The Old Story of Science and Religion

Recently I was reconnected with a friend from college who asked me how I wound up majoring in physics and philosophy, given that they’re two radically different ways of understanding our physical and mental universes.  I thought readers might be interested in my response:

I chose that pair because I liked them both, and, like you said, I appreciated that they are two different ways of examining the world and our role in it.  But the interesting part to me came years later when I realized they are much more closely linked than I had thought when I was young.  Here are a few examples:

Quantum mechanics tells us that the observer and the observed are not two distinct things (i.e., that the act of observation changes the thing we’re observing)–and then goes on to explain exactly how and why this is the case.  This flies in the teeth of every school of Western philosophy ever devised, as far as I’m aware, though it is in keeping with Eastern religion/philosophy.

Lots of different philosophers (most notably Kant) have wrestled with the nature of space and time and the way we humans perceive them.  Then along comes Einstein who explains to us that space and time are relative—that they warp depending on the motion of the observer. On top of that, here come the modern-day neurologists, who have a FAR more compelling explanation of our apprehension of all this vis-à-vis brain chemistry. 

As our science gets more advanced, it becomes increasingly clear that most of the questions that previously lay in the domain of philosophy will be resolved by an understanding of neurology and brain chemistry.  What is consciousness?  What is the nature of our “soul”—if we have one at all?

My money’s on the scientists to bust this wide open at a certain point. 

Needless to say, the results will be profound.  Obviously, we have a continuation of the trend in which science/reason is in the process of overwhelming faith/belief.  But there are some extremely specific examples.  For instance, look at what’s already happened to monotheistic religion at the hands of the molecular biologists at one end and the paleontologists on the other. It hasn’t been a good last 100 years for the people who believe that the Earth is 6000 years old, or that Noah put two of every species on his ark. 

As deeply affected will be criminal justice.  What’s the justification for punishing people whose brains force them to act in certain destructive ways?  What will the world be like when criminals can be “rehabilitated” with an injection or a pill? 

The list goes on…..