Can a scientific mind accept religion?
Can a religious mind accept science?
Thomas J. Lindell thinks it's time people stop "perpetuating the stereotypical 'conflict' imagery" between science and religion and instead seek ways to unite them.
Lindell is an emeritus professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of Arizona and a member of St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church parish clergy. He will discuss efforts to reconcile cosmology and biological evolution during a free lecture at Academy Village at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
In recent lectures, Lindell has argued that such a reconciliation can happen only if people recognize that religion is "manmade" and "at best, a repository of stories that constitute the mythology, and not the reality, of what really happened."
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He adds, "What we have inherited is a set of beliefs that fail to stand up to what we scientifically know about the cosmos today."
To create a religion that is openly receptive to a scientific world view will require "some serious deconstruction of religious myths that rely on metaphorical language, and an openness to enter into the discussion without prior prejudice or bias."
As a deacon at St. Philip's, the largest Episcopal church in Tucson, Lindell is working to eliminate some of that metaphorical language. In 2007 an Arizona Daily Star article reported that a new service at the church was removing all power imagery, including the word "Lord," from one of its five Sunday services, called "Come and See."
"The way our service reads, the theology behind the language of the liturgy is that God is love, period," Lindell told the Star at the time. "Our service has done everything it can to get rid of power imagery. We do not pray as though we expect the big guy in the sky to come and fix everything."
The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the Tucson church's decision, and Lindell's comment in the Star, absurd.
"He (Lindell) boasts of having removed all the 'power imagery' from the church's worship services. That, we might imagine, is rather hard to do. If God is not all-powerful, why worship? Without an acknowledgment of God's power, we are left with little to say. A God who is not powerful cannot help, much less save," Mohler wrote in his blog.
Lindell admits he is "personally challenged" to integrate his religious and scientific beliefs. He gives frequent talks on his quest, and has been criticized not only by conservative theologians but by those at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Lindell admits that his topic often leads to diverse thoughts, such as: Can you believe only in faith or only in science, which is so much more tangible? Is science a crutch to detach ourselves from religion, or are we metaphysically joined to grow together in beliefs and scientific pathways?
His talk will be in the great room of the Arizona Senior Academy Building, adjacent to the community center at Academy Village, 13715 E. Langtry Lane.
If You Go
• What: "Viewing Religion/Theology Through the Lens of Science," a lecture by Thomas J. Lindell
• When: 3:30 p.m. Wednesday
• Where: Arizona Senior Academy Building at Academy Village, 13715 E. Langtry Lane
• Admission: Free; donations accepted
• Reservations: Recommended; email info@arizonasenioracademy.org or call 647-0980
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