Karl Popper and Religious Knowledge

Academic Paper from the year 2017 in the subject Theology - Comparative Religion Studies, , language: English, abstract: The dominance of reductive materialism in contemporary society calls for a new approach to religious epistemology and metaphysics. Traditionally, Christian theology has relied on Greek philosophy to provide its metaphysical grounding, but this is not able to respond adequately to the empiricism that underlies reductive materialism. In these circumstances a new approach is needed, one that can be provided by the epistemology and metaphysics of Karl Popper. Popper's philosophy, like reductive materialism, is a product of the Enlightenment and can challenge the latter on its own terms. The case for the new approach is argued, first by describing those aspects of Popper's philosophy which are relevant to theological discourse, and secondly by discussing how the methodology thus presented can be applied to certain typical theological doctrines. The intention is to propose a new approach to theology, not a new theological system. By reductive materialism is meant the belief that all phenomena are reducible to bodily entities and the forces that act upon them, leaving no room for mental and transcendental phenomena other than, at best, as epiphenomena or, at worst, as illusions. Reductive materialism is broad in scope ranging from the hard form adopted by many natural scientists to the soft form adopted, by imitation, by people influenced by secularism and the immense success of scientific endeavour.

The author holds a PhD in experimental psychology from the University of London. He worked as a research scientist from 1954 to 1967 for the Medical Research Council based at University College London and at the National Institute for Industrial Psychology, and from 1967 to 1990 at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. His research interests included perceptual-motor skills and railway accidents. From 1990 to 1995 he was an associate consultant with Human Systems Incorporated of Guelph, Ontario. In 1995 he was president of the Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d'ergonomie. He is now retired and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.