Science and Religion Should Help Each Other

TLDR: Science versus religion, right versus left: WHY?

Well, it doesn't come naturally. And God help the CDC.

   Sincerely, --my inner bioethicist

Why don't we have science AND religion, right AND left?

Pick your religion--that religion's teaching will encourage us to bravely engage with each other, help each other along the way, and in general, drop our armor in favor of vulnerability. Dalai Lama, thank you for articulating this beautifully in Beyond Religion, circa 2012.

Shouldn't we engage with each other to consider science and religion? If the state of the souls and bodies of the future of humanity define our individual and collective impact on the world, don't we want our religion(s) to assure our science is conducted humanely? And don't we want honest observation and reflection (ie, science) to inform us when our religious practices (i.e., how we treat each other) are yielding "off the mark," results--in other words, sin (the Hebrew word for sin literally means to "miss the mark.")

If the 1960s were the heyday of nuclear science (my favorite scientific era!), RIGHT NOW is the heyday of neuropsychology. Between then and now, the field of modern bioethics was born--that's the secular version of the moral code used to consider whether science has been conducted humanely. It often has not. For reference, read about the mid-20th-Century Tuskegee Study of syphilis (on African American men), the Willowbrook State School vaccine studies of the 1970s (on disabled, institutionalized children), or how HeLa cells, which I've personally tended in cancer research, came to be stolen from Henrietta Lacks in 1951, without her awareness or consent.

I love humanity, and I believe that we need our science and our moral codes to inform each other, for the sake of humanity. We need to be Einsteinian about how we approach the conversation--in other words--we need to spend 95% of our time and energy in contemplation of the problems and 5% in the work of solving them.

We won't always agree. But we should be honest with each other and--most importantly--ourselves about the beliefs and fears that cause our disagreements.

Why is it so hard to use the science of morality to inform our religious practices? There are large bodies of literature about this, but in a nutshell, our brains can only function altruistically when we intentionally direct them out of the "finite pie," scarcity mindset and take them into what Simon Sinek calls Infinite Mindset, or what many know as growth mindset. We do not all or always have access to the playbook for how to do this. Even with a "how-to guide", I know firsthand that holding an Infinite Mindset is near-impossible while going through cancer treatment during the pandemic.

I know if I get cancer again, my Calamity Jane Brain will kick in again. I will be terrified. And it's weird--I wasn't super afraid of dying. Death seemed sad, but peaceful. I was afraid of the disruptions: would I get neuropathy and not be able to continue to practice surgery? Would my patients and colleagues trust me as I lost my hair and energy and body parts? Would I still be able to run in the mountains with my husband, do backbends, and essentially be a Care-Giver, rather than a Care-Receiver? Living towards that unknown, but surely changed, future identity terrified me. The difference, in the mortal disease experience, is that you do not get to choose whether to engage. It's too personal. Even if you pretend it's not there, the disease will eventually win if you don't hold space for engaging in healing. Reluctantly, I engaged. Not just with the science and medicine of treating the cancerous cells, but with the existential questions of what I would make the journey mean.

Engaging is uncomfortable and disruptive. There were many ugly cries. There were two difficult, expensive, wondrous and irreplaceable cross-country moves, as I determined who I wanted to be and a place where I could plant and thrive in this new phase. It was a flavor of forced-family-fun in which all my internal versions and voices had to hash it out at the existential round table. I didn't know the outcome, but I knew I'd rather die trying to live my best life than to just give up.

I figure God either intended to grant me eternal peace or an improvement in character. So far, it's the latter.

So here I am, asking us all to show up and hold space for one another. Engage. Allow science and religion to co-exist. If you don't want your diseases prevented or treated, that's fine. But for those of us who do, please do not let your brain trick you into believing that fighting science is moral or just.

And when I say, "God help the CDC," I mean all of us, you too. If you are a Believer, I know you believe God is in you. Do not make this about your or my individual rights, entitlements, or whatever. Make the conversation about US AND THEM--TOGETHER--all of God's children--and how we might help each other the next time someone is diagnosed with cancer or a terrible infectious disease.

Mayhem creates opportunity. Let's create some order from this chaos.