Hungarian Peculiarities of the Relation between Science and Religion

or

Pathology of the Relation between Science and Religion

Based on a Case Study of “The Hungarian Patient”

by Mihály Tóth, Pázmány Péter Catholic University / Szeged University, Hungary

The aim of the present paper is to analyse the state of health of this special clinical case in six steps:

First of all I will talk about the anamnesis, that is about the past of the religion-science dialogue in our country. As a second step I will describe some typical symptoms of our patient: some of them in an easy narrative, anecdotal way, some of them with more serious words. In the third step I will look around and see whom among the local specialists we could ask for consultation and assistance, that is I will introduce to you some significant Hungarian contributors to the religion-science dialogue. As a fourth step I try to give a diagnose. In the fifth step I will offer some examples of diagnostic attempts and symptomatic treatment, that is of recent initiatives of relating science and religion. Finally, I will try to suggest a substantial and causal therapy that may help our patient in the recovery as well as in preventing future troubles.

I. Anamnesis

The details of the history of the religion-science dialogue before the World War II are not revealed well enough yet. In point IV of this presentation I will mention a new project, of which one central goal is precisely to explore this history. Nevertheless, as a general characteristic of this early period we can say, that it might not have been very different from the history known in other parts of the Western world.

1 Now, as for the era beginning after the World War II, we are already much better informed. What is more, the happenings of the following decades have influenced the present situation to a great extent. Although the official ideology of the communist regime, Marxism was only a case of a minority of intellectuals in its proper philosophical sense, yet, as a long- term effect of Marxist world view and education many terms and concepts of a simplified - or vulgar - Marxism modified the way of thought of millions of Hungarians.

Among a number of other things the attitude toward religion was considerably influenced by the Marxist approach to the subject. Marx once called religion “the opium of the people”: this idea taken out of its original context led to the position of considering religion in general and each religious phenomenon individually as superstition, a result of ignorance, repression, powerlessness and fear. This concept of religion did not really take notice of the existing differences between the various religious phenomena, history books written according this point of view handled sacred prostitution of ancient Mediterranean cults and eucharistic rites of Christian denominations more or less at the same level.

This sharply critical opinion about religion might have had its roots in a number of cases in enlightenment traditions as well, but only in a small part of the population, first of all in some intellectual families. But the general spread of negative prejudices and even hostility toward religion were due to the aggressive anti-religious Marxist propaganda. Any kind of organised teaching of religion was illegal for long decades, priests and pastors attempting to care of the spiritual needs of young people were often imprisoned. Church institutes were systematically demoralised by the Communist state, first by the brutality of the state security, later by the conspiracy of the secret police and by means of the so-called “State Ecclesiastic

Office” which built up a net of informers among both clergyman and laymen. These activities were finally given up only as a consequence of the political turn in 1990.

2 On the other hand, one also has to admit that old resentments against the strict hierarchical, feudalistic and antidemocratic structures of several historical churches in

Hungary must have contributed to the relatively quick success of changing the human minds, for religion surely showed its particularly conservative face in Hungary in many aspects between the two world wars.

The effect of this change of attitude toward religion was devastating without exaggeration. The majority of three generations grew up without having any realistic information and imagination of what religion actually was. I have my own experiences with students at the faculties of art of several universities in the 90s who could not distinguish between Islamic and Christian beliefs; who thought that it was a historically proven fact that the man called Jesus never existed or that medieval monasteries were nothing else but homosexual communes and so on.

An important supplement to the latter point is that this widespread religious criticism among young people was directed mainly toward monotheistic traditions, particularly against

Judaism and Christianity. Members of the same generation accepted teachers and teachings of other, for example Far Eastern religious traditions - most of which appeared in our country legally only after the political changes at the end of the 80s - in a rush and nearly without any criticism. This shows clearly the intensity of their vital need of receiving religious orientation and answers of almost any kind, but the traditional ones.

