Non-overlapping magisteria
Encyclopedia
Non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA) is the view advocated by Stephen Jay Gould
that "science
and religion do not glower at each other... [but] interdigitate in patterns of complex fingering, and at every fractal
scale of self-similarity
." He suggests, with examples, that "NOMA enjoys strong and fully explicit support, even from the primary cultural stereotypes of hard-line traditionalism" and that it is "a sound position of general consensus, established by long struggle among people of goodwill in both magisteria". NOMA has increased acceptance of controversial ideas including evolution among some believers but there is never agreement where the boundaries between the two magisteria should be.
and religion." He draws the term magisterium
from Pope Pius XII
's encyclical
, Humani Generis
(1950), and defines it as "a domain where one form of teaching holds the appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution", and describes the NOMA principle as "the magisterium of science
covers the empirical
realm: what the Universe is made of (fact) and why does it work in this way (theory). The magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate meaning
and moral value. These two magisteria do not overlap, nor do they encompass all inquiry (consider, for example, the magisterium of art and the meaning of beauty)."
In a speech before the American Institute of Biological Sciences
, Gould stressed the diplomatic reasons for adopting NOMA as well, stating "the reason why we support that position is that it happens to be right, logically. But we should also be aware that it is very practical as well if we want to prevail." Gould argued that if indeed the polling data was correct—and that 80 to 90% of Americans believe in a supreme being, and such a belief is misunderstood to be at odds with evolution
—then "we have to keep stressing that religion is a different matter, and science
is not in any sense opposed to it," otherwise "we're not going to get very far." However, he did not consider this diplomatic aspect to be paramount, writing in 1997: "NOMA represents a principled position on moral and intellectual grounds, not a mere diplomatic stance."
In 1997 he had elaborated on this position by describing his role as a scientist with respect to NOMA:
adopted a similar stance. Its publication Science and Creationism stated that "Scientists, like many others, are touched with awe at the order and complexity of nature. Indeed, many scientists are deeply religious. But science
and religion occupy two separate realms of human experience. Demanding that they be combined detracts from the glory of each."
, in which Pope Pius XII famously permits Catholics to entertain the hypothesis of evolution for the human body
so long as they accept the divine infusion of the soul. Gould cited the following paragraph:
evangelist
, writer, and lecturer Henry Drummond previously developed the concept of a "God of the gaps
" in his Lowell Lectures on the Ascent of Man. In one of his lectures, Drummond chastises those Christians who point to things that science can not yet explain — "gaps which they will fill up with God" — and urges them to embrace all nature as God's, as the work of "...the God of Evolution, [who] is infinitely grander than the occasional wonder-worker." Although Drummond's supposition can be seen as a cynical criticism of the principle of Non-overlapping magisteria, it actually predates the work of Gould by more than ninety years.
Richard Dawkins
has criticized Gould's position on the grounds that religion does not, and cannot, be divorced from scientific matters or the material world. He writes, "it is completely unrealistic to claim, as Gould and many others do, that religion keeps itself away from science's turf, restricting itself to morals and values. A universe with a supernatural presence would be a fundamentally and qualitatively different kind of universe from one without. The difference is, inescapably, a scientific difference. Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims." Gould's observation that "These two magisteria do not overlap..." does not consider the claims of many religions upon material reality, such as miracles
or prayer
.
Dawkins also argues that a religion free of divine intervention
would be far different from any existent ones, and certainly different from the Abrahamic religions
. Moreover, he claims that religions would be only too happy to accept scientific claims that supported their views. For example, if DNA evidence proved that Jesus had no earthly father, Dawkins claims that the argument of non-overlapping magisteria would be quickly dropped.
Dawkins makes a more fundamental criticism of NOMA by stating that not all grammatically correct questions are legitimate (for example, "What does the color red smell like?"), and thus the Why? questions of religion do not necessarily deserve an answer.
Russell Blackford
believes religion and science have in the past come into conflict as scientific research demonstrated that faith based positions are untenable. Moral systems based on ancient religious texts tend to ossify the morality of the times when they were written. Religion has too frequently made us feel guilty about enjoying harmless pleasures and reduced happiness.
Susan Jacoby
claims the concept that science and religion should not conflict is unreasonable.
Jacoby maintains that scientists as well as the religious sometimes carefully practise the fictional concept NOMA without examination, to avoid clashes. The Stem cell controversy
Jacoby maintains, is just one example where religious people and scientists working in the field have different views about whether a six-day-old embryo is or is not a human being. Investigators working with embryonic stem cells to find cures for diseases feel this is morally worthwhile but religious people make different moral judgements. Conflicts between science and religion over morality have happened since the start of science, for example Timothy Dwight
and other traditional Christians opposed smallpox
vaccination
believing God wanted people to remain susceptible to that deadly disease, see Vaccination and religion
.
