Secularity, Synchronicity, and Uncanny Science: Considerations and Challenges
Hussein Ali Agrama
Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, Vol. 56, No. 2
Summary
Examines the concept of synchronicity and its relationship to secular scientific epistemology, exploring how uncanny or anomalous events - those that resist naturalistic explanation - challenge the boundaries of modern science. Published in Zygon, the leading religion-science interdisciplinary journal, the paper provides a framework for thinking about anomalous phenomena within a secular academic context.
Abstract
In this essay, I discuss the reports and results of recent official studies of UFOs, and argue they may pose a challenge to contemporary science, religion, and secularity. While the question of UFOs has been well addressed with respect to religion, this essay, which is also a report on current research, highlights the challenge to secularity and some of its constitutive practices. It aims to show how current knowledge on UFOs renders both science and religion uncanny, placing them in a domain where they become irreducibly strange while unshakably familiar, pushing us to (re)consider some of the secular premises of the social sciences (e.g., anthropology) and the humanities (e.g., religious studies), and the possible need for new analytics.
Citation
Hussein Ali Agrama. (2021). Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. Vol. 56. No. 2. DOI: 10.1111/zygo.12671
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