Religion - Physical Science Or Hermeneutic Science?

The question of how does the different world religions view science can be interpreted in so many different ways. Not only that- it is not also clear exactly what is meant by science.

The different philosophers of science do not seem to be able to tell us in very clear cut terms what is science and what is not. New conceptions of science are continuously emerging particularly in the area of social sciences.

All these because the methodology in the physical sciences are seen to be inappropriate for the study of human behaviour which is so essential for education, psychiatry, industrial management, political science and so forth. Behaviorism, for example, is declining with the behaviorists themselves becoming more and more interested in the so-called 'spiritual' phenomena, particularly in the meditative prac-tices and how they shape human behaviour and the cognitive processes.

What I want to mention here is that while no religion can be happy with the notion of science that is physicalistic or positivistic in nature, they can be happy with what I have called Hermeneutic Sciences, sciences that have forged their methodological principles from the notion of literary Hermeneutics- the science of interpreting a text and understanding it correctly, accurately and truly.

Here we have a notion of TRUTH that is quite distinct from the notion of scientific facts and which allows "scientific" approaches to its study. This simultaneously means however giving up the dogmatic stance that is no characteristic of practically all religions in the world.

TRUTH, even of the revealed kind can be and should be investigated. Unless investigations as such are allowed, the religions cannot free themselves of dogmatism and as such have to clash not only with the sciences but also with the human needs for rational understanding.

If this state of affairs continues, the grip of religion over man will decline, and the religions will be dead as we can see it happening in the Western World today.

Loganathan Krishnan @ Ullaganar