Cora-Jean Robinson, "The Conflict of Science and Religion in Dynamic Sunyata"

Summary by Kimberly Hill

Cora Jean Robinson recounts Keiji Nishitani's proposal for a solution to the long-standing conflict between science and religion concerning how life originated and is defined. To reach the conclusion that sunyata, a state of nothingness that is able to embrace all aspects of life, including death, Robinson outlines the issues in both science and religion that are at the core of the conflict between them.

The history as outlined by this article explains that the advent of science occurred in Western Europe during the seventeenth century. It is in Western Europe that Christianity, beginning with the establishment and growth of the Church of Rome and continuing with the Reformation of the sixteenth century, flourished. On the heels of this growth came the advent of scientific inquiry, which at first was used by the Church to attempt to prove the existence of a God that, according to their theology, can only be subjectively experienced and in whom belief is based upon faith. As scientific inquiry developed its standards and methods of research via means of measurements, particularly the development of mathematics, and developed a mechanical view of life based upon what could be seen and quantified, the Church began to reject science. Robinson explains that the split occurred when the two sides became biased toward opposing views of the origin of life and its purpose.1

Religion was an explanation of life based upon individual purpose and the survival of physical death, all controlled by a god that did not physically manifest itself. On the other hand, science was an explanation of life based upon mechanical purpose, to which the ultimate end was physical death. Any attempt to claim there was a soul or spirit that survived the death of the physical body but could not be seen by humans was dismissed as unverifiable and therefore false.2

If religion and science both pertained to what was important to humans but excluded all other life forms, they would not necessarily be considered part of the law of nothingness, despite the reductionist approach of both. Unfortunately, on many counts the playing field between science and religion is not equal as both are founded on different premises concerning human life. Robinson applies Nishitani's sunyata as a possible solution to the problem of being unable to create meaningful dialog between the two schools of thought.

By applying the notion of indifference in both science and religion3, all sides and all life are included in any discussion concerning what life is. From the standpoint of sunyata, all sides, good/evil, love/hate, light/dark, etc. can be given the same meaning and importance because nothingness, by its indifference, is a way of bringing down barriers between perception and explanation and including all in discourse between science and religion. Neither side can claim complete objectivity or subjectivity. Humans can self-realize and define themselves and life through imperfection instead of measuring themselves against it.4

From this dissolution into the nothingness of sunyata, a new self emerges. On one hand, it is neither personal nor impersonal. On the other, it is both personal and impersonal such that a vivid and dynamic life unfolds from the oneness of nothingness that is sunyata, trascending mind and matter and embodying the true reality of both.

1 p. 104

2 p. 106

3 p. 109

4 pp. 109-111