Jacoby cites Sam Harris
who says that science can frequently demonstrate whether particular beliefs increase or decrease suffering and Harris derives moral values from this. For example research has revealed that cultures where women are forbidden education or free sexual determination have the worst health and highest poverty rates, therefore Harris maintains subjugation of woman cannot be morally acceptable regardless of religious beliefs and Jacoby feels the viewpoint of Harris is helpful. People want a separate province for their specific religion and exclude other religions.
Francis Collins
attempted to criticise the limits of NOMA, arguing that science
, religion, and other spheres have "partially overlapped," while agreeing with Gould that morals, spirituality, and ethics cannot be determined from naturalistic interpretation. However, Gould encompassed exactly such a formulation in his original 1997 essay "Nonoverlapping Magisteria", writing that:
Art
is not separate from science, rather the neurological
and behavioural aspects of human beings perceiving and creating art or music
can be studied as can all other aspects of human perception
and behaviour
. Goulde separated art from both science and religion http://archaeology.about.com/od/quotations/qt/quote202.htm and the separation from religion may or may not be valid. In the Ancient Greek and Roman religion for example the Muse
s dealt with art poetry etc and art was part of religion, so art can be part of religion as well as of psychology.
Moral philosophy typically includes study of pre-Christian Greek philosophers, and also studies the viewpoint of philosophers including Jeremy Bentham
and Karl Marx
who were not Christian. The subject is diverse and cannot reasonably be restricted to religious believers only or to one set of religious believers only.
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
that "science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and religion do not glower at each other... [but] interdigitate in patterns of complex fingering, and at every fractal
Fractal
A fractal has been defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity...
scale of self-similarity
Self-similarity
In mathematics, a self-similar object is exactly or approximately similar to a part of itself . Many objects in the real world, such as coastlines, are statistically self-similar: parts of them show the same statistical properties at many scales...
." He suggests, with examples, that "NOMA enjoys strong and fully explicit support, even from the primary cultural stereotypes of hard-line traditionalism" and that it is "a sound position of general consensus, established by long struggle among people of goodwill in both magisteria". NOMA has increased acceptance of controversial ideas including evolution among some believers but there is never agreement where the boundaries between the two magisteria should be.
Gould's separate magisteria
In an 1997 essay "Non-Overlapping Magisteria" for Natural History magazine, and later in his book Rocks of Ages (1999), Gould put forward what he described as "a blessedly simple and entirely conventional resolution to... the supposed conflict between scienceScience
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and religion." He draws the term magisterium
Magisterium
In the Catholic Church the Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the Church in union with the Pope, led by the Bishop of Rome , who has authority over the bishops,...
from Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
's encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
, Humani Generis
Humani Generis
Humani generis is a papal encyclical that Pope Pius XII promulgated on 12 August 1950 "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine"...
(1950), and defines it as "a domain where one form of teaching holds the appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution", and describes the NOMA principle as "the magisterium of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
covers the empirical
Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...
realm: what the Universe is made of (fact) and why does it work in this way (theory). The magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate meaning
First principles
In philosophy, a first principle is a basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. In mathematics, first principles are referred to as axioms or postulates...
and moral value. These two magisteria do not overlap, nor do they encompass all inquiry (consider, for example, the magisterium of art and the meaning of beauty)."
In a speech before the American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Institute of Biological Sciences
The American Institute of Biological Sciences is a non-profit scientific association that is dedicated to advancing biological research and education.-Overview:...
, Gould stressed the diplomatic reasons for adopting NOMA as well, stating "the reason why we support that position is that it happens to be right, logically. But we should also be aware that it is very practical as well if we want to prevail." Gould argued that if indeed the polling data was correct—and that 80 to 90% of Americans believe in a supreme being, and such a belief is misunderstood to be at odds with evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
—then "we have to keep stressing that religion is a different matter, and science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
is not in any sense opposed to it," otherwise "we're not going to get very far." However, he did not consider this diplomatic aspect to be paramount, writing in 1997: "NOMA represents a principled position on moral and intellectual grounds, not a mere diplomatic stance."
