Integrating Science and Religion

Why does science deny religion? Why is our modern world incapable of embracing spirituality? How do we integrate the objectivity and empiricism of science with the spirituality and divinity of religion?

In “The Marriage of Sense and Soul”, Ken Wilber, arguably the most ingenious thinker of the 20^th century in the field of consciousness, addresses these questions by drawing from the work of numerous scholars and philosophers while offering his own brilliant solution for integrating science and religion.

Trying to put his ingenious work in a one-page summary is a slaughter, and for that I owe you my apology. I still however feel obliged to recapitulate what I learned from one of the most complex and yet straight-to-the-point books I have ever read.

In terms of the relationship between science and religion, Wilber splits history in three periods: pre-modernity, modernity and post-modernity. Pre-modernity, present in all of the great religions including Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, is characterized by the universal worldview that reality is composed of several hierarchal levels of consciousness, called the Great Chain of Being. In Wilber’s hierarchy, the Great Chain of Being is composed of matter, body, mind, soul and spirit, where each higher level encompasses the preceding level (includes) and adds new value and meaning (transcends). The only way to reach the level of Spirit is by experiencing direct spiritual enlightenment. This means that the higher you go up the ladder, the more inwardly and strenuously you need to look to discover the meaning of life. Pre-modernity thus clearly gives advantage to religion over science.

Modernity, on the other hand, is characterized by the differentiation of the “cultural value spheres”, meaning the differentiation of art (self-expressive and subjective “I”), morals (societal “We”) and science (objective “it”). Thanks to the differentiation of the objective science from the societal morals, society saw breakthrough discoveries in the area of science and technology that drove the development in the last five centuries. And thanks to the differentiation of art (ability to self-express) and morals (socially imposed norms of behavior), people were finally able to practice freedom of speech and enjoy equality and justice, which marked the naissance of liberal democracy.

However, the differentiation was too strong and turned into dissociation, where the development paths of each of the three value spheres (art, morals and science) became excessively divergent. Science grew at a disproportionably faster rate and soon began to negate the existence of art and morals: “The entire interior dimensions – of morals, artistic expression, introspection, spirituality, contemplative awareness – were dismissed by monological science, because none of them could be registered by empirical science”. So just because they couldn’t be measured, art and morals were completely annulated by the aggressive science.

This total negation of mind, soul and spirit gave rise to the reactionist postmodernism that sought to reinstitute the appreciation and commitment to spirituality. Wilber recognizes four major postmodern attempts at reintegration of religion (prevalent in premodernism) and science (prevalent in modernism): romanticism, idealism, extreme postmodernism and integralism. However important these attempts were for their period, by drawing from the works of many authors, Wilber convincingly proves their setbacks and reasons for their failure.

Finally, Wilber proposes his unique and holistic approach for the reconciliation of science and religion by integrating the core of pre-modern religion (the Great Chain of Being) with the essence of modernity (the differentiation of art, morals and science). In the end, Wilber stresses the importance of reaching a certain level of political awareness as a pre-requisite for a successful and all-encompassing integration of science and religion.

This book addresses the world but it also addresses the individual. It is not only in society that we must seek to reconcile science and religion, but within ourselves as well.

I remember that just until a year ago, I was the greatest atheist the world has ever seen, negating the existence of anything that cannot be seen with the eye of flesh (my senses) or the eye of the mind (my logic). However, the more focused I was on my intellectual development and the results I was getting from it, the more aware I was becoming that I am missing something far greater than pure intellect. It was a little voice inside that kept telling me that I should embark on my quest for spiritual development.

And so I did…