Growing Up Amid The Religion And Science Affair: A Perspective From Indology

ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Thomas B. Ellis Ph.D, Associate Professor (Creator)
Institution
Appalachian State University (ASU )
Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/

Abstract: Abstract. This article identifies the tropes of “maturity” and “immaturity” in the dialogue between religion and science. On both sides of the aisle, authors charge, either directly or indirectly, that their dissenting interlocutors are not mature enough to see the value of their respective positions. Such accusations have recently emerged in discussions pertaining to Hindu theology, Indology, and science. Those who dismiss the substance dualism of Hindu yoga, according to Jonathan B. Edelmann, evince immaturity. Appeals to Hindu yoga are yet one more appeal to religious experience. Indeed, what we find in Edelmann’s text is an appeal to appreciate the private, unverifiable—or falsifiable, for that matter—“insights” of Hindu yogis. Yogic experience is interminably steeped in motivated perception and confirmation bias. There is simply no good evidence or rational argument to take yogic claims seriously. Insofar as that is the case, Indology must achieve consilience with the natural and human sciences, remaining thereby reductive of such supernatural claims.

Additional Information

Publication
2012. “Growing Up amid the Religion and Science Affair,” Zygon 47:3, 589-607. (ISSN: 0591-2385) Original version available from Joint Publication Board of Zygon
Language: English
Date: 2012

Email this document to