ISSN 0794-3989
RELIGIONS
A JOURNAL OF THE NIGERIAN
ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF
RELIGIONS
VOL. 17, December, 2006.
THE RELEVANCE OF RELIGION IN
CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIFIC AND
TECHNOLOGICAL AGE: A NIGERIAN'S
PERSPECTIVE
BY
PIUS OYENIRAN ABIOJE
Introduction
As a developing country, science and technology are much
emphasized in Nigeria, and many Arts students are worried
about how much chance they have in the field of
employment. Not the least, many students of religion are
concerned about the relevance of their discipline in the country.
This concern has given birth to some pertinent worries upon
which the objective of this paper is based; we shall demonstrate the
relevance of religion in the scientific and Technological age. Based
on the objective of this paper, it is limited to the relevance of
religion in a scientific and technological age, without delving
into employment opportunities, which could form the subject of
another research. Of course, it is often said that two principal
areas of employment are outstanding for religion or
theological graduates
teaching and working as a clergy
person. But, like any university graduate, those who major in
religion can adapt and adopt by doing diploma or training
programs in any area of human endeavor, such as journalism,
mass communications, public administration, marketing, police,
military, air force, immigration, etc. It is the practice that graduates
who did not major in education can join the line by doing PGDE
(Post Graduate Diploma in Education), which lasts only one
academic year. In sum, any graduate can take up any employment
training or study, which can serve as a stepping stone to greater
heights.
This discourse unfolds under the sub-headings of: The
Origin of the Conflict between Religion and Science;
Scientists, Clergies, and their Individual Differences; The
Relevance of Science and Religion; and The Scientific
Significance of Lonergan's Method in Theology and then, a
Conclusion.
The Origin of the Conflict between Religion and Science
If this age is described as a scientific and technological
one, it can only mean that time was, when science and
technology did not or were not allowed to hold sway.
Historically, what happened was that the Roman Catholic
Church became dominant in the old Roman Empire, which
embraced most of Europe and several parts of the Middle East.
The domination was pervasive in the sense that the Church
mostly dictated what people should believe, and the social life
was also under the Church's control, in terms of marriage,
naming ceremony, and so on, including funeral activities.
Dissidents were disciplined and persecuted by the Church.
It would appear that the first recorded conflict between
the Church (not religion per se) and science was the
condemnation in 1616 and 1623, respectively, of the discovery
(through astronomical findings) of Copernicus and Galileo that the
universe was heliocentric. The Roman Catholic Inquisition
condemned Galileo to be set ablaze if he did not recant. Hence,
Alan Schreck notes that 'modern skeptics still refer to the
condemnation of Galileo to prove that the Catholic Church is
against science."1 In the opinion of a Catholic priest, Andrew
Greeley (1978,50), "there is no point trying to apologize for the
Galileo case, we were just wrong, that's all."2
Scientists, Clergies, and Their Individual Differences
Beyond the Catholic Church, as Tim Hawhorne notes,
"Darwin's theory of evolution upset many of the Christians of his
day and still generates controversy more than a century later."3
One would venture to say that the theory which suggests that
human beings originated from a monkey, an ape or chimpanzee
cannot but be opposed by any religious person who believes that
God created human beings in his own original and unique specie.
Yet, academically speaking, rather than generalizing the
conflict between science and religion, individual scientist and
his/her theory should be referred. As Hawthorne observes: The
sixteenth-century pioneers saw science as the study of
God's handiwork and, encouraged by Francis Bacon, as a
proper response to the biblical command to 'subdue the earth.'
For Kepler the heavens declared the glory of God and there
was no conflict between science and faith. Newton wrote
theological as well as scientific works. How strange then, that for
many people today, this v same science seems to leave no
room for God?4
The Last sentence of this quotation points to another
difficulty in understanding 'he conflict between science and
religion. Granting that some scientists may be atheists. But, is it
simply that “science seems to leave no room for God?". Or that
sometimes some scientific positions contradict the position of
some religious bodies? In one's perception, more often than not,
the latter seems to be the case.
