Religion and Science

Abstract

RIAL
The New York Times of January 26, 1983carried on its front page pictures and news items of Pope John Paul II signing the revised code of Canon Law and President Ronald Reagan giving his State of the Union speech. The setting seems to suggest equal importance to both. This indicates the great significance religion, even organized religion, has gained today in the public eye. Gone are the days when religion was fully segregated from public affairs and relegated to the purely private sector, classed with those things which consenting adults can do in the privacy of their homes or churches, a matter of personal taste and choice. With this increase in public prestige and importance, religions are called upon to give convincing rational justification for their faith. In most universities, especially in the West, religious studies form an independent department alongside of physics, history, mathematics, biology, psychology and other scientific subjects in the school of arts and sciences. Hence arises the crucial question as to how far the rigorous demands of scientific methodology can be applied to religious studies.