
development of society. They had change many people. They had changed what
people will think. They had changed what people to do. They had influenced many
lives in the world beginning from a new life of a child inside the womb until
the last breath; from the poorest to the richest; from the dumb to the
intelligent; from the sick to good health; from non-living things to living
things. There are a variety of ways to describe the different works of science
and technology in all strata of life.
While describing the beneficent
outcomes of science and technology in the world, however, the other side of the
coin of science and technology had also created tremendous impact. Science and
technology had also created problems socially, morally and, to our field of
study, spiritually. The rapid rise of modern science has created major social
problems. Not only has science profoundly created and affected man’s material
way of life but it also offered an equally profound mental upheaval.
One
astonishing treatment of science and technology in the life of people is to
create a big distinction against faith, religion, ethics, and theology. The care
for the soul and spiritual life has been set aside by some or unconsciously
being driven toward it. It is very dangerous, so I agree with St. Paul, since
the human being is a unity of body, soul and spirit. Every field of science
agrees that the basic dualistic composition of man is body and soul. The great
divide is also extended to social structure of a state. Likewise in socialist
countries, faith and science are two distinct fields, wherein state and
religion’s object of study are totally different from each other.
Moreover,
according to Barbour, the methods of science and religion are radically
different. The two enterprises should be completely separate and independent.
Not only do their content and subject matter have nothing in common, but their
ways of knowing are so dissimilar that there are no points of fruitful
comparison or analogy.[1]“What
is of interest to theology is not of interest of science nor accessible to it,
vice versa. They occupy, as it were, watertight compartments in human thought.”[2]
But,
before giving my personal reflection and response to the never ending conflict
between faith and reason, theology and science, we might as well first give
some different perspectives and viewpoints from various field of studies, like
in the Bible, Social teaching of the Church and according to some scholars.
Faith
and Reason in Scriptures:
We don’t have definite distinction on the
Bible about the difference between faith and reason. However, we can only define
them separately. On the one hand, God tells us to reason in Isaiah 1:18 (ISV)
“Please come, let’s reason together.” We are to have a good reason for what we
believe, and we are to be always ready to share that reason with other people
(1 Peter 3:15). So we attempt to show unbelievers that our belief in the
Scriptures is reasonable, justified, and logically defensible. The Bible makes
sense.
On the other
hand, we are supposed to have faith. We are supposed to trust God and not lean
on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). The Bible tells us that the “just
shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11). It seems that we are
supposed to trust God regardless of whether His words make sense to our
understanding.
The meaning of
faith and reason are insufficiently enough since we have taken it from the
Bible. We don’t have clear distinction of each other however it is clear what their
role is. Both should be at the service. Reason is at the service of faith and
faith is at the service of reason.
The
Parallelism of faith and reason:
According
to Barbour again, there are authors and scholars who do find points of
comparison among methods of inquiry, and they hold that many of the rational
and empirical attitudes of the scientist can be shared by the theologian. Liberal
theology and Process Philosophy try to see both science and religion within
unified view of the world. Liberal Theology claims that a man’s religious
beliefs should be a reasonable interpretation of all areas of human experience,
employing critical reflection not unlike that which the scientist applies to
his work.[3]While,
Process philosophy elaborates a
metaphysical system applicable to all aspects of reality including God and
events in the world.[4]
An
Oxford physicist, C.A. Coulson holds that the methods of science and religion
have much in common. The scientist’s experience as a human being goes beyond
his laboratory data and may include a sense of reverence and humility, an
awareness of beauty and order and reflective contemplation of the world. The
unity of nature and the harmony of its laws may take one as far as belief in
cosmic mind, but man’s religious experience points to the personal character of
ultimate reality.[5]
The
relationship being created is clear. As we ask about many inquiries, faith and
reason can be used as methodologies to answer them. It is in methodologies that
both agree with each other.
The
Stand of the Church on Faith and Reason
Pope
Pius Xi enunciated what must be the first principle concerning relations
between science and religion, when he stated that “science as a true
understanding of reality can never contradicts the truths of the Christian
faith.”[6]
Pope Pius XII further delineated this relationship:
Science,
which has encountered the Creator in its path, Philosophy, and, much more,
revelation, in harmonious collaboration because all three are instruments of
truth, like rays of the same sun, contemplate the substance, reveal the
outlines, and portray the lineaments of the same Creator.[7]
Reason and faith in this sense
should be used as instruments of truth. It is a kind of truth wherein it
creates harmony among people, nature and animals and also technology.
