Some quiet on faith and reason

In the long and glorious struggle to make sense of human life, two camps emerged in recent decades in sharp if misleading opposition.

The materialists, as we may call them, herald science as the source of all answers. And indeed science can tell us the facts of life.

The other camp, religious believers -- well, we don't hear much from them in this battle. They turn to their religion for the truths of life, but have faltered in their confidence and now hesitate to announce their creeds publicly.

One reason is discretion and courtesy. Many of us agree that society functions well if we're not pressing our religion upon our neighbors. But the other reason for our reticence has been embarrassment. We of faith don't want to appear old-fashioned, as if we refuse to accept the latest findings of the men and women in white lab coats. 

As a result, we often refrain from even admitting out loud that we believe, never mind what we believe and how it bears on the public issues of the day. 

In this void, then, scientific findings acquire an authority unmoored to any philosophy of life. If scientists can do something, then they and the public automatically think it should be done. Cloning, embryonic stem cell research, screening and abortion of fetuses based on sex or other characteristics, performance-enhancing drugs, chemically-induced tranquility -- all are can-do's that become must-do's.

The worship of materialist explanations, the heresy of scientism, can also distort research. Studies of the genetic and chemical factors in substance abuse, for instance, often eclipse attention to the very human process by which a person becomes addicted and, hopefully, recovers.

At research conferences in this field, one can easily get the impression that the professionals are treating brains rather than people. Meanwhile, counselors and ex-addicts retreat into their support groups, knowing that people recover by changing their beliefs and behavior.

The same lopsided discussion has marred other fields. Social scientists in sociology, anthropology and psychology strain so hard to be empirical or quantitative that they often overlook the human side of their human subjects. Meanwhile, those who seek and offer other explanations for human behavior, be they religious or secular humanist, remain quiet.

Detente may be upon us. Science has not delivered on all the promises of just a decade or two ago. As David Brooks recently wrote in the New York Times, "This age of tremendous scientific achievement has underlined an ancient philosophic truth -- there are severe limits to what we know and can know."

Which is not to say that now it's religion's turn. Perhaps today partisans of both camps can operate and proclaim with humility and honesty their findings and beliefs.

The Catholic Church has long insisted that faith and reason support one another and that each be studied to the ends of truth. Now we should feel able to state our beliefs along with the facts of science.

(07/31/08) [[In-content Ad]]