Original photo by: astique I have been thinking a lot about science and religion, in part because of the debate over health care, with people of different religious convictions coming out on both sides of the issue. Do we support individual rights by keeping government out of health care? Or do we ensure some measure of equality and community by moving health care out of the for-profit business model through more government involvement? In a religious sense, the first group may value a personal, transforming relationship with God, while the second may base their opinions on a sense of the religious call to work for the common good, with a special concern for the poor and the powerless. I won’t venture my position here, though if you have read my previous posts you may make a good guess.

What seems missing from the debate, in my opinion, is science. I hear a lot of ideology coming out of Washington and being espoused at town hall meetings and by protesters on both sides of the issue. I don’t hear much from people who have studied various health care systems and have gathered good information about what systems work and why they work and how to practically adapt such systems in the United States.

I think that science is fundamentally about information and religion is fundamentally about relationship. The word religion comes from the Latin "to reconnect." Immanuel Kant wrote in The Critique of Pure Reason that human reason has gone from the position towards nature as that of a pupil before the teacher, to that of a judge before a witness. In other words, science has become more about information and less about a basic curiosity and respect and even love for nature. On the other hand, religion has become more and more self-centered. When Catholic Bishops care more about the reputation of the Church and less about the welfare of the poorest and most vulnerable in their communities, we have a problem. When popular preachers use their influence to push a particular political agenda, while enriching themselves in the process, we have a problem.

I don’t know how the debate about health care will turn out, but I do have an example of how it can work. I take medication for a chronic condition, and see a doctor two or three times a year to discuss my medication, make adjustments, and so on. With her help I have been able to live a pretty healthy and fulfilled life. She spent years in medical school working very hard to gather information about the human body, its deceases, and its cures. She has spent many years gaining experience in applying that information in particular cases. But when I see her there is more going on then the passing of information. I believe she cares how I am doing. I think, within the boundaries of her profession, that she loves me, as she does her other patients with whom she has been able to build a relationship over time. However the health care debate turns out, I hope it allows more people to have the kind of relationship I have with my doctor. And I hope that it encourages more doctors to be healers, and not just dispensers of information and pills.

The universe is made of stories.

The Universe Is Made of Stories
I think the central story of Christianity is not one of the parables of Jesus, or even his death and resurrection, but a simple story of a meal shared with friends. The story goes like this: Jesus took a loaf of bread in his hands, blessed it, broke it, and shared it with those around him. This story tells me how to live a good life. If I take each moment as it comes, if I enter into the moment, if I don't hold back, if I share the moment with those around me, then I am living a good life–solving a problem at my job, sharing the road on my way home, sharing dinner with my wife, reading a good novel while she practices at the piano, making love, taking out the trash, and walking the dog.

Religious people argue with atheists and scientific materialists over the existence of God. Agnostics, people who may have a sense of the sacred in their lives, who claim to be spiritual, but not religious, reject any formal organization of religious thought and practice. There is truth in every perspective, but I want to try to answer the atheists and the agnostics. I'll use poet Muriel Rukeyser in my answer to the atheists. She wrote "The universe is made of stories, not atoms." There are scientific stories, such as the Big Bang theory about the origins of the universe, or Sir Isaac Newton's story of a canon ball's trajectory from the mouth of a canon. And there are religious stories like the one I described above. Scientific stories and religious stories are qualitatively different. Maybe scientific stories tell us how things work and religious stories tell us how to live a good life.

In my answer to the agnostics I will use poetry as well. Poetry is particular. Jane Kenyon wrote a poem about a man in a coffee shop eating yogurt out of a container with a white plastic spoon. She could have written about eating in general, but I don't think it would have made a very interesting poem. Religion is particular and interesting, while spirituality is general and boring. Someone who samples a number of religious traditions is still being religious, I think. They just may be missing the benefit of going deeply into any one tradition.

Religious traditions tell different stories about what it is to be human and what it means to live a good life in a particular culture. I wonder if Catholicism would make more sense in Asian cultures if, instead of using bread in the Mass, we used rice cakes. Christianity took root in Latin America only after the Blessed Mother appeared to Juan Diego, a poor peasant, in the form of a "mestiza," a woman of mixed European and American Indian descent. Buddhism, with its story of Siddhartha finding enlightenment beneath the Bodi tree, seems to make perfect sense to many people in the West, and many people in the West find enlightenment and wisdom through the Sufi poet Rumi, an excellent story teller. The central Jewish story of the exodus from slavery in Egypt has had meaning for other oppressed peoples, especially those in Latin America.

I think the universe is made of stories–scientific and religious types of stories. I could not imagine life without either one of them.

Jim Gunshinan is Managing Editor of Home Energy Magazine. He holds an M.S. in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from University of Notre Dame.