The Exhilarating Connection Between Science & Religion
Presented by Carl Bajema, PhD, Retired Professor of Biological Sciences, Grand Valley State University
About the Speaker
Recently retired from Grand Valley State University, Dr. Bajema taught evolutionary biology for more than 40 years. He has conducted scientific research involving the measurement of the direction and intensity of selection in human populations. Professor Bajema also has been very active as a science educator helping students, teachers and others gain a better scientific understanding of the natural processes involved in evolution.
About the Event
Announcements
Meeting for Sept., 9, 1998 (#31).
Other items: a newspaper (GR Press) article on Hastings Christian radio
personality and Promise Keeper who was convicted of being a pediaphile
was brought in.
We mentioned LAnette Grate’s excellent guest comentary in the GR Press
regarding the Promise Keepers and their agenda (as well as reaction from
writers to the Public Pulse section of the paper). One excerpt from
Grate’s article: “Truth cannot be appropriated by one gender, race
class, or religion. Promise Keepers is an attempt by well-meaning but
misguided men to justify control of males over females. They give
themselves permission to dominate by assuring women they will do it
‘nicely,’ with God’s blessing and the woman’s best interest at heart.”
Also mentioned was “Farewell To God”- an article in the Winter ‘97/ ‘98
FreeInquiry magazine by Charles Templeton who was regarded as “the Billy
Graham of Canada” and wrote of his break with the church and religion
and becoming a humanist.
The Bill of Right For Unbelievers was passed around to be read and
signed by any interested. This was drafted by the Campus Freethought
Alliance but has expanded beyond college campuses to include any who
wish to be allied with this potentially historic document.
John O. (FAOWM member) is organizing the Freethought Association as an
official student group on the GVSU camps with member Carl B. acting as
faculty advisor to the group.
A member directory is available. For a copy or to update see Jeff S. or
drop us a line.
Our next meeting’s topic will be Separation of Church & State, moderated
by Tim V. Future topic ideas are always welcome! Let us know via the
suggestion box or e-mail.
Check out our website’s “related links” to view articles on the History
of Freethought in the U.S. and Albert Einstein—Becoming a Freethinker
and Scientist.
Next meeting is the UICA on September 23rd, '98 7PM. Hope to see you
there!
>From E.O. Wilson’s book Consilience: “Behavioral scientists from a
different world would notice immediately the semiotic resemblence between
animal submissive behavior on the one hand and human obeisance to
religious and civil authority on the other. They would point out that
the most elaborate rites of obeisace are directed at the gods, the
hyperdominant if invisible members of the human group. And they would
conclude, correctly, that in baseline social behavior, not just anatomy,
Homo sapiens has only recently diverged in evolution from a nonhuman
primate stock.”
“Still a non-prophet organization”
Presentation
We thank Carl Bajema, professor of biology @ GVSU for presenting to us
his review of the book Skeptics & True Believers; The Exhilarating
Connection Between Science & Religion (‘98, Walker, NY, 288pp $23.) by
Chet Raymo. Raymo’s thesis is that religion “should embrace the reliable
knowledge that science provides, while @ the same time science should
respect and nourish humankind’s need for spiritual sustenance.” (from
the book jacket.)
Dr. bajema was unable to discern an “exhilarating connection” between
the scientific approach & the revelations of religion. Raymo
acknowledges the “ever-widening fault-line” between the two approaches.
The idea of awe as a unifying theme between the two was discussed. Also
the paucity of “warm & fuzzy” concepts in scientific findings was
mentioned:
i.e—no evidence of a personal, caring, omnipotent Father figure
concerned with us and having prepared a place of eternal bliss for us
after earthly death; our place in the universe having shifted from the
geocentric center to a heliocentric one in a remote and insignificant
corner of one galaxy among billions, and rather than being a special and
planned creation, we seem to have arisen via natural & sexual selection
from blind chemical processes during bilions of years of evolutionary
descent with an apparent purpose of making copies of our genes and
without evidence of any “ghost in the machine.” Religion (by contrast)
offers an untested, scientifically invalid but very comforting story of
us as loved, planned and special creation, destined to live forever in
endless happiness with our Creator.
We talked of how true believers look for explanations from “out there”
in supernatural or even extraterrestrial phenomena whereas the
scientist deals with the natural world where even mathematical theories
of causal agents not as yet observable are still related to and give
plausible explanations of natural, observable effects and phenomena. The
theist’s proffering: “God did it by unknown/inscrutable means” offers no
true explanation nor any means by which to test or explore this
declaration, or increase our understanding of the natural world.
With the ideas of unification of knowledge and huan experiences as a
topic, sociobiologist, E.O. Wilson and his recent book Consilience was
brought up. also we talked of what constituted a religious experience
and whatever correlations there may be with the sense of reverence and
awe one feels in rationally understood experiences that are nonetheless
so feeling-fraught as to be difficult to frame in words.
We spoke of the theory of genetic predispostion toward mythic
storytelling/ religious sentiment, Richard Dawkins’ concepts of “memes”
and “virsus of the mind” and concepts of coevolution, sexual selection
and display, covered especially well in The Red Queen by Matt Ridley.
Dawkins will have a new book out soon called Unweaving the Rainbow. Look
for it!
We talked about the compartmentalization done byscientsts/ rationalits
affiliated with religious faith but who wear a different hat in other
aspects of their life and work.
The “hallowing of the everyday” idea was thought by many of us to be a
good summation of feeling that can be undertaken/ experienced equally by
theists and non-theists alkie.
We ended by speaking of competition, capitalism/ socialism, our constant
assessing of one another, display of wealth, health, status symbols,
patterns of selection, infanticide, “the selfish gene” and so on.
