Philosophical and Methodological Basis of the Scholastic Discipline “Science and Religion” (within the Framework of Religious Studies)

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleФилософско-методологические основания учебной дисциплины «Наука и религия» (в рамках религиоведения)
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Integration - Mutual dependence - History and philosophy of science - Orthodox view on technology and engineering
6. Publication date 12-07-2018
7. lemma work Попов, Петр Леонидович [Author]. Философско-методологические основания учебной дисциплины «Наука и религия» (в рамках религиоведения)
8. lemma manifestations Известия Иркутского государственного университета. Серия: Политология. Религиоведение
9. Keywords Early Church Fathers - Greek philosophy - Scientists - History of Science - Russian Orthodoxy - Catholicism - church and technology - ethics - Catholic theology - christian approach to history
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <p>Попов, П. Л. (2009). Философско-методологические основания учебной дисциплины «Наука и религия» (в рамках религиоведения). <em>Известия Иркутского государственного университета. Серия: Политология. Религиоведение</em>, (1), 275-286.</p>
12. Lemma body

    1. The author points out that in Russia religious studies are a young branch of social sciences. That is why many questions within this discipline remain poorly analysed, including the relation between religion and science. The author believes that science and religion should be viewed both as spheres of activity and as social forces. Their relationship, which has not always been antagonistic, should be considered in a historical perspective.

       The author posits that the formation of the first religions and of early science took place during the pre-literary era. Humans then started distinguishing between notions of the natural and supernatural. Two large categories developed:

       1) "worldly" activity (related to natural phenomena) gave birth to early technology and science and,

       2) prayer or ritual as a an attempt to influence natural phenomena, which led to the development of religion. 

       Ancient Greek civilisation venerated science. In the Christian Era, the Bible was interpreted as having an ambiguous attitude toward science, both negative and positive. According to Christianity, the world was created by God but fell away from Him and now "lives in evil." Early Christian theology was based on Greek philosophy and the early Church Fathers treated science positively. In the Middle Ages, monasteries were great scientific centres, but eventually Catholic theology turned to Aristotle and to experimental science.

       The founders of modern science were not enemies of religion either. Some of them (for example Newton) worked in the field of Christian theology. Copernicus was a canon, Galileo was associated with the Catholic Church, Bruno was a monk. In Russia, the Orthodox church created the prerequisites for the development of science and encouraged scientific exchanges with the West and trained scientists in its seminaries.

       In conclusion, the author points out that scientific and technological progress in some ways favoured the growth of religion, especially Christianity. For example, science collected important amounts of data that confirmed the existence of supernatural phenomena. The development of science also encouraged the study of ethics (directly related to religion) while new surveillance technologies facilitated the understanding of the idea of the omnipotence of God. At the same time as science develops, it becomes more evident that it has fundamental limits, and there are questions and demands of the human spirit that science cannot address.