Two Worlds or One: Complementarity in the Dialogue between Religion

In the dialogue between science and the spiritual, prior metaphysical commitments can radically alter the ground of discussion. I survey the effect of certain metaphysical commitments on the dialogue between science and religion, noting that commitments which appear to favor some sort of dualism, entailing a strict separation between the realm of science and the realm of the spiritual, seem to be the most successful in preventing an anti-realist interpretation of either religion or science. And yet dualism has the fatal flaw of making any connection between the scientific world and the spiritual world quite literally impossible, in addition to the fact that dualism is considered problematic in philosophy in general. I argue that the principle of complementarity (as it is used in physics) would preserve the possibility of smooth connection between science and religion by allowing the spiritual and the quantifiable to exist in the same world, while at the same time preventing precise aspects of scientific relations and spiritual relations from simultaneously being in view. As one brings the mathematical relations of science into focus, deeper spiritual relation becomes unclear and viceversa, on this view. Complementarity has been invoked in the relation between science and religion before; however, it has been misapplied in some instances and has not remained true to the principle as it occurs in physics in other instances. I present a thoroughgoing complementarity which avoids these pitfalls. I also conclude that if one accepts the principle of complementarity, many of the perceived conflicts between religion and science can be viewed as violations of the principle.