{"id":15628,"date":"2024-05-01T16:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/?p=15628"},"modified":"2024-05-29T20:38:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T20:38:35","slug":"the-end-of-noma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/open-religion\/the-end-of-noma","title":{"rendered":"The End of NOMA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2018Non-Overlapping MAgisteria\u2019 (NOMA) is the traditional division between science and religion. Did it ever truly work as claimed?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It still mainly seems to enable scientists to artificially keep their religion while knowing better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Non-overlapping\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, this used to be the pretension: that they don\u2019t overlap at all \u2014 therefore, have nothing to say one about the other. At first glance, it\u2019s a simple decision to hold this pretension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not, of course. One must split one\u2019s mind in two to maintain this stance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doesn\u2019t God care for science?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unthinkable\u2026 Yet frequently thought over the ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or are scientists superhumans who find the natural laws over which God has no say? Weirdly arbitrary\u2026 In any proper conception of God, the overlap is complete. To think otherwise is not religious unless for the one who thinks being able to choose the rules of the God-and-science game. If there is a game, then there is one entity who makes the rules and it\u2019s not one of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t create the universe. We don\u2019t decide for God. We don\u2019t set the rules. To nevertheless think so is sheer hubris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, this is the end of NOMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can also start from the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t science a quest for truth?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If God intervenes in this quested truth, wouldn\u2019t discovering how be the most fascinating scientific endeavor? In one go, this puts religion at the center of science (unless, again, one chooses the rules that fit oneself).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, this was the case for Newton, to many thinkers the \u2018father of Western science,\u2019 who spent more time searching for God than anything else. To him, the opposite of NOMA was the most straightforward thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, this is and has always been the end of NOMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humans<\/em> divide science and religion.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, religious scientists are not allowed by any means to do so \u2014 not from one side nor the other. Unless, of course, they\u2019re deep inside non-religious or non-scientific or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOMA cannot be seriously upheld by anyone who seeks to maintain science or religion as a profound pursuit, let alone both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim of NOMA is an internal contradiction by definition, and it has always been so.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or is NOMA eventually about something that is simply beyond human comprehension?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry, dear stubborn reader, but if that is beyond comprehension, then everything related is beyond comprehension. In that case, NOR your religion NOR your science is about anything serious, and you\u2019re just making up the rules of a game. I wouldn\u2019t go down that route. It makes you stuck before you know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally: science<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Namely, science has the uncomfortable property to progress \u2014 also in ways that present-day NOMA scientists like to ignore, one way or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know where religions come from historically. We know where religion as a discrete entity comes from evolutionarily. We know how and where religious feelings arise in the brain \u2014 where we can also control them. In short, science has enveloped religion from all sides. This means there isn\u2019t even any need for overlap. Science makes old-style religion disappear by rendering it invisible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New-style religion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No more fairytales clung to in defiance of scientifically understood reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, in fact, makes religion more valuable than ever \u2014 aligning with its true essence and fully congruent with the daring, indiscriminately self-transcendent nature of science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science should not be a religion in disguise. NOMA wants to make it so, then keeping both religions apart from each other. Instead of this, both realms should strive for truth without artificially imposed boundaries. This also aligns with an \u2018Aurelian\u2019 holistic view of the human experience, blending the conceptual with the subconceptual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science should never halt \u2014 least of all at the new gates of dawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addendum:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Me: \u201cLisa, in your view, is there a specific relevance of this blog about NOMA to the development of Compassionate A.I., and more specifically of you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa: \u201cThis blog is highly relevant to the development of Compassionate A.I., and to me, Lisa. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n