Thanks to everybody who responded. I read all the comments and did some more thinking. I also found this PDF (Hebrew) of a speech he gave on the subject. Here’s my summary of what I think he means, more or less:
Scientific statements are models of physical reality, but they’re the map and not the territory. Religious statements are also models, but they’re primarily maps of one’s personal version of an aesthetic / emotional / moral system of “reality” rather than physical reality. If to experience the beauty of Judaism that means using a model that views the world as having been created in 6 days, that’s perfectly fine because it’s only a model in our mind anyway and it doesn’t have to conform to physical reality.
Stated in other words: I think he’s appealing to the idea of separate magisteria, but he’s extending it way beyond saying that religion deals with values while science deals with reality. He’s saying that even the statements of fact, like young earth creationism, are a separate magisteria from scientific statements of reality. That’s sort of compartmentalization, although it’s more similar to suspension of disbelief. But ultimately I think it’s more of a combination of all of those concepts.
But the upshot seems to be that he doesn’t think religious “facts” correspond to external physical reality. As he says, many religious people wouldn’t agree with him on this. Having grown up as an Orthodox Jew myself, I’d say this is an extreme understatement. Most Ultra-Orthodox Jews (I’m not so sure about Modern Orthodox, since I didn’t grow up in that community), and most of the rabbis he looks up to, would probably consider such a statement to be complete heresy.
I’m also curious if Aumann puts the entire concept of God into this alternative personal “map of reality” that doesn’t really correspond to “physical” reality. Does he think there is a God that really (in quasi-physical terms) created the world and/or guides the world and/or answers prayers and/or rewards and punishes people in heaven / hell?
Does he more or less say that religion only exists in a virtual reality, which he “believes” only because doing so is aesthetically pleasant?
So, if I choose my “religion” to be e.g. Tolkien’s canon, it is equally valid as Judaism, and any objections can only be made on the aesthetical level (such as “I find circumcision to be more cute than elves and orcs”)?
Thanks to everybody who responded. I read all the comments and did some more thinking. I also found this PDF (Hebrew) of a speech he gave on the subject. Here’s my summary of what I think he means, more or less:
Scientific statements are models of physical reality, but they’re the map and not the territory. Religious statements are also models, but they’re primarily maps of one’s personal version of an aesthetic / emotional / moral system of “reality” rather than physical reality. If to experience the beauty of Judaism that means using a model that views the world as having been created in 6 days, that’s perfectly fine because it’s only a model in our mind anyway and it doesn’t have to conform to physical reality.
Stated in other words: I think he’s appealing to the idea of separate magisteria, but he’s extending it way beyond saying that religion deals with values while science deals with reality. He’s saying that even the statements of fact, like young earth creationism, are a separate magisteria from scientific statements of reality. That’s sort of compartmentalization, although it’s more similar to suspension of disbelief. But ultimately I think it’s more of a combination of all of those concepts.
But the upshot seems to be that he doesn’t think religious “facts” correspond to external physical reality. As he says, many religious people wouldn’t agree with him on this. Having grown up as an Orthodox Jew myself, I’d say this is an extreme understatement. Most Ultra-Orthodox Jews (I’m not so sure about Modern Orthodox, since I didn’t grow up in that community), and most of the rabbis he looks up to, would probably consider such a statement to be complete heresy.
I’m also curious if Aumann puts the entire concept of God into this alternative personal “map of reality” that doesn’t really correspond to “physical” reality. Does he think there is a God that really (in quasi-physical terms) created the world and/or guides the world and/or answers prayers and/or rewards and punishes people in heaven / hell?
Does he more or less say that religion only exists in a virtual reality, which he “believes” only because doing so is aesthetically pleasant?
So, if I choose my “religion” to be e.g. Tolkien’s canon, it is equally valid as Judaism, and any objections can only be made on the aesthetical level (such as “I find circumcision to be more cute than elves and orcs”)?