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The United States is a leading power in science and engineering but it is also far more religious than most industrialized nations. This means that there is ample opportunity for conflict between the worldviews of religious traditions and science. While most of the media attention devoted to religion and science centers on the supposed conflict between them, a new Pew Research Center poll finds that “those who are most religiously observant (as measured by frequency of worship service attendance) are the least likely to perceive a clash between faith and science.” Surprisingly, those with no religious affiliation are more likely to see a conflict between religion and science.

Professor emeritus Raman deals with the title theme in 10 chapters: Introduction, On science and religion, Epistemological aspects, Explanatory dimensions, Belief systems and God, Spiritual aspects, Ethical aspects, Dissimilar visions on common themes, Origins and ends, Concluding thoughts. All of these issues are dealt with elsewhere. So, why should anybody read this book? The answer is because of the overarching, encompassing, balanced, knowledgeable approach of the author, his sure, differentiating discernment, and his positive attitude. It is no secret that discussions of science and religion give rise to controversies, and (too) often to sterile confrontations. The present volume is a guidepost for better, more fruitful ways to go about difficult (controversial) issues. Raman describes himself as "one whose mind has been enriched by science and who has derived fulfillment from religious associations" (p. 7). He wishes to foster readers' similar experiences. The volume is dedicated to "all men and women of goodwill who recognize whatever is ennobling and enhancing in both religion and science, and choose to discard what is not" (p. v).

Even the most sympathetic observer has to admit that religious beliefs are often very strange. Indeed, while nearly all agree that Santa Claus does not actually live at the North Pole, employ elves, or fly with the assistance of reindeer, the majority of us still believe in God according to any number of recent studies. Religious beliefs would thus seem to be somehow fundamentally different from more everyday judgments, but a new study by Sam Harris and Jonas T. Kaplan, et al., suggests that, on the contrary, regardless of what the belief is about, judgments of the truth of a proposition are realized in the same regions of the brain.

Concepts like “religion” and “spirituality” are notoriously difficult to define. Does religion have to do with ethical norms, as Kant claimed? Or is it, as sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote, “something eminently social?” And how are religion and spirituality related? In his highly readable book Spiritual Evolution (Broadway Books, 2008), Harvard psychiatrist George E. Vaillant lays out a fascinating argument: that spirituality has primarily to do with positive emotions such as joy, compassion, awe, and gratitude, and that during the course of human history these emotions have been, and continue to be, evolutionarily adaptive.

Altruism is something of a puzzle. Without selfless behavior in at least some social situations human life would likely descend into something, well, less than humane. So the social benefits are not hard to imagine. But still, when we help an elderly person to cross a busy street, we’re expending energy to perform a task that is not obviously helpful to ourselves or perhaps even for the species. Somehow, though, it seems like the right thing to do. Often such behavior is understood as the result of moral sympathy and conscience. In other words, we tend to think of selfless behavior as a kind of self-regulation that relies on an inner sense of right and wrong for its origin and actualization. Less comfortable perhaps is the possibility, explored in a recent article in the journal Cognition, that the prospect of condemnation by others plays an important role in motivating conscience and altruistic behaviors.