An Orthodox Christian's View on Exact Sciences of the 20th Century

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleAn Orthodox Christian's View on Exact Sciences of the 20th Century
3. Language term English
4. lemma author Tampakis, Kostas
5. lemma category Co-existence - Cosmology- Anthropic principle
6. Publication date 2004
7. lemma work Kalyabin , Gennady Anatolievich [Author]. An Orthodox Christian's View on Exact Sciences of the 20th Century
8. lemma manifestations Science and Religion in Context : Metanexus Annual Conference, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia 5-9 July 2004
9. Keywords Conflict thesis
10. Url Click Here
11. Lemma body

    1. The paper aims to describe the relations between Orthodoxy and the natural sciences from the perspective of a Russian Orthodox mathematician. It begins with a brief discussion of what the paper calls the age of cheerful optimisim, where science was advancing rapidly in all fronts and was expected to solve all problems. This was followed by sober pessimism, in which nuclear fission and pollution degrade the environment. The author includes AIDS and SARS to by-effects of modern Biology and attributes psychological and mental damage to excessive computer use. The paper then moves on to describe some basic principles of Orthodox Christianity regarding technological progress and life conditions. It notes that according to the Church Fathers, all earthly external activities must be regarded in the light of their use to the human soul. It then moves to discussing how modern scientific activity sometimes includes glory-hunting, which the paper contrasts with what happens in theology. The next part of the paper highlights some problems that plague modern science, such as the problem of dark mass. It proposes that we should not rely on the conclusions of the sciences, since they may change dramatically over the next years. The final part of the paper shows that the ‘conflict thesis’, which it does not name as such, is very much alive among current scientists. The author clearly rejects scientists who do take a polemic stance against religion. The paper ends by proposing that the anthropic principle of modern cosmology should be regarded as evidence that a God exists.