I am excited to talk about science and religion, and our questioning faith!” The political upheaval of the past two weeks has made this sermon harder to write. The flurry of Executive Orders and actions have grabbed my attention. Some of them break the law. Many harm and show disregard for constitutional separation of the branches of government. As a minister, my respect for UU tradition calls me to respond to these attacks on our form of democracy.
If you have read the book or seen the movie “Shock doctrine,” you are familiar with the manipulative and exploitive strategy called “disaster capitalism.” Those with the most capital respond and even plan disaster as opportunities for gobbling up more of the population’s wealth. If you have read or heard Steve Bannon, you are familiar with the “flood the zone” strategy. When the public is in shock, panicked, incensed, or otherwise in reactive mode it is a field day for those with well thought out plans no matter how unethical their plans might be.
Did any want to scream for a reality check lately! It seems that our reality checks have bounced! What is going on?
I came across some advice that seemed to fit this week:
“Don’t argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level. There they will beat you with experience.”
I actually don’t suggest arguing with anyone. And I certainly don’t wish to encourage the practice of abusive name calling. That kind of politics is how we got where we are today. When I attempt to translate “idiot” with empathy, I guess it’s an expression of frustration. I imagine people are longing for intelligence, critical thinking, accountability, shared understanding grounded in verifiable facts and truths.
Grounding in verifiable facts, that is my segue to today’s reflection on the scientific method and our questioning faith. However, I’m not done commenting upon recent chaos and upheavals, anger, fear, panic, reactiveness and the need for spiritual grounding.
If we consider “Satan” not as a mythological supernatural creature but rather as a force or natural challenge that diverts us from what is true, this force is characterized by deception. This force exploits weakness and reactive tendencies. It promises immediate fulfillment of base desires. All of these have been in operation in a well thought out and orchestrated campaign of propaganda.
To reflect on propaganda, I’ve chosen four quotes from Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda:
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
“If you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it.”
“There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be “the man in the street.” Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.”
“Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.”
Propaganda keeps people from seeing and acting upon reliably truthful information. It enables exploitation and profit from destruction of natural ecosystems possible.
To take a different direction, I will ask questions. What would enable people to cooperate so that we could solve our common problems? What would it take for society to be able to harness human intelligence to create conditions where we thrive in abundance, beauty and joy?
Many people place their faith in science and technology to provide deliverance. History demonstrates that each technological breakthrough has led to increased levels of human thriving but also to greater destruction, domination, exploitation and suffering.
Throughout history many people have insisted that their religion would correct the failings of humans and society. Religion can advance social good. Through history it has also perpetrated war, hatred, greed, fear, domination, callousness to suffering inflicted on those in the out groups, ignorance of interdependence, and blocks to liberation.
Perhaps what is needed is a symbiotic relationship between science and religion. Perhaps there could be a reconciliation of differences, an expansion outside the silos in which each operates. Perhaps each discipline could help the other realize and overcome its shortcomings. Imagine the possibilities for creativity and human advancement that could occur with dialogue, discussion and cooperation between science and religion. Let’s look at some of the similarities and differences between these two.
Scientists try to produce more and more accurate explanations of how nature works. Science seeks to determine the components of natural systems. It makes observations and tries to figure out what led something to be the way it is?” Science is an attempt to gain knowledge and understanding. It creates models and makes predictions. Predictions are tested. It leads to the development of tools capable of making more precise measurements. New evidence demonstrates flaws in previous theories. Science is used to solve problems or develop technology. For example, research on the Corona Virus led to vaccines that saved millions of lives.
The purpose of religion is debatable. Critics say that religion’s aim is social control. What we call a religion might be better thought of as a culture. It’s a way of life with a set of values, mores, rituals and traditions that get passed from one generation to the next.
Both religion and science provide a way to understand and make sense of the great mysteries of existence. Both aim toward explanation and understanding. Science goes the route of what can be observed. Religion provides understanding through oral tradition, sacred literature, story and ritual.
Conservative and liberal religion approach these very differently. Religious conservatives or fundamentalists claim their scripture as the perfect and literal word of G*d. Failure to adhere is seen as a sin, rejection of G*d’s perfect revelation of truth.
Liberal religion attributes scripture to human authors. Religious liberals will that G*d, truth and wisdom can be found in other traditions. Religious liberals tend to view holy books as poetry or sacred story rather than historical record. We use historical scholarship and literary criticism to provide context that enables more wisdom to be drawn from scripture.
Through measurement of the observable world, science reveals ever greater truth. Religion reveals truth and wisdom through story, poetry and direct experience of the transcendent. Liberal religion adjusts when science and other forms of scholarship discover errors, biases, or flaws in scripture.
Science has shaped how we do religion. It provides us with inspiration to practice our covenants that are the basis and structure of our religion.