In 1997 he had elaborated on this position by describing his role as a scientist with respect to NOMA:
National Academy of Sciences
Also in 1999, the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
adopted a similar stance. Its publication Science and Creationism stated that "Scientists, like many others, are touched with awe at the order and complexity of nature. Indeed, many scientists are deeply religious. But science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and religion occupy two separate realms of human experience. Demanding that they be combined detracts from the glory of each."
Humani Generis
Gould wrote that he was inspired to consider non-overlapping magisteria after being driven to examine the 1950 encyclical Humani GenerisHumani Generis
Humani generis is a papal encyclical that Pope Pius XII promulgated on 12 August 1950 "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine"...
, in which Pope Pius XII famously permits Catholics to entertain the hypothesis of evolution for the human body
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
so long as they accept the divine infusion of the soul. Gould cited the following paragraph:
- The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.
Criticism
ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
, writer, and lecturer Henry Drummond previously developed the concept of a "God of the gaps
God of the gaps
God of the gaps is a type of theological fallacy in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God's existence. The term was invented by Christian theologians not to discredit theism but rather to discourage reliance on teleological arguments for God's existence.-...
" in his Lowell Lectures on the Ascent of Man. In one of his lectures, Drummond chastises those Christians who point to things that science can not yet explain — "gaps which they will fill up with God" — and urges them to embrace all nature as God's, as the work of "...the God of Evolution, [who] is infinitely grander than the occasional wonder-worker." Although Drummond's supposition can be seen as a cynical criticism of the principle of Non-overlapping magisteria, it actually predates the work of Gould by more than ninety years.
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
has criticized Gould's position on the grounds that religion does not, and cannot, be divorced from scientific matters or the material world. He writes, "it is completely unrealistic to claim, as Gould and many others do, that religion keeps itself away from science's turf, restricting itself to morals and values. A universe with a supernatural presence would be a fundamentally and qualitatively different kind of universe from one without. The difference is, inescapably, a scientific difference. Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims." Gould's observation that "These two magisteria do not overlap..." does not consider the claims of many religions upon material reality, such as miracles
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
or prayer
Efficacy of prayer
Determining the efficacy of prayer has been attempted in various studies since Francis Galton first addressed it in 1872. Some studies have reported benefit, some have reported harm, and some have found no benefit from the act of praying. Others suggest that the topic is outside the realm of...
.
Dawkins also argues that a religion free of divine intervention
Divine Intervention
Divine intervention is a term for a miracle caused by God's/a god's active involvement in the human world.Divine Intervention may also refer to:*"Divine Intervention", a 1991 song on Matthew Sweet's album Girlfriend....
would be far different from any existent ones, and certainly different from the Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic faiths emphasizing and tracing their common origin to Abraham or recognizing a spiritual tradition identified with him...
. Moreover, he claims that religions would be only too happy to accept scientific claims that supported their views. For example, if DNA evidence proved that Jesus had no earthly father, Dawkins claims that the argument of non-overlapping magisteria would be quickly dropped.
Dawkins makes a more fundamental criticism of NOMA by stating that not all grammatically correct questions are legitimate (for example, "What does the color red smell like?"), and thus the Why? questions of religion do not necessarily deserve an answer.
Russell Blackford
Russell Blackford
Russell Blackford is an Australian writer, philosopher, and critic, based for many years in Melbourne, Victoria. He was born in Sydney, and grew up in Lake Macquarie district, near Newcastle, NSW. He moved to Melbourne in 1979, but returned to Newcastle to live and work in 2009.-Writing career:As a...
believes religion and science have in the past come into conflict as scientific research demonstrated that faith based positions are untenable. Moral systems based on ancient religious texts tend to ossify the morality of the times when they were written. Religion has too frequently made us feel guilty about enjoying harmless pleasures and reduced happiness.
Historically, religions have been encyclopedic systems of belief, offering explanations of a vast range of phenomena ... as well as providing guidance for their adherents' actions. As encyclopedic systems, they inevitably come into conflict with science as the latter provides more and more facts about how the world actually works. Religion can avoid direct conflicts only by retreating into highly abstract and more-or-less unfalsifiable positions. Some modern-day versions of religion may well have retreated so far from falsifiability that they are no longer in direct conflict with science, but that's a fascinating historical development, not an indication that religion and science exercise inherently different and non-overlapping magisteria.
Susan Jacoby
Susan Jacoby
Susan Jacoby is an American author. Her 2008 book about American anti-intellectualism, The Age of American Unreason, was a New York Times best seller. She is an atheist and secularist. Jacoby graduated from Michigan State University in 1965...
claims the concept that science and religion should not conflict is unreasonable.
