Blurring Boundaries: Science and Religion in an Asian Context

Abstract

In discussing science and religion, it is often assumed that there is something we can call “science” and something we can call “religion.” Even if we are not sure exactly how to define the categories, we assume that the categories are both meaningful and distinct. However pervasive such assumptions may be in the West, Asian thought, like that of the Bible’s writers, does not generally share these assumptions. Rethinking such assumptions re-frames how we approach questions in Asia. Considering examples from Traditional Chinese Medicine, what practices might be viewed as being scientific, religious, both, or neither? How do the answers to this question alter Christian engagement? Such considerations are also of relevance beyond Asia. Analogous questions arise in many other cultures which struggle with importing Enlightenment dichotomies. The insights found may in turn allow us to view Western questions in a new light, allowing us to revisit issues that had been otherwise dropped on account of seeming to be either solved or unsolvable.