David Ray Griffin claims that the commonly perceived conflict between religion and science, or between religious and scientific assertions is primarily that of worldview, or philosophical stance. Science is predominantly associated with the philosophy of materialistic naturalism, whereas religion is predominantly associated with supernaturalism. Griffin believes that the conflict between these worldviews can be overcome by a mutual modification based upon the tenets of process philosophy, thus allowing for one integrated worldview. In science this modification involves the adoption of a minimal as opposed to a maximal form of naturalism. In religion, this modification involves the adoption of naturalistic as opposed to supernaturalistic theism. Griffin argues that each respective domain would be more coherent and fruitful if these modifications were to be made. This study examines the details of this argument, and considers whether Griffin's process offering is religiously and scientifically compelling, or whether it is simply potentially philosophically satisfying.

Vivekananda's thought has been subject to many different interpretations. In the 1890s. Krishna Verma, writing for the journal Sociologist, claimed that Vivekananda was influenced by the evolutionary ideas of Herbert Spencer, which emphasized struggle and the eventual survival of the fittest. Verma therefore concluded that Vivekananda advocated what Verma called `righteous terrorism', which was an attempt to purify the Indian race, to weed out the weak and to create a society of strong, robust individuals. In recent years, the Bharatiya Janata Party has tended to appropriate Vivekananda for its own political purposes by interpreting him as an ideologist of its brand of Hinduism. There are others who have seen Vivekananda as a socialist; an interpretation that became prominent in the twentieth century Indian nationalist movement.I wish to argue that although these and other interpretations capture important aspects of Vivekananda's thought, they do not do him full justice. My basic contention in this thesis would be that Vivekananda's project was larger than has been traditionally interpreted and largely consisted in the spiritual and political regeneration of the Indian civilization. Vivekananda thought that India had steadily become degenerate over the last few centuries: its people were divided, they lacked vitality, and possessed no spirit of social service. Moreover, he thought that the traditional Hindu thought had a deep structural tendency to oscillate between anarchic individualism, on the one hand, and collective authoritarianism, on the other. This was evident, for example, in the fact that while the Hindu was free religiously to choose whatever beliefs s/he liked, socially s/he was bound by the rigid norms of his/her caste. For these and other reasons, Vivekananda thought that Indian society, and especially Hindu society, had reached a point where it must either radically regenerate itself, or disintegrate and disappear.

The following study is an attempt to ascertain the most adequate way to understand the relationship in modernity between religion and technology. This relationship is first analyzed by looking at a common way in which technology has been categorized and discussed as representing the religion of modernity. The first chapter critically evaluates several popular and scholarly works which contain arguments for understanding that the modern world participates in some kind of 'religion of technology.' The inadequacies of these arguments are shown to arise from the problematic ways in which they invoke the meanings of both religion and technology. The suggestive possibility of viewing religion as a kind of technology leads to a consideration of how technology is being understood in the field of the philosophy of technology. / The second chapter discusses the influence and responses to the conflation of technology and religion as manifestations of the same phenomenon in Euro-American philosophy. Influenced by German philosopher Martin Heidegger, this stream of thought takes as axiomatic his contention that "technique is the metaphysics of our time." The currency of the 'religion/technology' philosophy in European thought leads to a critical body of work amongst some North American philosophers concerned with a practical approach to technology. / In chapters three and four the work of two of these North American philosophers, Don Ihde and Albert Borgmann, is analyzed to evaluate their responses and reactions to the metaphysical and onto-theological interpretation of technology. Their interpretations contain an inherently religious understanding of modern technology which leads to the conclusion that there is neither religion nor technology in modernity, but only religious technology and technological religion. / The possibilities raised by this state of affairs are explored in the conclusion. The work of these philosophers of technology reveals how the study of religion in modernity would benefit from understanding the quotidian and material way in which religion is manifested technologically and technology religiously. Avenues of future research can address issues regarding globalization, cross-cultural technology implementation and how to understand the place of religion in global techno-culture from the development of a new praxis -oriented philosophy of technology-religion.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-233). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (PhD--Theology)--University of Auckland, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also issued online.

Habilitationsschrift--Münster. / Bibliography: p. 255-271.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-129).

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Reiner Smolinski, committee chair; Robert Sattelmeyer, Paul Schmidt, committee members. Electronic text (83 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed August 4, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-83).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-45).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-44).