The “Relation” Between Science and Religion in the Pluralistic Landscape of Today's World

Abstract

The attempt to expand the discourse of science and religion by considering the pluralistic landscape of today's world requires not only adding new voices from more religious traditions but a rethinking of the basic categories of the discourse, that is, “science,” “religion,” and the notion that the main issue to be investigated is the relationship between the two. Making use of historical studies of science and religion discourse and a case study from Indonesia, this article suggests a rethinking of the categories, including giving more attention to indigenous religions.

Some Ways Emerging Adults Are Shaping the Future of Religion and Science

“…And for the focus of this article—namely, emerging adults—the panoply of options available makes it difficult to decide about science and religion. A recent article by Zainal Abidin Bagir rightly notes that this simple “and” between “science and religion” obscures a mass of complications; for one thing, that both are primarily about ideas (Bagir , 405–07, especially 406; cf. Cantor and Kenny , 778).…”

“…And there are other concerns: Emerging adults are not only facing the situation of religion (in the singular) and the way it interacts with science, they are coming to grips with the variety of religions that can be brought to bear on scientific insights—not only the five classic world religions of Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, but also religious traditions with large numbers of adherents such as Sikhism and Wicca, and also indigenous religions as well. Bagir rightly highlights these concerns and concludes, “The intention to expand the discourse by taking into account the pluralistic landscape that we know and experience today requires not simply inviting more participants from different religious traditions but also demands the expansion of the conceptions of ‘science’ and ‘religion’” (Bagir , 216).…”

ZYGON GOES GLOBAL: EAST ASIAN VOICES

“…As those contributions make clear, and the contributions in the current issue confirm, there is a wide diversity of “discussions” that regard the understanding and evaluation of science in different cultural and religious contexts. Other voices from Asia in recent years included a contribution on Confucian environmental ethics (Wong ), on the pluralistic landscape in today's world, with special emphasis on Indonesia (Bagir ), and—showing the migration of ideas—on self‐psychology and the experience of the natural world in an American Buddhist center (Capper ). We are indeed “Publishing in a Changing World,” as I titled an editorial last year (Drees ).…”

Publishing in a Changing World

“…Our world is changing, so too has the landscape for “religion and science,” IRAS and Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science (see Hefner ; Peters , ). Science develops and religion is transformed under the influence of social changes (e.g., Drees , Fredericks and Schweitz ), while globalization works in many different ways (glocalization), but affects everything (e.g., Eaton ; Bagir ; Bauman ). Publishing a journal on religion and science thus has changed as well.…”