As with science, so also with religion; there are
individual differences in orientation and attitude among clergy
men and women, as well as among religious scholars otherwise
called theologians. One could illustrate this with an experience
that Nigeria had in the year 2005. Close to the end of that year,
the nation suffered a number of tragic plane crashes resulting in
many loss of lives and property. Bunmi Ogundele reports how
Williams Kumuyi, a Doctor of Philosophy and Pastor, urged
the nation to look critically into the cause of the plane disasters
which may be due to technological negligence, while many
other Pastors were quoted as attributing the plane crashes to
nothing but evil spirits and diabolical forces which only prayers
could tackles. An example of the latter is a quotation in which
Lateef Ibrahim quoted Iheanacho Exeako, "a Prophet", who
claimed that "a national prayer would prevail on God to stop
the spirit beings form unleashing further sorrow and grief
through another air crash"6
The human world is thus characterized by different
perceptions, opinions, and approaches to issues, spiritually and
academically. But, there can be no doubt that some people will
always be much more objective than others, in whatever field of
life they may be. If one were permitted to judge, one would
think, for instance, that in the above examples, Kumuyi was as
good as saying: Heaven helps those who help themselves,
rather than attributing everything to God or spirits as many
other clergy men and women were quoted as saying.
As earlier noted, time was, when the Church mystified
knowledge, and dictatorially controlled human mind and life,
under the guise of being God's mouthpiece. As George Clark
notes: "In the sixteenth century the Churches, Catholic and
Protestant alike, believed that it was their duty to prevent or to
punish wrong beliefs in matters of faith and morals and
therefore they did not allow complete freedom of opinion."
With particular reference to the Catholic Church, the
Magisterium claims papal infallibility in matters of faith and
morals, and so the ecclesiastical hierarchy constitutes itself into a
form of dictatorship. It is widely held among Catholic
theologians, such as Andrew Greeley, that the Inquisition,
which is thought to have been jettisoned, subsists in "the
Congregation of the Holy Office," otherwise called
"Congregation of the Faith."8
The bottom line is that, as long as religious authorities
give no room to freedom of research and opinion, there may be no
end to the friction between religion and science. Many scholars,
such as Richard Tarnas, appear convinced that "the three distinct
and dialectically related forms of the Renaissance, the
Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution" have "collectively,
ended the cultural hegemony of the Catholic Church."* Peter
M. J. Hess also notes that "modern Western science has since 1850
come to be regarded more and more as normative, and even as
enjoying an epistemologically privileged position.""1 In the words
of Tarnas;
Science suddenly stood forth as mankind's
liberation empirical, appealing to common sense
and to a concrete reality that every person could
touch and weigh for himself. Verifiable facts
and theories tested and discussed among equals
replaced dogmatic revelation hierarchically
imposed by an institutional church. The search
for truth was now conducted on a basis of
international cooperation, in a spirit of disciplined
curiosity, with a willingness, even eagerness
to transcend previous limits of knowledge.
Offering a new possibility of epistemological
certainty and objective agreement, new
powers of experimental prediction, technical
invention, and control of nature, science
presented itself as the saving grace of the
modern mind'
In sum, rhetoric of authority, cultural assumptions and
erstwhile popular traditions are yielding to scientific
investigation as paradigm shifts. A good justification and
sanction are found in George Clark when he notes that: The
central reality is that the scientific movement was a
great illumination of the mind. Knowledge is good, and
ignorance is an evil. There is, of course, a great deal to be said
about the relation of knowledge to other values, not all
knowledge is equally good, and so on. But, whatever our scale
of values may be, it must give knowledge its due place, and it
must accord to natural science the full value which belongs to
knowledge as such.l2
It can be said comparatively speaking that scientists do
not usually threaten theologians physically, even when some of
their positions are opposed by some religious bodies. But,
there have been reports of assault visited on scientifically
minded persons for holding opinions that contradict Church
positions. With particular reference to the Catholic Church,
Greeley notes that "one need only think of the torment endured by
Teilhard de Chardin to realize how ugly and evil the old
censorship processes were."' 13
The word "old" is used to
describe "censorship processes" obviously not because there is no
more censorship, but because the ground appears better than it used
to be, since hunting down of heretics is less rigorous than hitherto.