Otherwise, the primary object of faith and reason to serve the truth is vain.
According
to Paul Haffner, Vatican II has reaffirmed the fundamental link between faith
and science in terms of the legitimate autonomy of earthly affairs:
Methodological
research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly
scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the
faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the
same God.[8]
There is indeed a clear cause not
to separate the two methods of inquiry. The common denominator of every human actionis
God. Fear of man to offend God should always be the guiding principles. It is a
fear created out of coercion, threat or force but rather a fear rooted in love.
Finally,
the most recent document that re-stated the relationship of faith and reason is
described by Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter, Fides et Ratio. With
this encyclical there is a development and strong urgency of the call of the
church not to disregard the roles they portray in society. The relationship
between faith and reason has been raised into a doctrinal teaching. It only
implies that the teaching authority of the Church, the Magisterium, makes
definitive meaning to faith and reason.
“Faith
and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the
contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know
the truth- in a word, to know himself- so that, by knowing and loving God, men
and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.”
The same emphasis has also been
put into the relationship of faith and reason. They should serve the human
spirit, the human life in its search for truth.
Personal
reflection and application of principles:
I
was indirectly involved with the apostolate of the Order to the United Nations
as an aid to an American Augustinian priest who was once a representative of
the Augustinian Order to the United Nations. I’m helping him as a website
editor of our website like posting social action reports he has done in the
Philippines from time to time. In one of our informal sharing, he said that
pharmaceutical companies are developing new medicines to treat diseases
especially the newly acquired diseases. However, there are abuses and immoral
acts done by some pharmaceutical companies. In the United Nations, one cannot
just donate any medicine to needy people. It is being regulated, particularly
sending medicines to Africa and Asia. There had been many instances that the
medicines sent are used for testing. It is said that before products are proven
or sold to the public, a test must be done in order to know its efficacy.
Moreover, in Europe animal rights group staged different protests against
beauty products developed by companies like Loreal. They used animals to test
their products effectiveness. In the post I read from the internet, a woman
protester volunteered to be caged in to let the public see what beauty
companies like Loreal do to animals. It was awry and unimaginable to watch the
pictures of the woman being tortured for the sake of experiment. As I can
remember, a big thong was put into her mouth to open; her eyebrows were shaved
and her hands were tied at the back and lied her body on a table. The
protesters are calling the people to ban their products.
Science
and technology has helped many people particularly in the field of medicine.
Scientists and Chemical engineers had already exceeded human limitations and
expectations to develop vaccines and medicines for different illnesses. We
might say that this is one of the effects of consumerism and relativism. Some
people think of other human beings are just like objects for their medicines.
We might also apply morality in this case. Ethics and Bioethics would judge
them as immoral actions. However, there is a much deeper wound that needed to
look and examined. We ask what has gone wrong. What made them do that? It is
like something is missing. And, indeed there is a missing factor or principle
that disregarding it makes the people responsible non-culpable.
In
the context of theological anthropology, it is faith and theology that are
missing. Faith has been removed in their moral actions. The scientists above
are really searching for truth. They search for their answers. They search for
cure and they search for beauty and good. They had used science and technology
for their search but they forgot faith and theology. Morality can serve as another
means but it is not enough.
“It
seems that in a highly technological society, man’s soul has ever a need for
the sacred, which, if it is not directed towards the only true Creator God,
seeks fulfillment in futile approaches to the occult,”[9]
according to Haffner. Science on its own cannot give humanity the progress it
desires; it needs the aid of theology and Christian morality in order to avoid
animal and human disaster.
The
principles of relations between Science and Religion should be noted as well.
Why would they insist a total separation wherein, there is no intrinsic
contradiction between Christian faith and natural science? Science is of itself
insufficient for human growth in understanding and human development. And
Science arrives at the truth, but not all of the truth, so that not even all
that which is in the natural order is its proper object. Natural science will
never be able to penetrate all the secrets of nature to the extent that the
cosmos would fail to evoke in man a sense of mystery.
[1] Ian G. Barbour, “Issues in
Science and Religion,” (New Jersey: Prentice – Hall, Inc., 1966), 115-116.
[2]Ibid., 116.
[3]Ibid., 125.
[4]Ibid., 125.
[5]Ibid., 127.
[6] Pius XI, MotuPropioIn multissolaciis, 1936.
[7] Pius XII, Discourse to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, November 22, 1951.
[8]Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 64.1
[9]Paul Haffner, “Mystery of
Creation,” (Wiltshire: Cromwell Press, 1995), 175.
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