Science V Religion

One of the perennial questions is the relationship between spirituality and religion. I’d like to look more deeply at this issue in the future and for today to offer a very interesting video. It isn’t really looking at  spirituality and religion, but religion and science, which is today the third force that merits a inclusion in this discussion.

The talk is by  Philosopher Dan Dennett who in it calls for religion – all religion – to be taught in schools, so we can understand their nature as a natural phenomenon. Then he takes on The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution. Dennett argues that human consciousness and free will are the result of physical processes and are not what we traditionally think they are. His 2003 book Freedom Evolves explores the way our brains have evolved to give us – and only us – the kind of freedom that matters, while 2006’s Breaking the Spell examines religious belief through the lens of biology.

I have to say, somewhat prefacing future writing on the subject that I do agree with the idea of teaching all children about the religions of the world. I’m not sure about limiting the teaching to the ‘facts’ about them as in the talk Dennet doesn’t defined exactly how these would be defined. When we look at the world today and then turn our gaze back through history, it is appalling how much blood has been spilled and horrors inflicted in conflicts between religions. Understanding others religion would I believe go a long way to prevent the demonizing that makes this possible.

I hope you enjoy the talk, let me know what you think.

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