The Relevance of Science and Religion
In many pre-Christian cultures world over, religion and
science are rarely conceived as incompatible. Ade P. Dopamu
notes that:
Africans uphold scientific method of
verification and also scientific truth,
but they equally uphold divine
providence as complementing their
scientific enquiry.
They are,
therefore, not far from the recent trend
in re-affirming that they both need one
another in humankind's struggle to
understand the universe.14
One can even venture to say that Africans have never
been known to oppose science to religion, since they see no
contradiction between their religion (African Religion) and
magic which is said to be the precursor of science. They tend to
view everything in life, including the magical art, as originating
form the Author of life (i.e God).
In this study, scientific view refers to inquisitive,
incisive and pragmatic approach to the study of nature and
human life. S. O. Oyewole observes that:
All the religions of. the world believe in the
existence of a supernatural being who is the
creator and sustainer of his created world. Awe
and wonders must have been part of the
elements on which religion developed as a
culture in human history… However, while
awe and wonder are expressions of the emotion,
they do not answer the questions what, why
and wherefore so as to understand the universe.15
As Oyewole further notes, science operates "by careful
observations, reasoning and propositions that are subjected to
empirical examination in order to make deductions and draw
conclusions which may not be final but could change if further
data make change necessary."16 This study is interested in the
aspects of "careful observations, reasoning and propositions" that
can illuminate human life in a Godly manner.
It should be noted that religion and science have been
together from creation. Confer the Book of Genesis which
relates how God created the sky, the earth and everything in
existence. All that a scientist does is study creation and its
operative laws which are applied to generate technological
achievements, such as vehicles, the airplane, the telephone, fan
electricity, computer, fax machine, printing machine, the world
wide web or what is generally referred to as the internet, the e-mail
etc. Writing in 1992, George Omaku Ehusani notes that:
Only a century ago there were no selfpowered engines, no airplanes, no
telephones, no electricity, no radio and
television, and no computers. With
the
invention in this century of the automobiles, the
mass transit systems, the jumbo-jets and the
space ships, the human being of today could
rightly claim to be the most mobile homo
sapiens that ever existed.'7
Much more vitally is the application of science and
technology to production of food, water, medicine and housing It
is equally vital to mention that science and technology have
contributed immensely to the management of human sexuality
in procreation and contraceptive devices, such as the pill and
condom, for the control of population, and prevention of
venereal diseases, the most mortal of which are HIV/AIDs.
Even though religious leaders may appear closer to God
than anyone else, it is obvious that scientists have discovered
things that amaze many clergy men and women. Hitherto one has
given the Copernicus-Galileo example, as the first persons to discover
that the sun, rather than the earth, is the centre of the universe, and
that the latter rather than the former rotates. For the year 2006,
scientists predicted in January that there was going to be a solar eclipse
on Wednesday, 29"1 March, 2006, between 9a.m and lOa.m, and it
happened as predicted. In a reaction, Taiye Odewale observes that:
Some doubting Thomases apparently
influenced by religious doctrines and perhaps
ignorance, said the so called scientists were
playing God by predicting the future. Instead of
some religionists seeing science as something
that is geared towards unraveling the works of
God, they should see it as special gift of
knowledge given to humanity by God for people
to understand and appreciate the wonders of
nature he put in place.18
This is not to say, that scientists are perfect and infallible; it does not
seem that any human being is sacrosanct or omniscient. In practical
terms, human life is endangered by some side effects of science and
technology. As Chris C. Park observes:
We spoil the earth every day and in a million
ways, such as.... Dumping toxic wastes on land
and sea, and polluting the skies with acid rain and
nuclear fallout. The checklist would be enormous,
and it would implicate just about every aspect of
so-called civilized living, which we tend to
take for granted.... Air pollution, mainly by
invisible gases, is produced mainly from
factories, houses, power stations and vehicle
exhausts."
