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SCIENCE AND
RELIGION
Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, PhD
Doha Fourth Conference for Religions
Dialogue
April 27, 2006
It is a great
privilege for me to be back in Doha. It is no mere formality
for me, but with a heart full of gratitude, that I begin by
thanking his highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani,
Emir of the State of Qatar. I am thrilled to be addressing
you once again on the subject of religion and science the
same week that a conference of Arab scientists is meeting in
this city at the invitation of the Sheika. Clearly, Qatar’s
leadership is visionary and I am honored to be a part of
this work. Eager as I am to turn to my talk, I would be
remiss if I did not take this opportunity to public ally
acknowledge Dr. Aisha Yousef Al-Manai for her remarkable and
even courageous chairing of these talks. May the God of
Abraham, Sarah and Hagar bless you all.
In the
rabbinical college where I teach, I offer a course to
rabbis-in-training on cutting edge developments in the
natural and social sciences. Despite the fact that religion
and science deal with seemingly separate realms, that of
meaning and value on the one hand and that of description
and fact on the other, the true realms actually bump up
against each other often, sometimes in conflictual ways and
sometimes in ways that are positive and synergistic. Some of
the conflicts between religion and science were highlighted
this year for those of us in America by a series of headline
catching events: debates over the use of human stem cells
for research, a court case in which religious people
challenged the teaching of Darwinian evolution in the public
schools, and a much contested end of life decision-making
case of a woman named Terri Schiavo.
Nevertheless, in the
short time I have today, I would like to share with you
three examples of science and religion interpenetrating in
fruitful ways. Each comes from work that is relatively new
and perhaps even unknown to you, but I hope you will agree
with me that these explorations at the boundary of science
and religion are both exciting and full of promise.
First, I want to speak
about the science of psychology. For many years, psychology
and religion have appeared to be at odds in their
understanding of human beings. In the days of Freudian
dominance, psychologists viewed religion as at best a naïve
illusion, wishful thinking for those not hardy enough to
accept life as it is, and at worst, a kind of mass
neurosis. When behaviorism dominated, the view of human
nature was equally uncongenial to a positive view of
religion. Cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary
psychology have not added to the esteem in which religion
was held by psychology.
In the last five years,
however, a new movement is emerging called “positive
psychology.” Its founder, Martin Seligman, decided that
rather than studying mental illness, he would set out to
study mental health. With the same care psychologists gave
to the study of mental disorders, Saligman began to study
the very ordinary state of happiness. To his own frank
surprise (he was a secular Jew), he came to the conclusion
that happiness had little to do with external circumstances.
(after the basic subsistanee level, more money does not make
one happier) and everything to do with…meaning. Of course
religious people were not surprised at all by this. When
Saligman received huge grants and began to invite
theologians in to talk with the psychologists, they were
only too happy to comply. These talks have just begun so
stay tuned for more!
Second, there is the area
of medicine. When I was growing up as a modern American Jew,
if you got sick, you called a doctor. If you died, you
called a rabbi to say prayers. Religion and medical science
were far apart indeed. Since then, however, Western medicine
(in a reverse of the usual flow of information in modernity)
has been learning from the East and becoming increasingly
holistic.
The area of complementary
and alternative medicine (everything from prayer to
meditation to massage to yoga to acupuncture) now accounts
for billions of out of pocket dollars Americans spend on
their health. For years, scientists have known about the
placebo effect, the fact that believing you are going to get
better is not irrelevant to actually getting better. But
only very recently has this been turned into a systematic
study by credentialed Western medical researchers to
understand the role of community, belief, prayer and
spirituality in the body’s ability to fight disease.
I am not speaking here of
the questionable studies that have tested (with varied
results) the idea that people recover better if being prayed
for by total strangers, even if they are not told about the
prayers. Many religious people have greeted those studies
the way I have, with a shrug. What kind of God would make
someone sick or well depending on which group in the
experiment he or she ended up in?
Rather, I am talking about
what the physician Jerome Groopman, a former skeptic
himself, calls the biology of hope. He says we don’t fully
understand the mechanisms by which our emotional and
spiritual well-being affects our physical health, but if
there are known physiological results of depression, there
ought to be a biology of hope as well. Needless to say,
religious people pray for reasons of faith, not because they
think it is a sure cure for what ails them. Still….when the
National Institutes of Health spends millions of dollars on
studies of religious community and prayer, we should take
notice, and stay in the conversation.
Finally, I want to talk
about “Sacred Foods.” Muslims and Jews both are familiar
with the notion that what we eat and how it is produced are
properly religious concerns. Both our traditions include
systems of ritual laws around food. Eating is an act that
can be made holy by attending to the moral implications.
A few decades ago, Rabbi
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi looked at the kosher laws of
Judaism and then at the most recent scientific knowledge
regarding nutrition, agriculture and sustainability. He
asked if perhaps, in addition to traditional the traditional
kosher laws, Jews could apply their religious values to
develop some new rules related to eating. As we speak, a
brand new interfaith movement is emerging around this idea
with Jews, Muslims and Christians together investigating how
they can bring their spiritual concerns along with
contemporary knowledge to choices around food and food
production.
The first conference bringing together religious leaders
with scientists and people from the food industry will take
place next month.
For me, the most exciting
part of this project is the interfaith dimension. Just as at
this conference, I see the power of people of faith coming
together as they attend to the healing of their own souls
and of the world. It is an exciting time to be a religious
person, in dialogue with science
and with our
brothers and sisters of other faiths.
Thank you for listening.
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