Religion in an Age of Science

Octo Barnett, member of Friends Meeting at Cambridge, is professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

Religion in an Age of Science (HarperCollins, 1997) by Ian Barbour, former professor of Science, Technology and Society at Carleton College, is derived from the 1989 series of Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen. Professor Barbour was trained as a physicist, but for the past three decades has been a leading scholar in the relationship between science and religion. He was recently honored by the Templeton Foundation for his work in this field.

It is impossible to provide an adequate review of this long and very comprehensive book; a few of the section titles provide only a cursory overview of the breadth of coverage, e.g., Scientific Materialism; Theory and Data in Science; Belief and Experience in Religion; Revelation, Faith and Reason; The Interpretation of Religious Experience; Between Absolutism and Relativism; Space, Time, and Matter; The New Cosmology; DNA, Information, and Systems Theory; Chance and Design; Sociobiology and Cultural Evolution; Science and the Human Future; God's Action in the World; Existentialism.

This is not light reading, nor can it be read in one sitting since one must take time to ponder the scope and detail of the content. However, for those who are even superficially interested in this topic, this is an invaluable resource. Professor Barbour develops his analysis with careful organization and clarity. The average reader, whether or not trained in math or science, can appreciate the factual material and his interpretations. Barbour also provides abundant references and relevant quotations from a wide variety of sources, including such authors as Sir Arthur Eddington (the famous English astronomer of the early 20th century who was a Quaker), Charles Darwin, E.O. Wilson, Teilhard de Chardin, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, theologians such as Karl Barth, and Paul Tillich, as well as religious leaders such as Paul and Jesus.

Barbour defines his general purpose in the Preface: "What is the place of religion in an age of science? How can one believe in God today? What view of God is consistent with the scientific understanding of the world? In what ways should our ideas about human nature be affected by the findings of contemporary science? How can the search for meaning and purpose in life be fulfilled in the kind of world disclosed by science?"

He then provides a lengthy analysis of the features of the scientific age, and states a major problem to be considered: "For some people, science seems to be the only reliable path to knowledge. For them, the credibility of religious beliefs has been undermined by the methods as well as by the particular discoveries of science." He argues that theology or theological discussions must take into consideration scientific findings concerning human nature, evolution, and the creation of the universe. However, he is critical of scientific materialism and reductionism, which hold that all phenomena are determined by the behavior of molecular components. Instead, he develops a relational and multileveled view of reality, where interdependent systems and larger wholes influence the behavior of lower-level parts. He believes nature must be understood to be evolutionary, dynamic, and emergent, and that new phenomena have appeared at successive levels in matter, life, mind, and culture. Nature is characterized by both structure and openness, and can best be characterized as a community of interdependent beings. The future cannot be predicted in detail from the past, either in principle or in practice.

Barbour is an advocate of process theology, and is strongly influenced by the writings of Alfred North Whitehead. The chapters on theology are rich in the issues and the limitations of process theology, as well as the limitations and criticism that can be made of it. He believes that process theology is in tune with the contemporary view of nature as always changing and developing, radically temporal in character. There is ecological interdependence of all entities; there is no dualism of soul and body, and no sharp separation between the human and the nonhuman. In process theology, there is an affirmation of both order and openness in nature, with many influences on the outcome of an event, none of them absolutely determining it. Divine purpose is understood to have unchanging goals, but not a detailed eternal plan; "God responds to the unpredictable." The process God does have power, but it is the evocative power of love and inspiration, not controlling, unilateral power. Process theology does not claim there is victory over evil; it holds that God does not abolish evil but seeks to turn it to good account by transmuting it and envisaging the larger pattern into which it can be integrated. This is a God of wisdom and compassion who shares in the world's suffering and is a transforming influence on it. Most importantly, process theology's view of God is one of creative love and the power of God is revealed as the power of love, where love entails vulnerability and allows for human freedom and the laws of nature.

Barbour closes with an affirmation that all models are limited and partial and none gives a complete or adequate picture of reality in a world characterized by such diversity. God's relation to persons will differ from God's relation to impersonal objects like stars or rocks. We must not fall into the trap of idolatry that occurs when we take any one model of God too literally. Only in worship can we acknowledge the mystery of God and the pretensions of any system of thought claiming to have mapped out God's ways.

I found this book thought provoking and highly recommend it.