The relationship between science, philosophy and religion

Although philosophy, science and religion study different aspects of content, they are essentially different ways for human beings to explore the truth.

Let's define these three concepts:

Philosophy: The study of the universal and fundamental problems of the world, the theoretical system of the worldview.

Science: An ordered system of knowledge based on testable explanations and predictions about the form, organization, etc., of objective things, is knowledge that has been systematized and formulated.

Religion: a cultural phenomenon that appears when human society has developed to a certain historical stage, and it is a special social ideology.

The process from chaotic unity to differentiation to ambiguity:

In the early days of human civilization, there was no clear distinction between philosophy, science and religion.

People observed strange natural phenomena and began to wonder about the reasons behind them and the origin of the universe.

Science and Philosophy:

Science was a branch of philosophy at the beginning, but gradually it became independent. In the early history of human thoughts, we have always attached importance to the division of disciplines in order to achieve a more reasonable division of labor and maintain the order of academic research.

In modern times, the bound is blurring again. Scientists also consider ethical issues and draw inspiration from philosophical research, while philosophers can also benefit from scientific research.

But perhaps its essence is that science is empirical, trying to approach the only objective truth, cumulative and trans-temporal, while philosophy is reflective, profound, and historical.

Philosophy and Religion:

People are always full of infinite reverie about the unknown. However, the rationality of human always has limitations, or this rationality can not satisfy all human curiosity about the world and life.

Therefore, people sometimes have to resort to religion to satisfy this curiosity. The earliest human civilization began in religious mythology.

However, with the development of society and the progress of mankind, the desire for knowledge becomes more and more intense.

With human's exploration of the universe unwilling to stay at the level of imagination and with the continuous development of reason, philosophy gradually originated in religious thoughts.

Science and Religion:

Science and religion seem to be two opposing concepts in popular generalization.

Before the scientific revolution, religion ruled the spiritual world of mankind.

Many early scientists insisted on exploring the laws of nature and seeking scientific truth in order to praise the wonders of God and nature.

With the development of science, more and more religious doctrines were overthrown, but this did not lead to the disappearance of religious beliefs.

The question of whether the development of science will eliminate the influence of religion could be a long one, and I will not go into the details here. In general, however, the empirical knowledge and experimental methods of science originated in religion, and in turn influenced religion.

The elements of superstition and sophistry and the search for truth about the nature of the universe and of man are all part of religion.

The future trend may be for the latter part of religion to compete with the scientific part against the superstitious part, and for the first two elements to reinforce each other. Take the good and discard the bad.

The connection:

Russell wrote in the History of Western Philosophy: "All definite knowledge - I claim - belongs to science, and all dogma that concerns more than definite knowledge belongs to religion, but between theology and science there is a no man's land under attack from both sides, and this no man's land is philosophy."

In general terms:

Science = Evidence + Logic

Philosophy = Transcendence + Logic

Religion = Transcendence + Mysticism

The relationship between the three can be summarized as follows:

Scientific inquiry has substantive, right and wrong truths, while philosophical and religious inquiry questions have no clear right answer.

Within the scope of exploration of natural science, there are so-called "real truths".

For example, the sun's rising and setting in the east can be explained by the Earth's revolution around the sun. There may be more detailed explanations and adjustments to the original theory as the science progresses, but there is always a specific answer.

However, the problems of philosophy and religious studies often emphasize the abstract and conceptual rather than the concrete things in life.

At the same time, there can be many contradictory answers to these questions, but they are not in conflict with each other.

For example, some people think that human nature is inherently evil, others think that human nature is inherently good or that human nature is inherently non-human. All three answers are consistent, so there is no need to compete.

Philosophy emphasizes "proof," while science and religion emphasize "faith." But science believes in the method of inference, while religion believes in the content itself.

Philosophy never asks people to believe in a theory. All philosophers do is consider all the possibilities of a problem and explore them in depth to come up with possible theories based on each possibility. Science and religion involve the purpose of making people believe.

According to Hume's problem, inductive reasoning is not true, that is, all the scientific laws that we generalize are not necessarily true.

We do not know the increase in a closed system, we just believe it because, given all the information we have, this theory is the most logical and convincing.

However, scientific faith is based on practical reason, while religious faith is often based on imagination or cognitive bias.

The Buddhist view of reincarnation, for example, has no basis for support; the only support comes from people's belief in the idea itself.

Philosophy can explain the meaning of the scope of life, religion can explain the scope of life. Philosophy can solve problems such as "how to judge the standard of happiness in life" or "the meaning of death". But the world after death cannot be inferred by any rational reasoning. So questions such as "whether there is an afterlife" fall within the realm of religion.

What the three have in common:

No matter it is philosophy, religion, or science, it is essentially a different expression of human exploration of the world, and it is the satisfaction of human advanced attributes.

Curiosity and spontaneous exploration of the universe is one of the essential differences between humans and other animals.

Thus, the three explore different aspects of the ultimate question of the universe and complement each other. We may use the concepts and methods proposed by all three at the same time when solving problems.

In fact, many of history's great scientists were religious, and many theologians were also great philosophers. What has not changed from beginning to end is people's metaphysical curiosity about the world and their exploration of humanity itself.

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​Author: Isabella Wang

Translator: Efie Su