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The Complementary Nature of Religion and Science
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# : |
10092 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1986 |
3,328 Words |
| Author
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Miguel R. Covian
Miguel R. Covian is professor of physiology, faculty of
medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo,
Brazil. |
Man's knowledge is based not only on perceiving phenomena but on discovering their reason for being, the "why" of their existence. Common knowledge only perceives and records what is happening. When man takes a step forward looking for the cause of these phenomena, then scientific knowledge, science, comes into being. Science will try to establish general principles determining and regulating the mutual connections between types of sensory experience, between phenomena occurring in the space-time unit. Its primary aim is not the practical usefulness of its findings; this end belongs to technology, which applies scientific knowledge.
Science does not preoccupy itself with the essence of things, but rather with the ties between their sensory manifestations (phenomena) which it attempts to organize in a mathematical way. Sensory perception does not capture the qualities of things in their essence, but rather through the action they have no sensory organs. Without concern, sensory perception eliminates being or essence, which it considers to be meaningless. The senses and technical devices almost seem to replace intelligence in the "seeing" function, while intelligence remains outside the sensing, only manipulating the information it receives, transforming it into signals which express what was "seen".
Two Types of Knowledge
There are two ways of analyzing perceptive reality: a) empirically (experimental sciences), b) ontologically (philosophy). In other words, two types of knowledge converge and meet in front of a material object: sensory knowledge, and intellectual knowledge. Intellectual knowledge strives for an ascending, or ontological solution, utilizing sensory knowledge for its purpose. Sensory knowledge (experimental) looks for a descending solution, with no reference to essence, serving what is perceptible, observable, and, especially, measurable. Man's senses indicate a quality, but without saying what it is. This is of no interest to them. They know what a quality is only in terms of the material action it has on them. What the essence of this quality is, they do not know. What a quality is in essence and not just in its action on a sensory organ, continues to be a mystery for our spirit and senses.
To sum up, there are two types of conceptual analyses of perceptible reality: one, of an ontological nature, which searches for intelligible essence, and the other, of an empirical or space-time nature, oriented towards what is sensorily observable or measurable. The attempt to verify reality in a sensory and measuring
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