Art. 1 My religious manifesto: An introduction
I’m not sure how many of you would be interested in this but I’ve decided to start writing about my journey as I travel through religion and science. I will try to write an article every week about a particular topic I struggle with and analyse it through those two lenses. I will not refer to scripture in these articles because I don’t believe scripture is a comprehensive way to analyse modern problems. Instead I will refer to common philosophy of religion and modern science from a psychology and a neuroscience point of view.
For the past six years, I’ve been trying to deal with how I can fit religion, God and faith in my life. These haven’t been easy times and studying neuroscience has not helped at all with this process. As a result, I’ve been investing some considerable time in reading more about evolution, neurogenetics, brain development, the soul, the origin of life and the origin of God, topics I will address in subsequent articles.
As a boy I was raised a liberal muslim with a strong emphasis on free will and the esoteric. Sometimes I wonder if it might have been easier to just learn that everything is literal and obligatory like other muslims, but I’m also very glad that I was given leeway for critical thinking and conversation. I was never forced into anything, my intellect was respected and for that I only have my parents and family to thank. That being said, I’ve had to fight very hard to keep my faith. I have doubts everyday and my mind is in constant jihad. My biggest problem with the esoteric is that everything is uncertain and no one knows what’s going on. Even worse, there’s no way to prove any of it. As a scientist, I cringe when I hear the popular rhetoric “I can’t make sense of it any other way so it has to be this way” or “good things have happened to me so it has got to be because I think this way”. I respect those arguments but let me tell you this. Many people share those same religious ideologies as you and things aren’t always rosy for them so that’s not an argument I’m ready to accept.
Instead, as I move further in my life in the field of neuroscience, there’s a lot less uncertainty and, theoretically, everything in science can be proven. If it can’t be proven, at least I live with the certainty that with the progress of science it will be possible. Science is a comfort in my life because it brings order probably in the same way religious people find order with their religion. Yet having been imprinted with the scientific method, there are just some things my mind can’t accept. This is not me being narrow minded, this is me not being willing to compromise the scientific method thus compromising my integrity as a scientist.
In some ways, my journey is not too different from the journey of many religious people. Blind faith can be a tricky business because it does not require any thought which is the easiest way to extremism. If you’re willing to start this journey with me, I encourage all my readers to reflect on these two questions until next time: How can you really have faith if you don’t have to fight for it? And how can you be sure what you have is a belief and not just a convenience if you’ve never been able to challenge it?
(If you enjoyed this article, check out the second one: link)