Vladimir Katasonov
Science and Religion: New Methodological Opportunities
Vladimir Katasonov - Chair Professor of Philosophy, St. Cyril and Methodius Post-Graduate Institute of the Russian Orthodox Church; Professor at the Orthodox St. Tikhon's University of Humanities (Moscow, Russia). vladimir15k@mail.ru
The paper deals with logical and historical relations of science and religion. Science is dualistic: it seeks to learn the world and to dominate over it. Christianity sees the world, before all, as a display of the Divine; but faith is not just contemplation but also the way of salvation. Science is a sequence of falsified and verified theories. In religion, the knowledge of God is given in revelation, but refracted through a tradition, hence the importance of interpretation. Truth in science is a consensus of a competent community; truth in religion is also the consent with Church's dogmas but it is also ontological, a participation in God's life, a theosis. Religion and sciences have been in a constant interaction in history. The paper offers a positive strategy in dealing with these interactions - the so called "Leibnitz methodology" exploring metaphysical preconditions of scientific knowledge and finally producing a horizon for a certain natural religion.
Keywords: science and religion, science and metaphysics, problem of truth in science and religion, religious roots of science, phenomenological analysis of science.
We consider here the relationship between science and religion in different aspects: as an activity, as a teaching, in terms of understanding the truth, in an institutional aspect, in historical terms. At the end, the strategy of the new methodology of research on science and religion is discussed.
2. As an activity, science - we are now mainly talking about natural science-represents the desire to know the world.
Katasonov V. Nauka i religiya (vozmozhnosti novoi metodologii issledovaniya) [Science and Religion (opportunities for a new research me ...
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