visionspeters

My Experience of and Vision for IRAS

Karl Peters

For forty years I have been a member of IRAS. IRAS and conferees have been my most significant source of ideas for constructively engaging the sciences in order to better understand and practice religion.

My experience fits with my understanding of the meaning “Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.” Religion is the focus; science provides the context. At the heart of this context is science’s understanding of cosmic, biological, and socio-cultural evolution.

Science has provided the context for my religious reflecting in two ways. First, the biological and social sciences have help me understand the functions of religion in human evolution. As one influenced by the thinking of Ralph Wendel Burhoe, founder of IRAS, I believe that an important task of religion is to facilitate the development in humans of four “M”s: meaning of our place in the scheme of things, moral guidance for how we should live, motivation to do good and not harm, and morale (hope) in times of adversity. In line with the thinking of anthropologist Ward Goodenough, the four M’s help humans “maintain” themselves in states of well-being. From Goodenough I’ve also learned that a function of religion is the “transformation” of humans from harmful ways of living to ways that are wholesome for ourselves and all on our planet. I understand this transformative function to be what some religions have expressed as “salvation.” These maintaining and transforming functions of religion for human beings are “things that matter” (from Loyal Rue) for the continuing survival and flourishing of ourselves and life on earth.

The second way science provides the context for my religious reflection is to give me the most up-to-date, well-tested knowledge about “how things happen” (Rue) in the cosmos, life on our planet, and the development of human beings in society. In the past, religions have usually sought to fulfill their tasks in light of the best knowledge of the time. As we gain more knowledge through the sciences, I find myself engaging in constructively reshaping how I think and act religiously. I explore how to reform religious ideas and practices that, while helpful in the past, are no longer consistent with current knowledge about ourselves and our world. My experience is that the members of IRAS have helped me very much to engage in this reforming enterprise.

In light of my experience in IRAS, my vision--my hope--for IRAS in the future is that its members help one another use scientific knowledge combined with personal experience to continue to better understand the significance of what religion does in human life (how it functions) and to reshape religious ideas and reform religious practices regarding what is most important, most valuable for human welfare and the welfare of our earthly home.

VISIONS FOR IRAS