Slideshow on Science & Religion, Slide 2: Matter & Reality

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Mehrdad Zarandi, editor of Science and the Myth of Progress, tells us in the Preface that

There are many truths that pertain to the “how” of existence, and modern science offers them in abundance. But these should not be confused with Truth, which pertains to the “why” of existence and to its “final cause.…”

and that modern thought is based on three basic tenets:

• The centrality of material or physical reality.
• The primacy of the rational faculty and the experimental method as the means of human knowledge.
• The definition of the human vocation, and its ultimate wellbeing, as the quantifiable understanding of “how” material reality functions.

He sees the purpose of Science and the Myth of Progress as seeking to challenge these assumptions and to answer the following questions:

• Is material or physical reality the only form, or the central form, of reality?
• Is the rational faculty the only faculty, or the central faculty, of human knowledge?
• Is the most profound and complete definition of human nature given by our knowledge of material reality?