THE TWO METHODS
As the Sesame Street video reminds us, we begin to learn about and make sense of the world using simple processes such as comparison of objects. We continue to do this in different ways. As the two pictures at the top of the page suggest, there are both scientific and religious ways to do this. While science and religion use various ways to understand the world, these can be generally categorized as the scientific method and the theological method. Let's take a look at each one.
The Scientific Method
The scientific method is probably one that you remember from grade school where you where taught to perform an experiment. It’s important to remember scientific discovery isn’t fixed, or always stays the same. As Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase, Astronomer, Adler Planetarium shared with this author: In science, it’s about the weight of evidence (kind of like investigating a crime scene to determine someone’s guilt “beyond a shadow of a doubt.”) Scientific theories can be disproven (maybe discredited is a better term), but those that have enormous support (like biological evolution) are far more likely to need “tweaking” or “adjusting” rather than abandoning. The idea is that a scientific theory is more than a hypothesis that has undergone repeated testing. For one thing (1) a scientific theory has to make useful predictions that can be subsequently tested, and (2) it has to be consistent with what we know from other areas of science (for example, if geological evidence of the age of the Earth is inconsistent with what we understand about the age of the Universe or the timescale of biological evolution, then we have a problem – however, these timescales are in very good agreement with each other, even though the methods and tools used to explore these questions in these different fields of science are different.) The steps to following the scientific method can be thought of as follows in the link below: |
The Theological Method
For theology, there is also data but not the kind that you can test and observe with an experiment. This data comes in the form of experience, observation, stories, rituals, divine revelation, and Scripture. As the picture at the top of the page suggests, one definition of revelation is God’s attempt to connect to humankind. Each religion, or belief system, has a way of defining revelation. Below are a few, but not all, of the ways that different religions generally understand revelation: |
MUSLIMS
As with Christianity, there are other religions with scripture that serve as a source of revelation. For Muslims the word of God was revealed to Muhammad, which was collected and recorded in the Qur’an. Muslims believe that Jesus is a Prophet of God who has revealed messages from God, but is not a revelation of God. Click on the link below to read more about how Muslims view revelation and prophets: |
ORTHODOX JEWS
For Orthodox Jews it is taught that, “God personally and decisively revealed himself in giving the Torah at Sinai,” and the words of the Torah are, “The changeless revelation of God’s eternal will.”2 More modern or reformed Jewish ways of understanding revelation use reason and experience to “establish the relevance or truth of a proposition.”3 |
BUDDHISTS
For Buddhists the understanding of revelation is not linked to a traditional form of scripture. Here is an explanation of this understanding: “In Buddhism there are no divine revelations or divine messengers. A Buddhist is, therefore, not subservient to any higher supernatural power which controls his destinies and which arbitrarily rewards and punishes. Since Buddhists do not believe in revelations of a divine being Buddhism does not claim the monopoly of truth and does not condemn any other religion.” In other words, Buddhism does not believe in a divine being that reveals itself to us. Click on the link below to read the full article: |
The religious experience of a revelation or encounter with a divine being or power can happen in many different ways and for people of different belief systems. As noted above, it can include participation in rituals, hearing or reading stories or scripture, or observing the natural world.
So now that we have looked at some of the scientific and theological methods of knowing about the world, we can see that each has its own way of seeking information. So what is the big deal? Click on the next tab, or the button below, and we’ll take a look at what causes people to choose only one method or the other. |
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1 Summarized from: Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 422. 2 Ibid., 28, 29.
2 Marvin Wilson, “Branches of Judaism,” in Introductions to World Religions. General Editor Christopher Partridge (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2005), 274.
3 Ibid., 274.
2 Marvin Wilson, “Branches of Judaism,” in Introductions to World Religions. General Editor Christopher Partridge (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2005), 274.
3 Ibid., 274.