Like science and technology, religion is neither perfect nor
impeccable in clergy men and women. In the Bible, leprosy is
associated with sin, but scientific discovery not only found the
cause in "mycobacterium leprae", but also the cure. Adaeze
Amos notes that: "The Bible records that Gehazi and his
generations had leprosy as a result of Gehazi's sin. According to
the biblical account, God cursed him and his skin became
leprous as a result of the curse." He quoted one Ladunni Bolaji, a
Doctor and the Medical Director, Gateway Hospital, Lagos, as
explaining that leprosy "is not a curse, it occurs when the
bacterium, mycobacterium leprae, invades the body, and it can be
treated using drugs."30 Thus, science can correct religion and vice
versa.
The fact that human beings need science as well as
religion is indicated in Genesis 1:28, where God asked
humanity to conquer and master the world. The psalmist in
Psalm 8:5-6 also proclaims that God has put everything He has
created under the feet of human control meaning that the whole
of creation is subjected to human authority. Scientists have
been helping human beings to master the earth as God has
ordained it. As human beings, they could err, they could make
mistakes and miscalculations, but they seem indispensable.
In the same vein, human beings appear to need
religious scholars, for the knowledge and the art to maintain the
right relationship with God, with neighbour, and with
environment. Without the right relationships, human beings
may break down psychologically and physically. The bedrock
of good relationship seems to be morality, which can control
abuse of one another, stem environmental degradation, and
eradicate misuse of science and technology. Hence a balanced
religion can be highly invaluable to emphasize good human
interaction in addition to human relationship with God, by
stressing such virtues as mercy, compassion, generosity,
honesty, justice, temperance and so on, in addition to faith. As it is
said: Amor omnia vincit love conquers all things.
The Scientific Significance of Lonergan's Method in
Theology
Hardly any Catholic theologian worthy of the name
today discusses method in theology, without mentioning
Bernard Lonergan. Yet, many theologians flagrantly, though
honestly, confess that, like the German Karl Rahner, the
Canadian Lonergan could be difficult to comprehend. An
example is Placher, who observes that "Lonergan writes in a style
of deceptive simplicity, but no one has ever thought of Karl
Rahner's prose as simple even for an instant." With reference to
Lonergan's contribution on method in theology. Placher
explains that earlier theology often defined "The truth" in terms of
a set of propositions compiled from Popes, councils, and great
theologians. "Lonergan argues that our modern awareness of
history makes us realize that we can never get 'the truth' once and
for all." As a result, Lonergan, according to William C. Placher
proposes that good theology is not necessarily that which gets
the "right answers", but that which follows the right method.21
In a chapter which he focuses on method in theology,
Neil Ormerod (1990,47), set the eight "functional specialities
('areas dominated by specific questions, concerns and
criteria')", recommended by Lonergan, in his Method in
Theology, as the criteria for judging the quality of contemporary
theological works. The eight functional specialities, as found in
Bernard Lonergan's book are, in a nutshell: research,
interpretation, history, dialectics, foundations, doctrines,
systematic, and communication.22 As Ormerod aptly notes,
these are supposed to be the guiding poles in a theological
work.
In sum, Lonergan opens theologization to the scientific
approach to knowledge. And that tends to remove prejudice and
sentiment from theology in modern parlance.
Surely, apologetics still holds sway, to a great extent, if
only for the reason of preserving the traditional teachings of the
Church.
But, because Lonergan has admirers, so to say,
theologiaperennis (theology as usual) can no longer be said to be
as pervasive as it used to be.
Contextual/systematic
theology has become the order of the day in many quarters, and
that is making the Lonergan's approach to be popular. Gustavo
Gutierrex, in an interview with Teofilo Cabestrero opined that:
We think that theology, a given theology, has
existed forever and that it is valid for all
times and places, but that is not so. For me,
theology is the consciousness that a
community or a Christian generation has
about its faith at a given moment.21
This expresses the dynamism of human life. At the same time,
it seems reasonable to hold that as long as the human crave for
objectivity subsists, the Lonergan Method in Theology will
remain relevant, if only because it is scientific in nature.