Another essential and popular motif of the vulgar Marxism was the so called “scientific world view” and the exclusive materialism. This position and the belief in the unflagging progression of the natural sciences and technology was a late and somewhat anachronistic heir of the scientific optimism of the 19th century. By today we can experience the confusion that people feel after this obsolete position finally became untenable. Religion, but also traditional philosophy was once supposed to be replaced by the so-called “exact science” for ever,

3 however, only after a few decades it became obvious in a most spectacular way that this was just a naive dream of some disproportionately enthusiastic and excessive thinkers. And after the fall of the science from this glorified state and after the orientation by the omnipotent science had been lost, practically nothing remained to hold on to. I claim that the disappointment and the intellectual and spiritual crisis resulting from this situation have been even much deeper in the countries of the former Eastern bloc than in the Western world.

II. Symptoms

In the second half of the 90s I invited some leading Hungarian scientists - physicists, biologists, medical doctors - to give lectures on current scientific topics at a Catholic theological college, where I used to work at that time. Sooner or later almost each one of them told me: “I could hardly believe that somebody ever would invite me to such an institution…”

Once in the late 90s, when we were struggling for founding the Department of Religious

Studies at the Szeged University, in a discussion with university leaders we suddenly heard the following argument against our plans: “There is no need to teach or study religion at the universities as we have a law that prescribes religious freedom.”

A so called “Dispute about Disciplines” took place at the end of the 90s. The official aim of this dispute was to decide whether theology was a science (used in the broader sense of the German expression “Wissenschaft”), or not. For, if it is science, it can be in included in a list of sciences lead by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The actual motive of this classification was that according to the Law of Higher Education a university must have at least two faculties that offer carriers in at least three different sciences altogether - so the existence of some ecclesiastic educational institutions was at stake.

A few years ago I received a phone call from the producer of a religious TV program.

She wanted to ask me for participating in a discussion on a topic of which I had no idea at all.

4 After I had explained her that I was not the right man and after I had given her some ideas whom she should turn to, she asked me for some potential topics I could contribute to. One of the topics I mentioned was the relation between science and religion, particularly treating evolution and creation. The lady became silent for a while and suddenly continued with a somewhat harsh intonation: “I am a believer and so I know exactly that the only possible relation between these two fields is antagonistic controversy. If there is creation, there is no evolution.” Then she hung up and never called me again…

On March 18th, 2003 a conference took place in Budapest. It was organised by the group

ÉRTEM - this is a conjugated Hungarian verb meaning “I understand”, but is anagram at the same time and stands for the “Workgroup for the Theory of Intelligent Design”. The participants of the conference composed a public letter to the Minister of Education, in which they ask him to introduce creation theory into the curricula of lower and higher education as a scientific rival and alternative of evolutionary theory. The letter was signed by representatives of several Christian and non-Christian denominations, among them a Catholic bishop (I must admit that none of the official statements of the traditional Christian - i.e. Catholic, Calvinist,

Lutheran and Orthodox – churches in Hungary reflects such an extreme point of view; however, the fact that prominent members of the same churches together with the activists of the so-called ‘new religious movements' may participate in an initiative of this kind shows us the efficiency and the acceptance of the official teachings). Soon after the publication of this letter a written dispute began on the pages of the leading Hungarian daily, Népszabadság, with opinions engaged pro and contra. The same organisation declares on its homepage that although it has members with different denominational backgrounds, their basic common platform is that they all refuse any attempt of reconciling or combining creation with evolution.

5 In June 2003 I participated in the presentation of some books treating topics of philosophy of science, among them the translations of an excellent introductory work on religion and science. After I had finished the presentation of the latter work, an older man began to talk to the public and expounded that this new book might be interesting, but he could not imagine any relation between the pledge of progress, that is science, and the symbol of medieval stupidity and repression, that is religion. As soon as he finished, another man jumped before the audience and announced that he was a scientist and that more than twenty years ago he was in the USA where he saw a TV program. In that report there were representatives of seven or eight different parties of evolution discussing about the process of evolution, and when they could not agree, our man understood that evolutionary theory was just a deception. Soon after this surrealistic solo appearance the book presentation ended in general cacophony and was broken up shortly.

Finally, a survey examining the acceptance of the idea of evolution was not allowed at the Catholic university at the end of last year. Yet, the same survey was made at other universities, and its first results have been already analysed in a study (see in Step V).

What we see are examples of ignorance, deep distrust, suspicion and mutual accusation on both sides.

