Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Faced with the powerful forces that evoke awe and terror, in a world where life lives on death and both abundance and disaster are always possible, all human groups must learn to know and adapt to these forces. This paper will draw on findings in sciences ranging from neurobiology to paleoanthropology to examine how meeting the challenge of such forces would lead to religion, science, and philosophy, each of which explores these forces with a different habit of thought: With religion, people use myth and ritual; with science, they study the natural world; and with philosophy, they discuss the human dimensions of meeting these forces. In pre-literate societies, these three habits of mind are braided together in religion. As late as Babylonia, priests invented and practiced astronomy, and Ancient Egyptians expressed a sophisticated philosophy of justice embodied in the goddess Ma’at. By the Axial Age, however, as writing became a cultural tool, these three habits of mind began to diverge, especially in science and philosophy that would develop in Greece, India and China. This paper will conclude by discussing how Modernity has separated these habits of mind, but also examine how current sciences such as quantum physics are reintegrating them.