Science, superstition and religion: key questions

In many ways, science and religion ask the same questions. How did human beings come to be and how are we to make sense of our place in the world? What unseen objects can be said to exist? When and why will the Universe come to an end? Yet, over the course of human history, these two areas of thought have developed markedly different methodologies for answering these questions. Both science and religion seek to avoid a purely superstitious account of the world. Which is to say, both scientists (such as Richard Dawkins) and theologians (such as Alvin Plantinga) judge each other according to the rationality of each others’ arguments. However, as we shall see, the rational nature of these disagreements can itself be called into question. That is, there is good reason for thinking that the disagreement between science and religion is not itself rational.

The alleged ‘conflict’ between science and religion is rooted in a shared history of ideas, and we shall explore that history in order to better understand what is at stake. In so doing, we will see that traditional questions concerning human freedom and the world’s imperfections ultimately boil down to questions concerning the nature of rationality itself.

We shall end by considering an alternative to traditional (a)theistic rationalisations of God’s (non)existence by examining the thoughts of two of Cambridge’s most illustrious figures; namely the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.