In our world today there is a tension between science and the human experience. What is this clash and why is it there?
I suppose historically, here in the West, you could go back and say the potential tension has always existed. In Greek and then Roman times, we can look at their ideas and endeavors, what we find is intellectual curiosity deeply rooted in the human experience. Being a naturalist, a scientist, a historian, a philosopher or theologian, was one homogeneous approach to the observable world. Their world view gave us the scientific method, an approach which aimed to resolve, quantify, and understand a world without the technical expertise that we have today. Without microscopes and telescopes and other instruments the ancients saw what they could see. This led them to ask, what is it, what is it made of, what does it do and what is its final purpose? Fast forward to the Early Modern Period, we find peoples getting away from those Greek models and paradigms. The advancements in all the natural sciences such as metallurgy, chemistry, and the like, produced results far beyond the Greek’s and Roman’s original conclusions. Science had risen to a point which surpasses the theorized versions of the complexities of connections which many older civilizations considered real and possible.
We can broaden this idea, for a moment, and look at other contemporary paradigms. Let’s consider an institution which becomes more important than the individual. This is often described as “institutionalization.” The term highlights the prioritizing of the institution’s goals and their best interest above those of the individual. It also, refers to the process when a concept or a social role or a moral value within the organization becomes so powerful it over shadows the individual’s well-being and their rights. This is what happened to science. Science devolved into scientism.
So, the point being, we live in a society now which has taken science beyond the human experience. Here are two every day examples. Somewhere, somebody said, “I’m cold,” and somebody else said, “Well, how cold are you?” They thought about it for a moment and said, “I don’t know, I’m really cold.” Then someone else said, “Well let’s find out. We can figure out a way to measure how cold it is;” and so, we got Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvins. We also got a lot of technical terms describing thermal physical activities, heat equations and a myriad of interrelated connections. Now, we have all this information about being cold. We can measure the cold, we can explain it and we can demonstrate it. But remember, it all started with the human experience of being cold.
Next, let’s watch someone wandering into my kitchen and asking, “Why is that water boiling?” I respond by saying, “I put the water in the container, and I applied heat to it. Since the water was contained and the temperature started to rise the water molecules got agitated and started rubbing together. The more they rub together the more friction is created and the more heat I applied to it, the more the water reacts to all those stimuli. The water starts to boil. So, is that the answer to, why the water is boiling?” No, that’s not the answer!! The answer is, I’m making tea. It is the human experience we’ve taken out of science.
I understand this because science has gone far beyond the human experience. I can’t see the electrons circling around an atom. I can’t see them, and I can’t demonstrate what this might be like. But the lab scientists can. In the lab they can manipulate these electrons. They can go to the Super Collider and smash atoms together and see the reactions. They can measure the heat produced, the particles created, and watch the electrons knocked out of their orbit. Obviously, we have the atomic bomb to demonstrate what I’m talking about. In everyday terms, I can’t look at the stars and see infrared light. I can only see the optical range of human visual light. But telescopes can. Science has taken a step beyond the human experience, and in the scientist minds this step is somehow greater than the human experience. There’s a disconnect.
A deep seated disconnect which goes right to the point; what is our core reality? We are either a created creature or we are something else. All of us believers know we are created creatures. We don’t have to go beyond the human experience to understand this fundamental truth. We can appreciate scientific endeavors, the discoveries and benefits of science within the human experience. Science is compatible and complementary with philosophy and theology. Science is a rational and logical discipline in pursuit of finite answers. Theology is a discipline which is also logical and rational which is in pursuit of answers which lay beyond the definitive. Science is a quest which goes deeper and deeper into the natural world and so does theology. Science tells us that everything which can be known will be known. Theology tells us that everything which can be known is already known, and paradoxically theology tells us the mystery of faith is inexhaustible. Here, science follows right along with theology in pursuit of an ever-expanding ceaseless query of questions after questions. Science wants to tell us there are solutions to these questions which have sound mathematical proofs. Theology tells us there are no solutions to our questioning. There are, however, incremental steps along the trajectory which points to the undeniable truth. Ours is a journey along this trajectory. We are not looking for definitive answers in an infinite universe, nor are we trying to encapsulate the truth. However, if we choose our words carefully, they can point towards the truth. Science gives us an ever-changing view of the truth. Every time scientists discover a new instrument for measuring and, every time the perspective is reformulated, the results are different. This is a never-ending tread mill of data leading to information, and information leading to knowledge. Theology steps off this tread mill and into a linear projection. Beginning here and now, each of us will journey from knowledge to wisdom, self-awareness, self-realization, consciousness, and the absolute God.