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COSMOLOGY, RELIGION, AND SOCIETY
Author(s) -
Bowker J. W.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
zygon®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-9744
pISSN - 0591-2385
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9744.1990.tb00867.x
Subject(s) - mistake , hinduism , variety (cybernetics) , buddhism , epistemology , cosmology , subject (documents) , subject matter , cosmic cancer database , judaism , sociology , philosophy , religious studies , computer science , physics , law , political science , theology , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , library science , astrophysics , curriculum , pedagogy
. It is a mistake to assume that science and religion are competing accounts of the same subject matter, so that either science supersedes religion or religion anticipates science. Using the question of cosmic origins as an example, I argue that the basic task of religion is not the scientific one of establishing the most accurate acccunt of the origin of the universe. Rather, as illustrated from Jewish, Hindu, Chinese, and Buddhist thought, religion uses a variety of cosmologies to help specify the necessary terms and conditions on which human social life is possible in particular ecological niches.