Sam Tarzi

Reflections on Science and Religion Sam Tarzi

Reflecting on the possible connections between science and religion, and not finding convincing answers in the texts that I was reading, I decided to refine and record my thoughts. As there are significant differences in emphasis and content to anything I have read I felt it worth disseminating what I have written to a general audience. Some authors come to the subject from the viewpoint of having been versed in religion rather than science, and I come from the opposite direction. Within science my background is in the physical sciences and within religion my passing acquaintance has been with Judaism. The religions originating in the Middle East take a different form to those originating further east, but there is sufficient overlap that the arguments presented have a general significance. Amongst the usual categories of this subject are: religious scripture and interpretation, religious language, religious experience, religious education, God, philosophy, psychology and sociology of religion, the self and free will, morality and suffering, various scientific themes and others. In terms of structure of presentation, within such a brief account I felt it unnecessary to compartmentalize the various tracts of the essay precisely according to these guidelines, but I have still managed to broadly adopt them, exploring parallel themes. I attempt to cover both the common and some less well-known issues that arise in the debate, introducing opinions from different viewpoints, and acknowledging the various approaches to problems. The general arguments proposed will apply equally to all major religions, which do all appear to have the three components: beliefs, ethics and ritual practices, but with a different emphasis on each. So whilst Christianity has fewer strict rules in comparison to Orthodox Judaism, the latter puts more stress on observance of law as interpreted by generations of scholars. In Hinduism there are many Gods and in Buddhism there is no supreme creator. It is not possible to distill every possible viewpoint on a topic in this short book, but we do survey many.