{"title":"AN ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION BETWEEN FAITH AND SCIENCE: CONTRAST WITHOUT COMPARTMENTALIZATION","authors":"H. Kroesbergen","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12396","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"66 1","pages":"9-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85057868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In his recent book Islam Evolving: Radicalism, Reformation, and the Uneasy Relationship with the Secular West, Taner Edis discusses Islamic responses to the modern world and how the West deals and should deal with them. He argues convincingly that the biggest threat to secular liberalism is not fundamentalism but an Islamic form of modernity. He attributes some of the latter's success to Western neoliberalism and to the failure of secular liberals to come up with persuasive arguments. He thus puts part of the blame on the West. However, although self-criticism is an essential aspect of a well-functioning democracy, we should not take it too far. Instead, there exist convincing reasons why a secular liberal society is strongly preferable to a religious conservative one.
{"title":"ISLAMIC MODERNITY AND THE CHALLENGES FOR SECULAR LIBERALISM","authors":"Stefaan Blancke","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12394","url":null,"abstract":"In his recent book Islam Evolving: Radicalism, Reformation, and the Uneasy Relationship with the Secular West, Taner Edis discusses Islamic responses to the modern world and how the West deals and should deal with them. He argues convincingly that the biggest threat to secular liberalism is not fundamentalism but an Islamic form of modernity. He attributes some of the latter's success to Western neoliberalism and to the failure of secular liberals to come up with persuasive arguments. He thus puts part of the blame on the West. However, although self-criticism is an essential aspect of a well-functioning democracy, we should not take it too far. Instead, there exist convincing reasons why a secular liberal society is strongly preferable to a religious conservative one.","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"38 1","pages":"274-287"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84727023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Focus and Flexibility: Zygon's Profile and Practice","authors":"W. Drees","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12385","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"2 1","pages":"3-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87418462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences. By William A. Richards. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2016. Xxviii + 244 pages. Hardcover, $29.95 / £24.95; E‐book $28.99/ £23.95.","authors":"S. Bigliardi","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12389","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12389","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"41 1","pages":"288-290"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88414460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this response to David Bradnick’s and Bradford McCall’s defense of Amos Yong’s usage of emergence theory, we defend our previous argument regarding the tension between Yong’s Pentecostal commitments and the philosophical entailments of emergence theory. We clarify and extend our previous concerns in three ways. First, we explore the difficulties of construing divine action naturalistically (i.e. natural divine causation ). Second, we clarify the problems of employing supervenience in theology. Third, we show why Bradnick’s and McCall’s advice to Yong to adopt weak emergence is theologically costly. In conclusion, it is suggested that theologians within the science and religion dialogue should not fear, but recover, the language of supernaturalism and dualism.
{"title":"The unsuitability of Emergence Theory for Pentecostal theology: A response to Bradnick and McCall","authors":"Mikael Leidenhag, J. Leidenhag","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12393","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12393","url":null,"abstract":"In this response to David Bradnick’s and Bradford McCall’s defense of Amos Yong’s usage of emergence theory, we defend our previous argument regarding the tension between Yong’s Pentecostal commitments and the philosophical entailments of emergence theory. We clarify and extend our previous concerns in three ways. First, we explore the difficulties of construing divine action naturalistically (i.e. natural divine causation ). Second, we clarify the problems of employing supervenience in theology. Third, we show why Bradnick’s and McCall’s advice to Yong to adopt weak emergence is theologically costly. In conclusion, it is suggested that theologians within the science and religion dialogue should not fear, but recover, the language of supernaturalism and dualism.","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"33 1","pages":"258-273"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85851691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this third and last article on the evolution of religious capacity, the authors focus on compassion, one of religious expression’s common companions. They explore the various meanings of compassion, using Biblical and early related documents, and derive general cognitive components before an evolutionary analysis of compassion using their model. Then, in taking on neural reuse theory, they adapt a model from linguistics theory to understand how neural reuse could have operated to fix religious capacity in the human genome. They present a teaching tool on “Religious Capacity in Action,” and develop an example of compassionate decision making in very early Homo sapiens in North Africa. They round out their analysis of compassion by exploring theory in neuroscience on a standard decision-making model, and investigate what goes on in the human brain when a values-based decision is made.
{"title":"Evolution of religious capacity in the genus homo: Trait complexity in action through compassion","authors":"M. Rappaport, C. Corbally","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12388","url":null,"abstract":"In this third and last article on the evolution of religious capacity, the authors focus on compassion, one of religious expression’s common companions. They explore the various meanings of compassion, using Biblical and early related documents, and derive general cognitive components before an evolutionary analysis of compassion using their model. Then, in taking on neural reuse theory, they adapt a model from linguistics theory to understand how neural reuse could have operated to fix religious capacity in the human genome. They present a teaching tool on “Religious Capacity in Action,” and develop an example of compassionate decision making in very early Homo sapiens in North Africa. They round out their analysis of compassion by exploring theory in neuroscience on a standard decision-making model, and investigate what goes on in the human brain when a values-based decision is made.","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"112 1","pages":"198-239"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84921112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper critically analyzes Owen Flanagan’s physicalism and attempt at deriving ethical normativity from current neuroscience. It is argued that neurophysicalism, despite Flanagan’s harsh critique of “the new mysterians”, entails a form of mysterianism and that it fails to appropriately ground human mentality within physicalism. Flanagan seeks to bring spirituality and a physicalist ontology together by showing how it is possible to derive an account of the good life from science. This attempt is critiqued and it is shown that Flanagan fails to establish the consistency between ethical normativity and physicalism. Hence, another form of mysterianism seems to emerge within this normative mind science.
