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Susan
Thomas, Ph.D., of Mauldin, SC, asks:
I very much appreciate the emphasis of the Templeton Award and the
creativity of your work, Professor Barbour, but I wonder about the narrowness
of a science/religion focus. Would we not learn much more and have more
potential for achieving reconciliation of a meaningful sort if other
forms of knowledge and ways of knowing were also included in your work
and the work of the Center of Theology and Natural Sciences, e.g., history
to better help us understand the context and ebb and flow of knowledge
systems; political science to help us better understand power struggles
among dominant and rising groups; geography and anthropology to help
us better understand the evolution and instances of diversity; economics
to help us better understand the process of ascendancy in human affairs;
etc.? Thanks for your consideration of what would be involved in moving
beyond this bipolar and more or less conflict determinative structure
that abstracts two human knowledge bases from a more or less holistic
world of knowledge systems.
Prof.
Barbour responds:
Particularly in looking at ethical issues in the applications of science
we need to draw from all of the disciplines you mention. In policy decisions
concerning new technologies, from nuclear power to genetic engineering,
we must examine the environmental, social, and economic impacts of new
discoveries. Science can tell us what is possible but not what we should
do. We must not expect religious traditions to provide easy answer to
unprecedented and complex decisions, but rather to suggest fundamental
values, such as human dignity, social justice, and the preservation
of the created order, which we can bring to the public debate on policies
and priorities. Even the discoveries of "pure" or fundamental
science should indeed be viewed in an interdisciplinary context that
includes many disciplines beyond science and religion. History and philosophy
are particularly important. We must draw from the social sciences (including
anthropology) in any discussion of human nature. But in my writing I
give particular attention to religion and the natural sciences, partly
because these are the two fields with which I am most familiar, and
partly because I believe that these are the two most powerful influences
on human life and the most crucial as we enter the new millenium.
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