III. Consultation

One of the best known Hungarian representatives of the religion-science dialogue is the

Benedictine monk Szaniszló Jáki (Stanley L. Jaki) who has spent most of his life outside of

Hungary. He holds degrees both in Catholic theology and nuclear physics and has published a long series of books and articles on the relation of the two fields in the course of the last decades. Professor Jáki is the only Hungarian person who received the Templeton Prize, in

1987. His most relevant works written in English are Science and Creation: From Eternal

6 Cycles to an Oscillating Universe, The Road of Science and the Ways to God, Cosmos and

Creator, The Savior of Science as well as God and the Cosmologists. Some of the early writings were translated into Hungarian during the 70s and 80s, but they could not be published officially, so they circulated as type-written, “samizdat” copies for many years. An actual publication in Hungarian followed only in the 90s.

Another significant contributor to the topic is the Jesuit father and physicist, Ervin

Nemesszeghy. He also spent most of his life in Great Britain and Canada, so a great part of is work was published in English. Together with John Russell he wrote The Theology of

Evolution, then he was mainly interested in topics of epistemology and language theory. His study on theological cosmology titled Az anyagi világ (The Material World) was published in

Hungarian in Rome as part of a series of contemporary theological studies by Hungarian authors, and a collection of his studies written in Hungarian and English finally came out in

Hungary under the title Tudomány, hit, bölcselet. Összegyűjtött tanulmányok és előadások

(Science, Faith, Philosophy. Collected Studies and Lectures).

The Jesuit father and philosopher, Béla Weissmahr, professor of the Philosophical

College of the Jesuits in Munich and the Theological College of Szeged is best known through his innovative contributions to metaphysical thought. Nevertheless, many of his writings treat topics related to the religion-science dialogue. His theological dissertation

Gottes Wirken in der Welt. Ein Diskussionsbeitrag zur Frage der Evolution und des Wunders

(God’s Work in the World. Contribution to the Question of Evolution and Miracle) was written in German and deals with the philosophical and scientific interpretation of the

Christian concept of miracle as well as the cooperation between Creator and creature. The books Ontologie (Ontology) and Philosophische Gotteslehre (Philosophical Theology) published both in German and Hungarian continue this approach and try to give a transcendental neo-Thomist, philosophical explanation of an evolutionary world. Some of his

7 later studies as for example “Hit és tudomány a katolikus teológia szemszögéből. A keresztény teológia tudomány jellege” (“Faith and Science from the Point of View of Catholic

Theology. The Scientific Character of Christian Theology”) analyse further details of the question.

The Calvinist pastor and theologian, János Bolyki has been one of the most significant

Protestant participants of the recent religion-science dialogue in Hungary. He wrote his theological dissertation on the history of the topic with the title A természettudományok kérdései a XX. század teológiatörténetében (Questions of the Natural Sciences in the History of Theology of the 20th Century). Also in his later work he has returned again and again to the problem, just like in his book Hit és tudomány (Faith and Science) and has provided an excellent presentation of the development of modern Christian theology regarding its relation to the progress of the natural sciences.

Last but not least, mention has to be made of the Calvinist theologian, math and physics teacher, Botond Gaál. Beside many other writings treating the topic his book Az ész igazsága

és a világ valósága. Az egzakt tudományok történelmi fejlődése keresztyén nézőpontból (The

Truth of Reason and the Reality of the World. Historic Development of Exact Sciences from a

Christian Viewpoint) was published both in English and Hungarian.

General characteristic of these Hungarian contributors is that most of them are theologians - and with exception of the last person older people, over 70 -, only very few scientists have been involved in the discourse.

IV. Diagnose

There have been some initiations by religiously committed scientists. However, these occasions often did not afford more than that scientists of good will tried to demonstrate their

8 ability to separate religious conviction from scientific knowledge, as if such a separation was the only solution of the whole problem.

Thus my diagnose for this general ambiguity about science and religion is collective

“steady-state schizophrenia”, paraphrasing an expression taken from the famous book on the history of sciences by the Hungarian-born author, Arthur Koestler.

V. Symptomatic treatment

Some events from the beginning of the 90s make one hope, that the consultation with the above listed Hungarian and other international experts was not in vain, and that a process of treatment has already begun.

