Are science and religion mutually exclusive?

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

Science and religion are two of the most important things that shape our lives. Whilst various religions practised across the world have given rise to differing cultures and conflicts at times, advances in science have improved living standards globally although affordability making that too inequitable, unfortunately. However, there are fundamental differences among religions, the most important being dogmatism.

Most religions are dogmatic as what is laid down by a higher authority, usually a supernatural through an intermediary has to be taken as incontrovertibly true. In contrast, dogmatism is the antithesis of science. In fact, many things I learned in the early sixties, as a medical student, are no longer true as science continues to change with new discoveries. Therefore, it is very easy to jump to the conclusion that science and religion are mutually exclusive but this is far from being true as the interaction between science and religion is much more complex.

It is not difficult to find instances where religion has stood in the way of scientific advancements. Nicolaus Copernicus’ made the earth-shattering discovery that we are not the centre of universe and formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at its centre. Copernicus is said to have risen from a stupor to have a glance at his book on heliocentrism, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543.

For having propagated this theory it was Galileo Galilei who earned the wrath of the Catholic Church. In 1633, he was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for “following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture” and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. He was forced to recant the theory but is said to have muttered the rebellious phrase “And yet it moves”! Whilst under house arrest, he dedicated his time to one of his finest works, Two New Sciences, wherein he summarised work he had done 40 years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials which earned him the plaudit “father of modern physics”. He is also referred to as ‘the father of observational astronomy’ because of his achievements including telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, observation of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, observation of Saturn’s rings, and analysis of lunar craters and sunspots.

It is also well known that Charles Darwin delayed the publication of his masterpiece, ‘The Origin of Species’ by 20 years, out of respect to his wife, as his theory went against her religious beliefs. It is argued in some quarters that he was compelled to publish it because Alfred Russel Wallace, who has come to the same conclusions by differing means, sought his opinion. This illustrates another interesting aspect of science that the same conclusions can be reached by differing methods which adds to the weight of the discovery.

On the other hand, there is a long list of clergymen who have contributed to science, one of the most significant being Gregor Mendel. He was a 19th century German-Czech biologist, meteorologist and mathematician, who was an Augustinian friar and is considered to be founder of the modern science of genetics, a science that is making vast strides today. It started with his experiments on pea plants which established many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance. One can argue that most of them, just like Mendel, took to the Holy Orders as they had access to education which they did not have to pay for, as well as access to libraries, which were not readily available in that era but it is unfair to underestimate their contribution to the progress of science.

Two lunar months after Enlightenment, on Esala full moon day in the Deer Park at Sarnath. Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Dhamma Sutta). The main topic of this sutta is the Four Noble Truths, which is a formulaic expression of the fundamental concepts. This methodology we apply in science even to this day. This sutta also refers to the concept of the Middle Way, a way we find is the best in most aspects of life.

It also refers to impermanence which scientists today refer to as dynamic flux. Finally, it lays down the concept of dependent origination, a concept that has not been surpassed. Based on this Sutta, Emperor Ashoka devised the Dhammacakka (Wheel of Dhamma) which adorns the national flag of India though India has largely given up on the Dhamma of its greatest son, Brahmins making sure that the Buddha was submerged as the ninth avatar of Vishnu.

The Buddha’s contribution to science does not stop there. In Kalama Sutta, he laid the foundation for scientific thinking. His analysis of the mind and consciousness has not been surpassed by even modern science. He emphasised that everything depends on individual perception and showed that what we see, hear, smell, taste or feel is modified by our mind and identified the mind as the sixth sense though science recognises only five senses.

According to Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism there are eight kinds of discernment: (1) sight-consciousness, (2) hearing-consciousness, (3) smell-consciousness, (4) taste-consciousness, (5) touch-consciousness, (6) mind-consciousness, (7) Mano-consciousness, and (8) Alaya-consciousness. Alaya-vinnana (storehouse consciousness) refers to a level of subliminal mental processes that occur uninterruptedly throughout one’s life and may continue in to multiple lifetimes and scientists identify this as the sub-conscious. Perhaps, it is based on this and the Hindu concept of universal consciousness that Carl Jung formulated his theory of ‘The Collective Unconscious’.

In fact, there being so much similarities to the teachings of the Buddha and the postulates of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, one wonders whether their source of inspiration is Buddhism though they fail to acknowledge. It is not surprising when one considers what has happened with Mindfulness, a concept introduced by the Buddha, who showed that though one can attain higher mental states with Samatha or Concentration meditation that total detachment can be achieved only through Vipassana or Mindfulness meditation. Today, mindfulness is big business and the Buddha is rarely given the credit for it!

Although mostly a philosophy and a way life, as structures built around the Dhamma have features of a religion, we are forced to continue to class Buddhism as a religion. It is a religion that has contributed immensely to science and I can find no aspect of Buddhism that has been challenged by science.