AAUA Governing Council
Member Counsels Nigerians on Science, Religion Benefits
A don and member of the Governing Council, Adekunle Ajasin
University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria, Prof. Jacob Olupona, on
Tuesday, March 17, 2015, advised Nigerians to strike a balance between science
and religion in order to enhance national development.
Olupona, a Professor of African and
African American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Science, and Professor of African
Religious Tradition at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, gave the
advice while delivering the Foundation Day lecture of the Federal University of
Technology, Akure, FUTA, entitled, “God Is in the Laboratory: Religion,
Science, and the Search for Knowledge in Nigeria”.
He said, “Events in Nigeria today
require that we begin to make a shift in focus on religion as a position of
faith to a greater emphasis on religion as an ethical engagement. If we can embrace the intellectual foundations
of our faith traditions, particularly their quest for deep knowledge, we will
bring progress to our nation and contribute to the success of our social
development.”
The Guest Lecturer explained
further, “Basically, there is connection between science and religion and in
the search for knowledge, the two are involved. And we also need to know the
limitations of each one. And if we are able to do that as Nigerians we will be
able to achieve quite a lot.”
Prof. Olupona added that scholars
must work together to deconstruct the colonial and imperialistic history of
science and religion, and seek to understand how the society constructed and
perceived local knowledge in the past, and how local knowledge and experiences
can be revived to save the nation from crisis.
Noting that God is in the
laboratory, the Professor of African Religious Tradition said, “The scientist
and engineer are co-creating with the Creator in the awe-inspiring inventions
that have allowed people to live longer. God’s miraculous ability to heal the
body occurs not only through prayer but also through those who first identified
what a cancer cell looked like, those who designed mammogram machines, and
those who invented chemotherapy.”
Prof. Olupona lamented the serious
religious crisis facing Nigeria and attributed them to “overdependence on faith
alone, the dissociation of faith from reason, and the promotion of irrational
faith traditions. The solution lies in recognizing that faith and reason
complement each other and that religious knowledge or practice without
scientific reasoning is incomplete.”
He said that the written records of
the nation’s history, the indigenous medical knowledge that healed us for
centuries, the history of our own scientists, doctors and great thinkers were
reservoir of sacred knowledge that must be collected and preserved.
The Foundation Day lecture was
attended by many Nigerian university administrators, including the AAUA
Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, His
Excellency, Ambassador Oladele Akadiri, OON, the Vice Chancellor, Prof.
Igbekele Ajibefun; royal fathers and religious leaders.
Caption:
AAUA Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of
Governing Council, His Excellency, Ambassador Oladele Akadiri, OON (2nd Right); AAUA VC,
Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun (1st Right); Guest Lecturer of FUTA
Foundation Day Lecture and member of AAUA Governing Council, Prof. Jacob
Olupona (2nd Left); and FUTA VC, Prof. Adebiyi Daramola, in a group
photograph after the FUTA Foundation Day Lecture… on Tuesday last week. Photo:
IPPRU
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