Fritjof Capra - an essay from the Sutra Journal which he entitles "The relationship between science and spirituality".
(my underlinings)
"While scientists try to explain natural phenomena, the purpose of a
spiritual discipline is not to provide a description of the world. Its
purpose, rather, is to facilitate experiences that will change a
person’s self and way of life. However, in the interpretations of their
experiences mystics and spiritual teachers are often led to also make
statements about the nature of reality, causal relationships, the nature
of human consciousness, and the like. This allows us to compare their
descriptions of reality with corresponding descriptions by scientists.In
these spiritual traditions – for example, in the various schools of
Buddhism – the mystical experience is always primary; its descriptions
and interpretations are considered secondary and tentative, insufficient
to fully describe the spiritual experience. In a way, these
descriptions are not unlike the limited and approximate models in
science, which are always subject to further modifications and
improvements.
In the history of Christianity, by contrast,
theological statements about the nature of the world, or about human
nature, were often considered as literal truths, and any attempt to
question or modify them was deemed heretical. This rigid position of the
Church led to the well-known conflicts between science and
fundamentalist Christianity, which have continued to the present day. In
these conflicts, antagonistic positions are often taken on by
fundamentalists on both sides who fail to keep in mind the limited and
approximate nature of all scientific theories, on the one hand, and the
metaphorical and symbolic nature of the language in religious
scriptures, on the other. In recent years, such fundamentalist debates
have become especially problematic around the concept of a creator God.
(my underlinings)