In 1994 some experts of both sides, that is science and religion were invited to the annual conference of the secondary school teachers of physics. The papers and conversations that took place at this conference are documented in the book titled Hit és tudomány.

Teológusok és fizikusok párbeszéde (Faith and Science. Dialogue of Theologians and

Physicists).

Between 1996 and 2002 a number of Hungarian professors and college teachers participated in the Science and Religion Course Competition of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS), Berkeley and the John Templeton Foundation, some of them won the award and offered these courses at their institutions, accompanied by a great interest of the students. One of the winners, László Végh, atomic physicist from Debrecen published also a book on the topic with the title Természettudomány és vallás (Natural Science and

Religion).

A project called “Religion and Evolution in Today’s Hungary - Hungarian Darwiniana” began at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the Eötvös Loránd

University, Budapest in 2001. This project started in order to co-ordinate the research of the

9 history of the reception of Darwinism in Hungary within the broader context of the relation between science and religion. One of the main achievements so far are the translation of

McGrath’s Science and Religion (see above) as well as a detailed bibliographical study of the

Hungarian theological and scientific literature. Some other important studies have been realized within the framework of the same initiative, such as Péter Török’s “The Relationship of New Religious Movements and Darwinism in Hungary”, a paper presented at the conference on Theology and Science in Conversation: The Changing Contexts of Central and

Eastern Europe in Bratislava (January 31-February 2, 2003) and a number of further studies as well as a conference on the main research topics are in sight. (Further quotation: Katalin

Mund: „How Do Students of Biology Believe? Religiosity Among Students at the Faculty of

Natural Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University”, 2004.)

The first serious attempt to analyse the peculiarities of the relation between science and religion in Hungary was the “Hungarian Darwiniana”. This project is now over, but the team members have created the so-called “3 Cultures Group” for promoting the dialogue between

Science, Christianity and Buddhism recently, and keep working together on related topics.

Finally, the last Annual Congress of the Catholic organisation Hungarian Pax Romana was held in Szeged in April 2003. Central topic of this congress was the encyclical “Fides et ratio” of John Paul II and the second day’s sessions treated first the relation between religion and the social sciences, and then the relation between religion and the natural sciences, respectively.

This, of course, was not an exhausting list of all the initiatives concerning the religion- science dialogue in Hungary, I only tried to make a selection of the most important events representing the main types of mutual approach.

10 VI. Suggested therapy

Although the above mentioned symptomatic treatment is important for the stabilising the state of health of our patient, further therapy is needed for the survival and a possible recovery.

The most important work to do is the proper education at different levels - that is elementary school, secondary school and higher education. Introduction of the topic “Religion and Science” into the curricula of physics, biology and also of religion. Furthermore, special courses are needed in the training of future teachers of natural sciences. Regular meetings should be held between representatives of different religious groups, teachers of religion on one hand and scientists as well as teachers of science on the other hand. Conferences, talks could inform the involved ones on both sides about recent developments, actual problems, ethical questions, global approaches. All this might be completed by more general information accessible also for the less specialised public, by books, multimedia or other materials in Hungarian, by occasional appearance in the mass media.

It is also to be expected that, in spite of all conservative clerical narrow-mindedness and after decades of institutionalised repression, free theological research will regain its power, and Hungarian theologians will benefit of many achievements of new theological approaches, particularly when dealing with questions of modern theism, practical theology as well as interdenominational and inter-religious dialogue. And there is the hope that they will not only copy others’ insights, but also creatively contribute to all these relevant topics.

Summary:

At first sight this conflict may not seem to be the most serious one, nevertheless, its roots are much deeper and its consequences reach much more far than one could expect. We find a strong bifurcation (Alfred North Whitehead: Science and the Modern World, 1925) in today’s

11 Hungarian society: deification of science/religion on one hand ; demonising science/religion on the other hand.

Ian Barbour - one of the classics of the discourse - describes the four stages of the relation of science and religion with the terms conflict, independence, dialogue and integration. In Hungary we find a mixture of the first two stages, together with some initial and rudimentary elements of the third phase. One can hardly recognise any sign of integration yet…

All this means, applying again the medical terms I used before, that there is still a long way of therapy ahead until the recovery of the Hungarian patient.

Illustration: Theologians and Scientist and Philosopher Challenged...

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