Takeover Bids

Received wisdom among hardcore rationalists is that once scientists discover the so-called Theory-of-Everything it would be the end of the road as far as faith was concerned . And that such an all encompassing empirical enlightenment would deal an overdue death blow to religion and other “juvenile superstitions” . The statement is not without contradictions.

For in the West the ancient Greek philosophical tradition which examined the nature of reality was in fact already a non-theistic tradition. But as noted by British philosopher Anthony Grayling, this function was later taken over by the church when religion hijacked philosophy along with a huge amount of the really important ethical and spiritual aspects of our lives.

Now science is once again catching up and is slowly beginning to make religious notions about reality obsolete --to the extent that the church has had to make embarrassing concessions and even apologise to science. So, on the face of it, it seems those rationalists are probably right and the time has come when the death blow to religion is ready to be delivered.

What happens to our all our philosophy and ethics then? Enter Stephen Hawking. In his latest book The Grand Design he maintains that since philosophy itself has not kept up with modern developments in science, it is dead too and scientists are the new torchbearers in the quest for knowledge. Does this mean science is going to be the religion of the future? Can spirituality survive a non-theistic substrate?