One might as well say that conflict arises between men and women only when they stray onto each other’s territories and stir up trouble. Science produces discoveries that challenge long-held beliefs (not only religious ones) based on revelation rather than evidence, and the religious must decide whether to battle or accommodate secular knowledge if it contradicts their teachings.
Jacoby maintains that scientists as well as the religious sometimes carefully practise the fictional concept NOMA without examination, to avoid clashes. The Stem cell controversy
Stem cell controversy
The stem cell controversy is the ethical debate primarily concerning the creation, treatment, and destruction of human embryos incident to research involving embryonic stem cells. Not all stem cell research involves the creation, use, or destruction of human embryos...
Jacoby maintains, is just one example where religious people and scientists working in the field have different views about whether a six-day-old embryo is or is not a human being. Investigators working with embryonic stem cells to find cures for diseases feel this is morally worthwhile but religious people make different moral judgements. Conflicts between science and religion over morality have happened since the start of science, for example Timothy Dwight
Timothy Dwight IV
Timothy Dwight was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author...
and other traditional Christians opposed smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
believing God wanted people to remain susceptible to that deadly disease, see Vaccination and religion
Vaccination and religion
Vaccination and religion have interrelations of varying kinds.-Historical:Catholic and Anglican missionaries vaccinated Northwest Coast Indians during an 1862 smallpox epidemic....
.
Jacoby cites Sam Harris
Sam Harris (author)
Sam Harris is an American author, and neuroscientist, as well as the co-founder and current CEO of Project Reason. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Stanford University, before receiving a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA...
who says that science can frequently demonstrate whether particular beliefs increase or decrease suffering and Harris derives moral values from this. For example research has revealed that cultures where women are forbidden education or free sexual determination have the worst health and highest poverty rates, therefore Harris maintains subjugation of woman cannot be morally acceptable regardless of religious beliefs and Jacoby feels the viewpoint of Harris is helpful. People want a separate province for their specific religion and exclude other religions.
Francis Collins
Francis Collins (geneticist)
Francis Sellers Collins , is an American physician-geneticist, noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project . He currently serves as Director of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Prior to being appointed Director, he founded and...
attempted to criticise the limits of NOMA, arguing that science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, religion, and other spheres have "partially overlapped," while agreeing with Gould that morals, spirituality, and ethics cannot be determined from naturalistic interpretation. However, Gould encompassed exactly such a formulation in his original 1997 essay "Nonoverlapping Magisteria", writing that:
- [E]ach subject has a legitimate magisterium, or domain of teaching authority ... This resolution might remain all neat and clean if the nonoverlapping magisteria (NOMA) of science and religion were separated by an extensive no man's land. But, in fact, the two magisteria bump right up against each other, interdigitating in wondrously complex ways along their joint border. Many of our deepest questions call upon aspects of both for different parts of a full answer—and the sorting of legitimate domains can become quite complex and difficult.
Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
is not separate from science, rather the neurological
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
and behavioural aspects of human beings perceiving and creating art or music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
can be studied as can all other aspects of human perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
and behaviour
Human behavior
Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics....
. Goulde separated art from both science and religion http://archaeology.about.com/od/quotations/qt/quote202.htm and the separation from religion may or may not be valid. In the Ancient Greek and Roman religion for example the Muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
s dealt with art poetry etc and art was part of religion, so art can be part of religion as well as of psychology.
Moral philosophy typically includes study of pre-Christian Greek philosophers, and also studies the viewpoint of philosophers including Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
and Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
who were not Christian. The subject is diverse and cannot reasonably be restricted to religious believers only or to one set of religious believers only.
External links
- Nonmoral Nature - by Stephen Jay Gould
- Nonoverlapping Magisteria - by Stephen Jay Gould
- Evidence of a Creator in Nature - by John LennoxJohn LennoxJohn Carson Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics, Philosophy of Science and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College of Oxford University...
, Oxford University - Gould on God - by H. Allen Orr, Boston Review.
- NOMA - by Michael Ruse, Metanexus Institute.
- A Separate Peace - by Michael Ruse, Science & Spirit.
- Rock of Ages - by Mark Ridley, New York Times
- The Holes in Gould's Semipermeable Membrane Between Science and Religion - by Ursula Goodenough, American Scientist
- Gould's Separate "Magisteria" - by Mark Durm, Massimo Pigliucci, Skeptical Inquirer
- The religious views of Stephen Gould and Charles Darwin - by Martin Gardner, Skeptical Inquirer
- Inventing allies in the sky - by Kenan Malik, New Statesman
- Rocks of Ages Book review - by Jim Walker