SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Nov. 21, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- A new book turns the scientific method on science itself and proposes what could be called the grand unification of science and religion. Jacob's Mirror by Bill McKee claims that one of science's basic assumptions is wrong, but that once it's corrected science resembles a "generic religion" that subscribes to many common religious principles like the Golden Rule.
For such an ambitious claim, McKee's theory is surprisingly simple. First, he says there are two facts all scientists agree on: that there is a world outside of us that scientists investigate, and that when they examine the world they must guard against subjectivity, the tendency of our beliefs to change how the world looks. Then he asks, What if the 'outsideness' of the world is itself caused by subjectivity? What if the world looks external to me only because I think I'm separate and apart from the world? The culprit, he says, is the ego, what he calls the "original sin," which subjectively makes everything else look external to us when it's not.
As proof of our connection with everything, McKee notes that many religious people claim they can influence events by faith alone, that is, by resisting the urge to do something to get what they want and instead letting God decide what's best for them. Science dismisses this as just another example of subjectivity: an internal attitude like faith cannot reach out and change the world outside of us, so the religious must be fooling themselves into seeing what they expect to see. But McKee argues that faith really works. In a moving personal account, he says that by accepting people and situations instead of trying to change them he is learning how, in scientific terms, to take down the wall of ego that separates him from what he wants and thereby supposedly make it more likely to happen. Of course, in the religious terms that McKee prefers, God gets all the credit.
McKee's most provocative claim is that if we take the ego and externality out of science, what's left agrees with many universal religious beliefs: "the impotence of pride and the futility of violence, the wisdom of humility and the power of faith, the advantages of the Golden Rule and the usefulness of God." If so, he may have pulled off the merger of science and religion he claims. If not, well, it's still an intriguing idea.
At 48 pages Jacob's Mirror is little more than a long essay, but it presents its complex ideas in an elegant prose and ably defends many religious claims that had seemed scientifically dubious. It could well ignite a new round of debates over religion, ethics, politics and even the nature of reality itself. It is not yet in bookstores, but can be ordered online through outlets like Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Borders.com. To learn more about the book visit www.jacobsmirror.com
About the Author
Bill McKee is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and currently lives in San Antonio. He is the author of "A Test of the Scientific Method," 60 Philosophy of Science 469 (Sept. 1993).
Jacob's Mirror by Bill McKee
A Reconciliation of Science and Religion
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