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Understanding Religion: The Challenge of E. O. Wilson
Research Articles
Understanding Religion: The Challenge of E. O. Wilson
Research Articles
Understanding Religion: The Challenge of E. O. Wilson

Abstract

E. O. Wilson's fundamental challenge is to bring knowledge and sensibility into an effective working relationship. Both ambivalence and opaqueness characterize his analysis of religion. Ambivalence refers to his conviction on the one hand that religion is essential for societal well‐being and genetically resourced and his prediction, on the other hand, that religion will be superseded by scientific reason; the opaqueness refers to his strange insistence that religion be subjected to tests of literal facticity, whereas, in contrast, the arts are exempted from this test, because they constitute a delivery system that impacts the sensibilities directly, with no particular concern for literalness. Wilson's analysis of religion should be brought into consonance with his view of the arts, thereby recognizing the importance of myth, symbol, metaphor, and analogy in religious formulations and their status as direct delivery systems to the sensibilities. Wilson's distinction between empiricist/materialist and transcendentaliist worldviews is reshaped by distinguishing between metaphysical and methodological transcendentalism. This reshaping enables us to recognize how the action required by human existence depends both on scientific knowledge and symbolic formulations that extend to human action, even though certain knowledge is lacking.

Keywords

metaphysicaltranscendentalism, knowledge, empiricist andtranscendentalist worldviews, sensibilities, methodological transcendentalism, E. O. Wilson, action., religion

How to Cite

Heffner, P., (2001) “Understanding Religion: The Challenge of E. O. Wilson”, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 36(2), 241–248. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/0591-2385.00355

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© 2024 The Author(s).

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Authors

Philip Heffner (Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science)

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Issue

  • Volume 36 • Issue 2 • June 2001

Publication details

Pages 241–248
Published on 2001-06-02

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Identifiers

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/0591-2385.00355

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  • PDF: fd9cca406c05f17ff25c21b7f4a9caca
  • XML: 46919888615d9f74f4f8b99e1c97be9a

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