Conclusion
Going by the logic of the discovery of this research,
religion and science are not supposed to be antagonistic or
suspicious of each other, except that human beings can overstep
their bounds, and claim to know everything in science and
religion. But, where division of labour or areas of
specialization are recognized, there may be mutual respect, and
there may be no undue interference, such a witnessed in the
case of the Catholic Church vis-a-vis Copernicus and Galileo as
earlier noted. Religion, science and technology appear to be
indispensable in human life. It would seem that they have been
co-existing, and they will continue to co-exist. They could
learn a lot from one another if there is humility and openness of
mind. As human enterprises, religion, science, and technology
can correct one another without rancour or animosity, if
prejudice is a non-issue. One's conviction is that religious
people can relate better with scientists if Lonergan's Method in
Theology is strictly adhered to in attempts at taking positions on
issues.
Notes and References
1.
Alan Schreck, The Compact History of the Catholic
Church. Bombay: St. Paul's Pub. 1987. P. 89
2.
Andrew Greeley, Everything You wanted to know
About the Catholic Church but were too Pious to
Ask. Chicago; Illinois: The Thomas More Press,
1978 p.50
3.
Tim Hawthorne, Windows on Science and Faith.,
Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1986 p. 73
4.
Ibid; p. 10.
5.
Bunmi Ogundele, "Kumuyi: 2006 will Bring
Restoration to Nigeria", The Comet, Lagos,
December28,2006,p.6.
6.
Lateef Ibrahim, "Cleric: Pray Against Another
Plane Crash", in The Comet, Lagos, December 28,
2005, p.6
7.
George C lark, Early Modern Europe: From About
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
1420-1470. London: Oxford University Press,
1970.p.ll2.
Andrew Greeley, Everything You wanted to Know
About the Catholic Church but were too Pious to
Ask, p. 50
Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind:
Understanding the ideas that Have Shepherd Our
World View. New York: Harmony Books, 1991, P.
282.
Peter M. J. Hess, "Science and Technology: God's
Two Books: Revelation, Theology and Natural
Science in the Christian West," in P. Ade Dopamu
(ed.) et. al. African Culture, Modern Science and
Religious Thought, Ilorin: ACRS Publication,
2003, p. 267.
Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western
Mind: ............. p. 282.
George Clark, Early Modern Europe: From About
1420-1470$. 109.
Andrew Greeley, Everything You Wanted to Know
About the Catholic Church ..... p. 84
Ade P. Dopamu, "The History of the Challenging
Relationship Between Religion and Science"
Confluence of Religion and Science" Confluence of
Religions and Sciences Journal Vol. 1 2005, p.12
S. O. Oyewole, "Darwinism:
Science and
Religion in Conflict" Confluence of Religions and
Sciences Journal
Ibid; p. 15.
George Omaku Ehusam, An Afro-Christian Vision
"Ozorehe ": Toward a More Humanized World.
Iperu-Remo: The Ambassador Publications, 1992,
p. 5.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
Taiye Odewale, "Solar Eclipse: Between Science
and Religion", in The Herald on Sunday,
December28,2006. p.2.
Chris C. Park, Caring for Creation: A Christian Way
Forward. London: Marshall Pickering, 1992, pp.
2 Iff.
Adaeze Amos, "Early Symptoms of and Cure for
Leprosy". April 2,2006 Sunday Punch, p. 47.
William C. Placher, A History of Christian
Theology: An Introduction.
Philadelphia Pennsy
Irania: The West Minster Press, 1983,p.302.
Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology. London:
Darton, Longman and Todd, 1990, pp. 125-145.
Teofilo Cabestrero, Faith: Conversations with
Contemporary Theologians. New York: Orbis
Books, 1981. p. 97.