RELIGION AND SCIENCE
What is the view of religion from the scientific perspective? a.
The Romantic View b.
The Scientific "Evolutionary" View or c.
A middle approach?
A Diversity of Views: Contemporary Approach
Various theories on the origin and nature of religion
I. Classical Antiquity
Plato
Aristotle
Theagenes
Critias
Epicurus
Euhemeras
II. Christian Apologists
Middle Ages
Renaissance
III. Eighteenth Century
European Enlightenment
Fontenelle
Brosses
Bergier
Voltaire
Vico
IV. Romanticism
Philosophical Theories
Rosseau herder
Kant
Lessing
Schelling
V. Symbolists
Creuzer

Heyne
VI.Historical School
Lobeck
Hermann
Muller
VII.Nineteenth Century
Positivism
Comte
History of Religions
Nature Myths
Frazier
Malinowski
Panbabylonism
Ethnological Theories
Lubbock
Animism
Tylor
Spencer
Pre-animism
Marett
Creator god lang
Monotheism
Schmidt
Van der leeuw
Durkheim
VIII. Psychological Explanations
Freud
Jung
Bastian
James
Leuba
Otto

IX. Sociological Theories
Durkheim
Primitive Thought
Levy Bruhl
Ernst Cassirer
Theory of Culture Circles
W. Schmidt
Indo-European Polytheism
Dumezil
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1870 Max Muller "Science of Religion"
Introduction to the Science of Religion (1873)
Greeks attempted to offer theories
Christians saw other religions as "wrong" and not worthy of serious study
1. By 1500ce due to world exploration there was a great deal of information or knowledge of other cultures; e.g.,
Confucian, Hindu, Buddhist
2. Christians fought one another: the truth of religion must lie beyond quarrels
DEISM- Natural Religion-simple belief-1 god:
Recover the original form ORIGINAL FAITH
Live by it in peace and harmony
RELIGION- without recourse to a supernatural or revelation
1870>1900 SCIENCE of RELIGION
1.
Possible to explain ALL of Religion
2.
Possible to explain through investigation of RELIGION - historical study
E.B. Tylor Science set against Religion
1. Theory of religion out of objective facts
- Evidentiary support
2.
- Final test of truth
Theory - comprehensive & General
Stimulates new inquiries, reformulate problems, promote a new understanding
THEORY OF ORIGINS: basic categories a.
Pre-historical b.
Psychological

c.
Social d.
Intellectual e.
Historical
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TENTATIVE LIMITED DEFINITION OF RELIGION
Beliefs and behavior associated with supernatural realm - divine
Spiritual ancestors society
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TYPES OF THEORY
A. Search for origins
Evolutionary theory vs.:
A.
Can't have scientific knowledge of earliest facts
B.
I. Reductionist: functional psychological-e.g. Obsession neurosis (sub conscious) social- group (totem) unites in own terms economic injustice-class struggle
II. Anti-Reductionist:
Eliade-RELIGION=archaic mode of thought function: need for order and significance
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B. RANGE OF THEORIES
Attempt to address RELIGION as a WHOLE
Evans-Pritchard and Geertz- focus of science of religion on the particular, as religion is always embedded within a culture
EVIDENCE AND THEORY
C. COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH
Tylor, Frazer, Eliade examine the widest range of religion
1.
2.
Dependence on second order information
Facts taken out of natural context in cultures that generate them
WESTERN
e.g., Freud, Marx
1. Must show how all religions arise out of Oedipal complex or class struggle, can't just
assume it
D. COMPROMISE
e.g., Durkheim, Evans-Pritchard, Geertz
1. Evidence won't allow for scientifically generalized claims
3.
Vs. whole idea of a general theory as applied to something so culturally bound can't develop a comprehensive theory
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THEORY AND BELIEF
SCIENCE vs. RELIGION

As scientific , theories of Religion appeal only to "natural causes"
Tylor & Frazer- anti-religious rationalists
Religion was suitable to people in relative ignorance
Freud-rejected religion-relic of age of ignorance
Durkheim-rejected religion as evil unhealthy
Marx-rejected religion as evil-opiate of the people
Eliade sympathetic to religion
Evans-Pritchard-sympathetic to religion
Geertz- agnostic
Opposes reductionism because it doesn't adequately explain religious phenomena
THEORIES PAST AND PRESENT
Freud- partial insight
Marx- partial insight
Durkheim-partial; insight re: religion and social element
Eliade- defense of archaic thought
???: can any general theory of religion continue to claim scientific attention universalist theories of religion tend to be fatally flawed superficial, speculative, unprovable vague, arbitrary, subjective
PARTICULARIST APPROACH
Future study of religion lies more in the humanities than science humanities are more appropriate
RELIGION- personal beliefs and behaviors that can only be plausibly explained because they have arisen from complex choices of human agents

CONCLUSIONS:
I. Theoretical inquiry serves as powerful incentive to further exploration and deeper understanding
II. Twentieth Century Approach and Theories
Many Contemporary theorists regard religion as an irreducible Phenomena
Are they Correct?
Is there something distinctively human that finds its expression only in religion?
Is the religious disposition to the world something that is in the human, together with reason,
aesthetics and will?
Is the mythological form of thought a structure of the human mind?
Is the human species homo religiosos ? Is receptivity to the transcendent part of what makes
the species what it is?
Do all peoples have the same religious or spiritual predispositions? If so, why?

B. RELIGION AND SCIENCE
I.Scientific Study of Religion de Vries, Jan, The Study of Religion ; New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1967
Durkheim, Emile, Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Evans-Pritchard, Theories of Primitive Religion ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Feuerbach, Ludwig, The Essence of Christianity
Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion ; Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Anchor
Books, 1964
Huchingson, James E, Religion and the Natural Sciences ; Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace
College Publishers, 1993
Otto, Rudolph, The Idea of the Holy ; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1950
Pals, Daniel L , Seven Theories of Religion ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996
Russell, Bertrand, Religion and Science ; London: Oxford University Press, 1961
Tremmel, William Calloley, Religion: What is it?
3rd ed; Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, Brace
College Publishers, 1997
II.Science and Religion
Crick, Francis, The Astonishing Hypothesis
Davies, Paul, The Mind of God ; New York: Touchstone, 1992
Davies, Paul, God and the New Physics ; New York: Touchstone, 1983
Davies, Paul & Gribbin, John, The Matter Myth ; New York: Simon & Shuster, 1992
Glynn, Patrick, GOD: The Evidence ; Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, ForumBooks, 1997
Penrose, Roger, Shadows of the Mind ; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994
Ross, Hugh, The Fingerprint of God
Tipler, Frank J, The Physics of Immortality, the Omega Point
Mike, Elemental Mind
Leon, The God Particle
Ward, Keith , Religion and Creation ; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996

III.Science
Barrow, John D & Tipler, Frank J, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle ; Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1988
Capra, Fritjof, The Tao of Physics ; New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1977
Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time ; New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1988
Horgan, John, The End of Science ; New York: Broadway Books, 1997
Hoyle, Fred , The Origin of the Universe and the Origin of Religion ; Wakefield, RI: Moyer
Bell, 1993
Zukav, Gary, The Dancing Wu Li Masters ; New York, NY: William Morrow and Company,
1979
Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, & Bach, An Eternal Golden Braid ; New York, NY: Basic Books,
1979
Wilkinson, Denys, Our Universes ; New York: Columbia University Press, 1991