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Religion and Science: What Can Anthropology Offer? Cover

Religion and Science: What Can Anthropology Offer?

By: Peter Skalník  
Open Access
|Feb 2017

Abstract

This short tribute to Ján Podolák comments on the space between two extremes: pure science and blind belief. If religion is not susceptible to scientific proof because it is a belief in an invisible world inhabited by spirits who influence human existence on earth then science in its strictest sense is the opposite of religion because it is not based on any beliefs but solely on provable facts. However, the anthropology of science should be based on the pluralism of knowledge and the seeking of truth in different cultural settings around the world. Everything human, also science, is a social and cultural phenomenon. This means that rationality is not a preserve of the Western mind only and that without falling into the trap of postmodernist excessive relativism, we should admit that rationality is not only universal but also not hierarchized evolutionistically or qualitatively by giving preference to its Western brand. Science thus ceases to be the only realm of rational knowledge. Religion in its turn is a kind of non-scientific knowledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eas-2017-0001 | Journal eISSN: 1339-7877 | Journal ISSN: 1339-7834
Language: English
Page range: 8 - 13
Published on: Feb 8, 2017
Published by: University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

© 2017 Peter Skalník, published by University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.