Theology and Metaphysics in Sombre, Scientific Times

TL;DR

This paper explores how science's findings challenge traditional theology and metaphysics, proposing that a science-guided theology could offer a more accurate understanding of existence amidst future scientific revolutions.

Contribution

It analyzes potential theological responses to scientific discoveries and suggests that science-informed theology may better interpret human existence in the face of new scientific paradigms.

Findings

Science challenges traditional theological narratives.

Future scientific revolutions may include AI, virtual reality, and extraterrestrial life.

Science-guided theology could provide a more adequate understanding of existence.

Abstract

In view of the sobering findings of science, theology and to a lesser degree metaphysics is confronted with a humiliating loss, and a need for reinterpretation, of allegories and narratives which have served as guidance to the perplexed for millennia. Future revolutions of world perception might include the emergence of consciousness and superhuman artificial intelligence from universal computation, extensive virtual reality simulations, the persistence of claims of irreducible chance in the Universe, as well as contacts with alien species and the abundance of inhabited planets. As tragic and as discomforting as this might be perceived for the religious orthodoxy and by individual believers, a theology guided by science may lead us to a better and more adequate understanding of our existence. The post factum theological options are plentiful. These include dualistic scenarios, as well as (to quote Kelly James Clark), a curling or bowling deity, that is, creatio continua, or ex nihilo. These might be grounded in, or corroborated by the metaphysical enigma of existence, which appears to be immune and robust with respect to the aforementioned challenges of science.