Kurtz on science and religion - Letters to the Editor

As a longtime reader of SI, I have to rank Paul Kurtz's article on religion and science (March/April 2002) as one of the best. The one area he might have added to his discussion concerns the evil done in the name of religion. Many critics cite this as one of the main reasons for rejecting religion. However, in the spirit of Kurtz's separation of issues, it would appear that religious zealotry is nor essentially different from all its other flavors--political, racial, ethnic, and so on. For those willing to become violent about their beliefs, any they have will do.

His clear articulation of what is essential about religion has changed my attitude. In writing a book that explores the implications of taking control of our own evolution, including the possibility of de facto immortality, one of my dilemmas has been how to convince readers that religious fairy tales about the hereafter can and should be replaced with far more defensible and optimistic scenarios based on a scientific understanding of our universe.

Kurtz's article shows how to replace condescension with empathy for those who cherish their faith. My challenge is the same: to connect "scientific naturalism" with hope, promise, and expectation "in the light of the tragic character of the human condition."

Paul Bassett

Barrie, Ontario, Canada

Paul Kurtz's excellent overview of science and religion considered whether "scientific naturalism could provide an alternative dramatic, poetic rendering of the human condition." That might suggest an eventual naturalistic religion even with formal church structure.

A format for that drama and poetry may have been foretold in the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Those accompanying chords of Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" generated mystery with a suggestion of spirituality. That sense was amplified via the paranorama of primitive humans grazing with the animals. Here was revelation in a real-world setting. It could be prelude to a factual "Greatest Story Ever Told," never really addressed in that context. It should represent the story line, in a naturalistic Biblical epic. ...

The story of course needs an initial Genesis, and ours would be cosmological and geological, in contrast to 3000 B.C. mythology. Once again, the most inspired cinema of the twentieth century previewed this concept. The first embryonic stirring of this vision occurred for me when viewing the evolutionary sequence in Disney's Fantasia. A volcanic punctuated landscape, booming in concert with Stravinski's powerful "Rite of Spring," actually generated religious oaths from audience in my vicinity.

In some near-future holographic planetarium setting, one might commence this Genesis with the fiery birth of the Sun, rotating jets with light-year dimensions.

Almost every religion offers immortality as prime enticement. But how long can a virtual immortality persist? Beyond the last syllable of recorded time, as the expanding universe blips into eternal darkness, there is not much point in being there. The trillions of years probably remaining are eternity enough. One can visually experience it and even the beginning, via state-of-the-art visual representations, along with lectures by professional cosmologists. Living vicariously the entire life span of this universe, dramatized via inspired musical accompaniment, should satiate the need for an impossible, eternal immortality.

But within all these spiritual embraces of an overwhelming universe, how can this format address the need for inclusive morality? The Old Testament evokes sacred laws which are nothing more than secular laws given supernatural sanction. The law of the land today is secular law, which supercedes religious law. However, our most basic secular laws address everyday behavior, and should be massaged in church services, perhaps in a pantomime mode, monitored by experienced judges. Empathy, as a formal discipline, tailored with psychology should also be included. The philosophical basics of morality and ethics could be addressed via a Steve Allen approach. In addition to costumed greats from the past, selected members of the congregation would join the debate.

Religions have included symbolic heroes like Buddha, Moses, and Christ. The true creators of civilization should be celebrated in this church; the pioneering Greek philosopher-scientists, DaVinci, Voltaire, Franklin, Newton, Darwin, Einstein. Their incredible and documented achievements were actually more miraculous than the contrived myths of classical religions.

B.D. Gildenberg

Tularosa, New Mexico

Paul Kurtz's article posits that while "the descriptive and explanatory functions of language are within the domain of science; the prescriptive and normative are the function of ethics,...the domain of the religious...is evocative, expressive, emotive." It seems to me, however, that this is the area that is well served by literature and the performing and fine arts.

The Bible, the Koran, and similar works should be considered on an equal footing with the works of Shakespeare, Asimov, Roddenberry, ... ad infinitum. Equal in the sense of a right to be heard, not necessarily equal in truth value.