Our tradition encourages us to a free and responsible search for continued revelation. Scientists gather data, and when new evidence dictates, they correct and modify theories and knowledge.
Our living tradition changes with new information too. We appreciate doubt, independent and critical thought as protections against superstition, idolatry and propaganda. Above the sink of the kitchen sink at my seminary read a sign “you are responsible for your own theology and your own dishes.”
Y’all already knew that we encourage questions here. This is part of our religious process. This evident to me when I studied at a consortium of seminaries called the graduate Theological Union. Professors told us that they loved having us in class because UU seminarians asked more and better questions than other students.
I implore you to use the freedom of our tradition. Question. Doubt, Wrestle, hypothesize, research, experiment. Examine how past trauma blocks you from really engaging with religious questions. Get free to do your own investigation! Okay, so you don’t believe in original sin, and you don’t believe in yaddah, yaddah. Good for you, but what do you believe in? What commands your loyalty? Have you cultivated a sense of sacred and holy? How do you carry it with you?
This might be where spirituality and liberal religion grants access to frontiers science is just beginning to enter. Science measures observations of the natural world. Much religion, especially ancient religion was concerned with a god said to live in the sky. Judaism and Christianity promoted a worldview based on a belief that G*d had given humans dominion over the Earth. The dualistic nature of this view saw spirit and ideas as superior to Earth and bodies.
The Enlightenment reflected the ascension of science to a place, in some ways above religion. Fundamentalism arose as a reaction to the triumph of the secular. Newtonian Mechanics became the center of the dominant worldview. There grew a reductionist materialism that has assumed everything could be understood by breaking it down into its parts. There arose in popularity an assumption that chemistry and biology could explain all human emotion, perceptions and behavior.
It was a new sort of fundamentalism where science, observation and measurements of matter is held to be the provider of all truth. This reductive materialism extended itself into our UU culture. Many people’s attitude was that if science didn’t speak it, it was woo woo garbage. People rejected insights and wisdom known in cultures for millenniums. This was a repetition or continuation of the way Europeans had dismissed Indigenous spirituality. It denies all ways of knowing except science and reason.
After Einstein’s relativity and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, worldview and paradigms began to shift. New evidence demonstrated the essential role emotion played in learning. This elevated emotion and other factors helped society begin to leave disembodied intellectualism. The last few decades have seen a slow turning to the wisdom of our bodies. There slowly grew recognition of the validity of other ways of knowing beside reason. Chaos theory, quantum physics and the butterfly effect have shifted views to more acceptance of the limitations of human knowledge.
Science began to venture into realms of consciousness, near death experiences, the effects of prayer and meditation.
I see our UU tradition as well suited for integrating these changes. At the heart of our liberalism is the lack of a claim to anything like perfect truth. Our religious life is steeped in the embrace of not knowing!
I would have imagined that we could elevate the question mark to become our primary religious symbol. In old scary movies, the hero holds out a cross and the vampire or demon loses its power. Well image a massive assembly of UU citizens holding out the question mark! Imagine the battery of questions we could ask that would expose the deceit and fraud used to divide the nation and cover the theft as billionaire oligarchs are permitted to control natural and social resources.
It seems likely there will be more fraud, rape and pillage ahead, hardship indeed. If we hold the question mark close to our heart, that could help us thrive in this era.
In a very real way, things outside us like history unfolding present real hardship. In another sense, the hardest things come from inside of us. Curiosity and the willingness to ask ourselves questions could help us face whatever arises. We might want to learn how to do appreciative self-inquiry. Hunger for the truth inside us can be our liberating force!
Our tradition encourages us to challenge all that stands in the way of human liberation. This includes personal issues as well as social issues. We can ask ourselves: what can I do next to step into the truth of my power?
Questions have the power to blow our minds. That’s a technical religious term. Eastern religion knows about mind blowing. You’ve heard of mantras. Mantra comes from two words extricate and mind. You say that phrase over and over because it will help you escape the prison of your mind.
Ours is the wisdom of not knowing. Having a worldview, a belief system is like having a map. Insight or revelation happens when we realize the territory is greater than our map. When we see that existence is different from how we have been imagining it, that’s enlightenment. When we realize that our conception of the world is flawed, we can celebrate.
Acceptance of not knowing and desire for learning helped me through the hardship that came with massive injuries from a 2017 truck collision. I didn’t know which abilities I could recover, and more importantly I wondered what my life would mean. Decades as a UU helped me to lean into my love of learning. I realized the possibility that this hardship could teach me something important, and I didn’t want to miss it. Regarding recovery from my numerous injuries, I knew that no one knew what was possible for me. I decided “let’s find out.”
What is possible for you? For this church? For this nation? For humanity? Let’s find out.
Recent Comments