I read an article about science and religion and how they exist in the world together. There are four models that describe how these two ideas can relate to each other and how they effect one another.
The first model is the Conflict Model. This is when you accept one concept and not the other. These are the extremists who only believe in their religious views and think that science is bad or visa versa.
The second is the Contrast Model. This is when people believe that science and religion address different realms that do not exist. This is the idea that science deals what the universe is made of and why/how it works, whereas religion deals with questions of meaning and moral values.
The next is the Concert Model. This is the more scientific side.
The last is the Contact Model. This is when science and religion work together to help humans solve the mysteries of nature and give life meaning.
As well as these four models there are six types of non-believers. 1) The intellectual atheist/agnostic. 2) The activist atheist/agnostic. 3) The seeker agnostic. 4) Anti-theists. 5) Non-theists. 6) Ritual atheists/agnostics.
The Conflict Model kind of makes me feel very uncomfortable. I feel like people in this category are not very open minded. In the article it says that 61% of Americans say that science doesn’t conflict with their religious beliefs but are still close mined to those who are not religious.
The Contrast Model address the fact that when people were evolving they had to balance two needs of survival and balance them. The first was taking care of themselves and the other was aiding others. In the religion and science aspect of this taking care of yourself would be a more religious side and aiding others would be more scientific. Taking care of yourself is usually on a more spiritual level. These two ideas, like science and religion may be conflicting but are both essential.
The Concert Model gives scientific explanations for things in the bible. It suggest that instead of the world being created in seven days that a “day” in Genesis is redefined as eons lasting up to a billion years. It also suggest that the parting of the red sea was likely the crossing of a waterway at low tide.
The Contact Model is when science and religion join together to make a better world. It talks about how remembering is a Jewish ideal and how we use memory (a scientific aspect) as a religious outlet to feel more connected. It states that Jews are commanded to remember through acts of repetition. One of my favorite parts of this is that we remember both the good and the bad so that we can make tomorrow better than today and yesterday. Another aspect of this model is looking at why people often ignore their better judgement to pursue immediate pleasure.
The six types of non-believers are something that is not often thought about. Most people just assume that if you don’t believe you are just pushed into the atheist/agnostic category. In this scenario there is six different types.
The first is the intellectual. This is people who enjoy engaging in discussions of science, philosophy, and epistemology. The next is the activist. This is people who pursue social justice work. The third is the seeker. This is people who don’t avow a clear ideological stance because they recognize the complexity of theological questions. The fourth is the anti-theists. This is the people who actively try to convince people that religion is harmful. The next is the non-theists. These are the people who are generally apathetic about religion and its role in society. The last is the ritual. These are the people who find inspiration in ceremonies, meditation, yoga, classes, holiday traditions and the like.
One thing that really stuck out to me is from the Contact Model. It is the concept that we remember both the good and the bad so that we can make tomorrow better than today and yesterday. One of my favorite movies, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, is about a surgery where you can erase people from your mind. Everyone has times in their life when they want to erase the bad or wished it had never happened. I know I have. But you can’t erase the bad. Just like this teaching says, you must remember the good and bad for a better future. It is very much like the saying, it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. I think that is a very important thing that takes time to realize.
I think I would categorize myself as a ritual agnostic. I do not believe in any sort of higher power but being with people I care about and doing meditation/yoga and such things make me feel good inside. I definitely find inspiration and inner peace in these sort of activities.
I think that it is very hard in the world in which we live for religion and science to come together. It is a very challenging thing. Many extremists also make this a very challenging task. In a perfect world these two ideals would collide and we would have both spirituality and knowledge of the world we live in. But sadly I don’t know if that would ever happen.
I as well resonated with the contact model, agreeing that as someone who pursues activism and social justice, it makes the most rational sense. Something I didn’t make in my post but wish I had is the fact that the many types of agnostics are overlooked. Most often atheism is perceived as a dirty word for people who are spiteful to the world when just as with everything else, the frame works varies. It is important to know that although many do not conform to a religion, they still can have a belief that empowers them, and if not, thats cool, too. On many days, just as you, I see myself as a ritual agnostic, however my mind is constantly turning. Thanks for your post. Much love.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shoshana. I value your opinions. I believe very strongly in our religion. I have to say that at one point I did not believe in Gd. Now not only do I believe in Gd but I believe everything happens by the will and plan of Gd. I have grown in Faith over the years, this has happened just through life and living. Believing in Faith has made me a more accepting person, because if Gd has a plan for all of us, we need to do our part and exercise our free will but it is all in Gd's hands. We are not alone and we are not abandoned. Gd is like a loving father who helps us. As you know I believe in "science", I use it every day and study the human body in many ways. When I get down to it, the beauty and complexity of the human/ animal/ plant and rock forms are too amazing to have been caused by "accident" and I believe that haShem created us and science explains how we function and gives us the tools to understand and to heal or work with the life forms we are.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do enjoy ritual too, as you probably know.
Only by the hand of haShem are we healed, and haShem guides the hands of the healers to do the right thing. Peace and love