The Matrix and Our Captivity

It is modern Western science that tells us humans arose from and are immersed within the matrix of the universe; we are the stuff of the cosmos.  This serves to define our limitations and set our boundaries. Senses and human reason represent filters and restrictions; not open ended conduits to reality.  Transcendent knowledge gives meaning to the matrix and is the only way to see it from the outside. Knowledge obtained from within, no matter its sophistication, begins and ends there. The attempt to subsume all knowledge into the realm of the matrix is a knowledge imperialism that falsely equates information with understanding. The Orthodox emphasis on apothatic theology is a reminder that human knowing is limited within the discussion of ultimate things, and is a necessary balance with cataphatic theology.  In order for there to be dialogue between religion and science, and in particular with Orthodoxy, science should derive a form of apothatic science to help restrain the penchant towards absolutism in the area of knowledge, what British philosopher Mary Midgley refers to as the myth that science is “Omnicompetent in all areas”.  The abuse of science beyond its limitations transforms a powerful method of knowledge into a pseudo-religion.  We cannot engage with a form of science that makes metaphysical assumptions so universal and dogmatic that they become a religion unto themselves, because then we have an interfaith conflict.