Conference paper
SCIENCE AND RELIGIONS ON THE BEGINNING OF LIFE
Asim Kurjak
; Clinics of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Sveti Duh General Hospital, Zagreb
Abstract
Life does not only include forms in which it exists today; it includes also the former primitive as well as all future forms of existence. Life is represented by living creatures, and they have their individuality, the capacity of self–regulation, and procreation. Some bioethicists believe that human life completely begins only with the development of brain functions, which can be recorded by EEG some 6 weeks after the fertilization. The basic difficulty with such a definition lies in the fact that a brain death marks the end of human life, which is not debatable at all.
The question about the beginning of human being can only be answered by a mutual combination of historical, religious, philosophical and medical conceptions. It is not easy to draw a fine dividing line between competences of science and metaphysics. For a good part it depends on an individual's basic philosophical atittude. Only in recent times the great many of scientists and some theologians have conceived that scientific and religious “truths” are complementary and thus only methodologically independent from each other. Science differs from religion in so far as its truths can and must be experimentally verifiable, and its methods of perception can be learnt. Religion existed before science, yet science is not an extension of religion. Each of them should retain its own principles, different interpretations and its own conclusions.
Keywords
conception; life; religions; science
Hrčak ID:
141719
URI
Publication date:
15.1.2000.
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