When
people wish to exclude others from considering any possibility that
might be associated with the paranormal or the religious, such people
often use a type of reasoning I might call the “that's religion,
not science” argument. Most commonly this is used as a rationale
for completely excluding any thought that our universe may
be the result of something more than just blind chance. If someone,
for example, suggests that the origin of the universe may have been
some kind of divine creation, such a hypothesis may be excluded
under the grounds that such thinking is not science, but religion.
The
same reasoning can be used to try to justify a kind of “gag rule”
in scientific publications – a rule forbidding mention of anything
that might be considered from the world of the paranormal or the
religious. Got some evidence that suggests the possibility of some
design or purposeful direction in the origin of life or the evolution
of life? Sorry, discussing that is not allowed because that's
religion, not science. Got some evidence based on near-death
experiences that there might be such a thing as a soul that survives
death? Sorry, you can't discuss that in a scientific publication,
because that's religion not science. Got some evidence that there may
be some power of the mind beyond that which neurology can account
for? Sorry, you can't present that evidence because that's religion
not science. You get the idea. This “that's religion not science”
argument ends up being very convenient for the materialist or
physicalist, and it has a superficial plausibility.
This
type of reasoning involves a kind of “science and religion
apartheid” thinking. The idea is that there's the science box and
the religion box (like two cardboard boxes on different parts of the
floor), and that we have to place a particular idea or writing in
either one box or the other. Paraphrasing the famous statement about
East and West, you might express this assumption by stating this
slogan: science is science, and religion is religion, and never the
twain shall meet.
But
is this type of reasoning valid? No, it isn't, as I can show with an
important historical example. In the 1920's a Belgian priest by the
name of Georges Lemaître first
proposed the idea that the universe suddenly began ages ago in a
state of inconceivable density that he called a primordial atom. At
the time the idea that the universe had a sudden origin was an idea
from the world of religion, not the world of science. For one thing,
there was no known evidence for such a theory. Scientists favored a
different idea, that the universe had existed forever. No doubt many
scorned Lemaître's idea, saying “That's religion, not science.”
But in the next few decades the evidence for such a sudden beginning
of the universe began piling up. Now scientists accept such an idea,
which they call the Big Bang theory.
So
we have here an important example of an idea from the world of
religion – the idea of the sudden origin of the universe – that
started out as unsubstantiated (not science), but then actually
became science (and not just trivial science, but one of the most
important findings of modern science). What lesson must be draw from
this example? The lesson is: an idea should not at all be excluded
from further consideration by scientists merely on a basis such as
“that's religion, not science.” This example proves that an idea
that originally seems more religious than scientific may end up
becoming an important part of science.
So
the “that's religion, not science” type of reasoning is not valid
as some basis for exclusion. But why exactly is this reasoning
fallacious? I can give two reasons.
Reason
#1: There Are Several Definitions of Science
The
“that's religion, not science” type of reasoning takes advantage
of the fact that science is defined in two different ways that are
quite different. The first definition is what we may call the “facts
on the shelf” definition. People sometimes speak of science as the
body of facts collected by scientists. Using this definition, you
can attempt to categorize almost all theoretical ideas that
scientists discuss as being “not science,” on the grounds that
they are not yet proven facts. Just as you can exclude almost
everything from the world of the paranormal or the religious as “not
science,” you can exclude many scientific hot topics such as string
theory, the cosmic inflation theory, the multiverse, neo-Darwinism,
and many other theories which are not yet regarded as well-proven as,
say, the existence of gravitation or the existence of bacteria.
But there's a second definition of science
– what we can call the “process” definition. According to this
definition, science is the process of seeking truth through
systematic efforts that involve observations, experiments, and
theorizing. According to this definition, almost anything that
involves honest, systematic and well-organized observations,
experiments, or evidence-based theorizing is science (whether it be
professional science or what is called citizen science carried out by
non-professionals). So according to this definition, almost
everything that is typically excluded on the basis of being “religion
not science” is actually science. That doesn't mean that it's
proven to be entirely correct, but merely that it does fall under the
category of “the process of seeking truth through systematic
efforts that involve observations, experiments, and theorizing,”
which is one of the main definitions of science.
So,
in fact, it is not all clear that those items typically excluded as
being “religion, not science” are in reality “not science.”
They may well be science (either today or in the future) depending on
which definition of science you use.
Reason
#2: Ignoring the Possibility of an Overlap
The
second major fallacy in “that's religion, not science” type of
reasoning is the assumption that the realm of science truth claims
and the realm of religious truth claims are mutually exclusive areas
that can never overlap to any degree (so that once we have identified
something as a religious truth claim it can be excluded as a science
truth claim). The assumption may be illustrated by Model 1 in the diagram
below.
Such
an assumption may be incorrect, because there may be some overlap
between the realm of religious truth claims and the realm of science
truth claims. The truthful situation may be as illustrated as Model 2 in the
diagram above, in which some truth claims can exist in both the realm
of science and the realm of religion.
What
reasons are there for thinking that the correct model is the second
of these models, not the first? For one, there's the simple fact
that human realms of thought do not naturally tend to be entirely
mutually exclusive without any overlap. For example, there is a
political realm of thought that includes the notion that “all men
are created equal.” But the fact that a truth claim of human
equality has been made in the realm of politics does not mean that we
should exclude it from the realm of science. For example, if you were
doing a scientific study on intellectual abilities in different
races, it would hardly make sense to say, “I must at the beginning
rule out the idea that all races are equal, because the idea that all
men are equal belongs to politics, not science.”
Another
reason for thinking that the second diagram is the correct one is
that we have the huge historical example of the claim “the universe
suddenly originated.” That is a currently a claim existing in both
the realm of science and the realm of religion. So this proves there
is some overlap between the realm of science truth claims and the
realm of religious truth claims. We could easily add another
“overlap” example involving claims that the universe is
exquisitely fine-tuned. I could make a list of statements along these
lines by scientists and religious people, without identifying the
person who made the statement; and you would have a hard time
distinguishing between the statements by the religious and the
statements by the scientists. One might also add as examples of overlap between science and religion some of the items that Fritjof Capra called attention to in his famous book The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism.
What
is the proper attitude that a scientist should take to a truth claim
that he has identified as one that is being made by some religion or
religious person? The proper attitude is not one of automatic
exclusion because of such a thing, but instead an attitude of
indifference toward such a thing. For example, if you are a
scientist considering whether there is some evidence for the soul,
you should not be saying, “I will rule that out because some
religious people believe it,” but instead you should be saying, “I
will pay no attention to how many people believe it, but judge the
matter purely on the facts and the evidence.”
But
such a principle is ignored by many who try to keep science as
illogically exclusionary as a 1950's Alabama country club.
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