{"title":"THE MYSTERIANISM OF OWEN FLANAGAN'S NORMATIVE MIND SCIENCE","authors":"Mikael Leidenhag","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12381","url":null,"abstract":"This paper critically analyzes Owen Flanagan’s physicalism and attempt at deriving ethical normativity from current neuroscience. It is argued that neurophysicalism, despite Flanagan’s harsh critique of “the new mysterians”, entails a form of mysterianism and that it fails to appropriately ground human mentality within physicalism. Flanagan seeks to bring spirituality and a physicalist ontology together by showing how it is possible to derive an account of the good life from science. This attempt is critiqued and it is shown that Flanagan fails to establish the consistency between ethical normativity and physicalism. Hence, another form of mysterianism seems to emerge within this normative mind science.","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"43 1","pages":"29-48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88777619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ayudha Puja, a South Indian festival translated as “worship of the machines,” is a dramatic example of how religion and science intertwine in political life. Across South India, but especially in the state of Karnataka, scientists and engineers celebrate the festival in offices, laboratories, and workshops by attending a puja led by a priest. Although the festival is noteworthy in many ways, one of its most immediate valences is political. In this article, we argue that Ayudha Puja normalizes Brahminical Hinduism within scientific culture through the inclusion of non-Hindus and through scientists' description of the festival as “cultural” rather than “religious.”
{"title":"RELIGIOUS RITES AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES: AYUDHA PUJA AS “CULTURE” AT THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE: with Jeff Wilson, “‘The New Science of Health and Happiness’: Investigating Buddhist Engagements with the Scientific Study of Meditation”; Oliver Zamb","authors":"Renny Thomas, R. Geraci","doi":"10.1111/zygo.12380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12380","url":null,"abstract":"Ayudha Puja, a South Indian festival translated as “worship of the machines,” is a dramatic example of how religion and science intertwine in political life. Across South India, but especially in the state of Karnataka, scientists and engineers celebrate the festival in offices, laboratories, and workshops by attending a puja led by a priest. Although the festival is noteworthy in many ways, one of its most immediate valences is political. In this article, we argue that Ayudha Puja normalizes Brahminical Hinduism within scientific culture through the inclusion of non-Hindus and through scientists' description of the festival as “cultural” rather than “religious.”","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"124 1","pages":"95-122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85853380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the Hare Krishna Movement, has disseminated a flurry of antievolutionist media since its inception in 1966. Such communications frequently co-opt arguments employed by Christian creationists and Intelligent Design theorists. At the same time, however, there are indications that a scattering of ISKCON publications have articulated relatively ambiguous, less oppositional statements about evolutionary theory. This article reconsiders ISKCON's Darwin-skepticism by appraising recent, largely unexamined Hare Krishna publications, as well as responses to evolutionary theory expressed by ISKCON's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, and his immediate Vaishnava forerunners. The analysis reveals that, although the majority of contemporary ISKCON materials are vehemently opposed to evolution, some leading voices demonstrate less combative, cautiously accommodating stances. These cases are suggestive of complexities in ISKCON's responses to evolution, both past and present, which are not necessarily encapsulated in the terms Vedic creationism or antievolutionism.
{"title":"VAISHNAVISM, ANTIEVOLUTIONISM, AND AMBIGUITIES: REVISITING ISKCON'S DARWIN‐SKEPTICISM","authors":"Oliver Zambon, Thomas Aechtner","doi":"10.1111/ZYGO.12395","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ZYGO.12395","url":null,"abstract":"The International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the Hare Krishna Movement, has disseminated a flurry of antievolutionist media since its inception in 1966. Such communications frequently co-opt arguments employed by Christian creationists and Intelligent Design theorists. At the same time, however, there are indications that a scattering of ISKCON publications have articulated relatively ambiguous, less oppositional statements about evolutionary theory. This article reconsiders ISKCON's Darwin-skepticism by appraising recent, largely unexamined Hare Krishna publications, as well as responses to evolutionary theory expressed by ISKCON's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, and his immediate Vaishnava forerunners. The analysis reveals that, although the majority of contemporary ISKCON materials are vehemently opposed to evolution, some leading voices demonstrate less combative, cautiously accommodating stances. These cases are suggestive of complexities in ISKCON's responses to evolution, both past and present, which are not necessarily encapsulated in the terms Vedic creationism or antievolutionism.","PeriodicalId":46315,"journal":{"name":"Zygon","volume":"28 1","pages":"67-94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81637222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}