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Science and Religious Experience
Are they similar forms of knowledge?

Grahame Miles
Grahame Miles taught Religious Education in Grammar and Comprehensive Schools, in selective and open-access Sixth Form Colleges, and in Primary Schools. He was Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Homerton College in the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1997. Two research projects focused on the development of religious concepts, attitudes and understanding in students aged 15–18, and one project with pupils aged 6–11years.

The nineteen, self-contained chapters, written by an experienced teacher of Religious Studies especially for undergraduates, A-level use, and other interested students and adults, explore our different ways of knowing, and how they relate to each other.

“Miles explores empirically, and through a review of recent literature, the question of the relationship of religious experience and scientific knowledge. Commencing with a brief examination of transcendental experiences, he looks at historical and contemporary theories of knowledge in detail from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective. A similar exploration of religious and mystical experience leads finally to the author’s effort to answer the question posed in his title. Miles rejects alike reductionistically conceived science and scientifically naïve theology as no longer viable in light of contemporary theories of knowledge. On the other hand, he believes that scientific and religious forms of knowledge are actually very similar and may complement one another. Also affirmed on the basis of his study of the nature of religious knowledge is the existence of fundamental values and beliefs shared by humanists (whether atheist or religionist) and by all faith communities that permit dialogue, peace, and harmony among them. This will be a critical text for all students of religious education, and may be read with profit by anyone interested in epistemology. Highly recommended.” Choice

“An excellent lecture in Cambridge, followed by a generous invitation to lunch from Sir Alister Hardy, and to see his Religious Experience Research Unit in Oxford in 1976, re-awakened Grahame Miles’ interest in religious experience. He then began thirty years of exploration and reflection. This book is, in part, a personal odyssey, begun as a boy aged ten, developed through a career as a Religious Education teacher in secondary schools and Senior Lecturer at Homerton College in the University of Cambridge. Miles focuses on religious experience and its relationship with science, and on what kind of knowledge they are. The book is partly designed for 6th form (levels 12 & 13) ‘A level’ and General Studies work on religious experience. Undergraduates would also find the book useful in this area. The book would also be of interest to teachers and the general reader.

A guide as to how to use the book is given, with a clear overview of the contents of each chapter, which are divided into easily digestible sections, with the arguments summarised at the end. This is invaluable, particularly as the material becomes more complex. School students in particular often do not have library resources to study many of the authors quoted, so Grahame Miles summarizes their work and follows that with his own comments.

The book offers a user-friendly guide to the epistemology of science and the humanities, showing how both types of knowledge begin with sense impressions, which are then interpreted through reason and understanding and ultimately accepted through the support of a believing community. Miles’ particular interest is in religious experience as a form of knowledge and he moves from a study of scientific knowledge to an overview of moral, personal and religious knowing. In all forms of knowledge there is room for interpretation, from very little in science, to more in the humanities and even more in the spiritual.

At the beginning is an encouraging disclaimer. Grahame Miles explains his own wariness of fearsome words such as ‘hermeneutics’ and admits to a distaste for footnotes but has to accept the use of both. He does, however, frequently explain difficult words and concepts. All this leads the student in gently, as does the first chapter, with a personal experience on Lake Windermere. Things get more complicated from then on, but Miles manages to summarise different kinds of knowledge in a lively and cogent manner. He traces the development of scientific thinking from Newtonian clarity to Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and Chaos Theory and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is also explained.

Miles then considers different ways of knowing which cross the boundaries of science and the humanities, showing that scientific discovery is not in fact objective, but subjective, led by scientists pursuing their own search for truth, formulating hypotheses which are subsequently rigorously tested. Miles then moves on to personal knowledge and emotional intelligence and brings the argument on to religious knowing. Various thinkers and approaches to religion are considered and then religious and mystical experiences. Research from Starbuck’s study of conversion in 1899 onwards is summarised.

Miles describes the work of Sir Alister Hardy and the Religious Experience Research Centre at the University of Wales, Lampeter. To obtain data on the religious experiences of ordinary people, Hardy posed a question in the national press, ‘Have you been aware of, or influenced by a presence or power, whether you call it God or not, which is different from your everyday self?’ The 3000 replies he received form the basis of the present day archive of over 6000 accounts of spiritual experiences. Miles discusses what can be learned from them, using the same process as for attaining scientific knowledge and describes his own research project with sixth form pupils (aged 17-19 years), where he found that 56% answered the ‘Hardy Question’ in the affirmative.

This is a fascinating read as well as an invaluable resource for students and teachers, a comprehensive account of a vast and complex subject.” Marianne Rankin, Chair of the Alister Hardy Society

Many people believe that science provides facts while religion is just opinion or beliefs. This book explores the structure and value of science and religious experience, and demonstrates how similar they are and how equally valuable and valid they are. After defining different forms of knowledge, e.g. biological, personal, moral, religious, the author explains how the structures of both the humanities and the sciences involve what we grasp through our senses, and how we interpret those impressions first by description, then by evidence collected, then by reason and understanding – all based on the foundation of basic beliefs.

One can no more prove scientific theory or that Moses heard God’s call, for each is upheld by a believing community. For factual claims are interpretations in both science and religion. In this work, objective science is examined against the subjective world of personal relations, the humanities and religion. Many scientists and religionists acknowledge a hierarchy of different forms of knowledge, e.g. empirical, chemical, personal and religious. Some fundamentalists (both scientific and religious) focus on one form of knowledge, when a range of forms of knowledge would provide a more balanced multi-focal perspective

	List of Contents to follow

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