Science and Ultimate Reality

Science and Ultimate Reality is about the constraints that the natural sciences place on theological theories of ultimate reality. The natural-theology ideal of scientific information about nature directly entailing some degree of knowledge about ultimate reality has struggled in recent centuries, despite its modest revival in Intelligent Design theory. The complete independence of theology and the sciences in regard to models of ultimate reality seems equally mistaken. This book defends a constraint-without-determination view of the relationship between fundamental physics and fundamental biology, on the one hand, and theological interpretations of ultimate reality, on the other. It demonstrates that multidisciplinary approaches to such basic questions in metaphysics and theology are necessary and fruitful. Wesley Wildman advances a constructive theological argument, revisiting basic issues at the junction of science, philosophy, and religion with a view to seeing if science can support a more adequate idea of ultimate reality. The conclusion points out that the antecedents of this religious naturalist Ground-of-Being view have classical standing within ancient philosophical and theological traditions in West Asian, South Asian, and East Asian cultural contexts. It argues that a Ground-of-Being account of ultimate reality in a religious naturalist metaphysical framework has great promise for theologians and religious philosophers working closely and compatibly with the natural sciences.