False Dichotomies (Part I): The Axiomatic Systems of Science and Religion, and Implications for Scholarly Publications.
| Autor | Bellini, Carlo Gabriel Porto |
| Cargo | Editorial |
This is the first of my essays about certain false dichotomies that populate people's minds and have an enormous impact on how researchers conceive their activities, as well as on how reviewers and editors do their jobs. Given the abbreviated form in which I present the issues here, I call these pieces teasing essays, as they merely introduce the issues in order to motivate reflection and reply.
This first essay deals with the generally heated, long dispute between the advocates of two philosophical branches (1): that of pure science, and the more orthodox views of religion (2). The dispute has been dividing people among those who believe in experience-based, testable knowledge, and those who believe that certain phenomena are unreachable to human examination and understanding, and as such can be explained only by means of revelations. I though concur with views that the two groups can engage in profitable dialogue instead of in narratives of conflict (Pritchard, 2016) or "frank disagreement" (Whitehead, 1925), while I also return to the basics to accentuate that science and religion are alternative ways to frame reality - and I have no solid reason to see one as superior to the other. Moreover, I argue that the two philosophical branches should not be in jeopardy if their assumptions (or hopes) are not fully confirmed in everyday experience. That is, it should be no problem for the science lover if certain things remain hidden to human understanding; after all, humans rely only on their five senses to collect data about the world (what probably imposes critical limits to perception) and on one data processing unit (the brain) that is known to operate under the constraints of bounded rationality (Simon, 1979). Similarly, it should be no problem for the faith apologist if science ends up explaining everything; after all, the critical issue in most religions is to find the path to happiness and eternal salvation regardless of there being intelligible reasons for it or not. On another line of thought, supporters of pure science sometimes seem to "pay no attention to the plank in their own eyes" (Matthew 7:3-5, Bible, New International Version) when contesting the churchgoer's beliefs in matters of faith (as if science had no matters of faith too), while some churchgoers inflict unnecessary delays to the development of humankind when opposing to science as a way to make life easier.
In this essay, I briefly show that science and religion are but alternatives to frame human understanding, and that neither is either doubtlessly correct or incorrect if we use some of their own criteria as the analytical tools. Consequently, scholarly publications (such as BAR) should be taken as one - but not the only - possible way to knowledge.
Four analytical aspects of science and religion
Science and religion are two philosophical avenues that share crossroads. First, both are axiomatic systems. Any scientific field rests on certain theoretical assumptions or axioms, while religion rests on certain matters of faith. Axioms, theoretical assumptions and matters of faith are conceptually equivalent. They refer to issues that are taken for granted to enable further reasoning and action. For instance, in operations management, we assume that best practices in process quality lead to higher levels of product/service quality and organizational performance - but there is no straightforward proof for such a causal path. On the side of religion, matters of...
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