This paper explores the intellectual history of the principle of the harmony of science and religion within the Bahá'í Faith through an analysis of the writings of four prominent Bahá'í scholars: Alimorad Davoudi (1922–1979), William Hatcher (1935–2005), Farzam Arbab (1941–2020), and Todd Smith. Over the last fifty years, these thinkers have developed and reflected on the principle of science and religion, and have conceptualized it in various ways, reflecting an evolving understanding of its theoretical and practical implications.
Alimorad Davoudi contributed significantly to early Bahá'í discourse on science and religion by identifying them as distinct yet complementary systems of knowledge. He emphasized the independence of these domains while outlining how their harmonious coexistence could guide human progress. William Hatcher advanced the discourse by critiquing materialism and emphasizing the rationalization of religious arguments. He highlighted the structural similarities between science and religion as systems of knowledge, marking an important step in the Bahá'í discourse on science and religion, demonstrating how materialistic claims often contradict the very nature of science itself.
Building on these foundational perspectives, Farzam Arbab and Todd Smith have expanded these ideas, drawing on the philosophy of science—incorporating thinkers like Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, and Lakatos—and related fields such as the philosophy of mind. Like Davoudi, they affirm the complementary roles of science and religion; like Hatcher, they view these as comparable systems of knowledge. However, they propose a dynamic interplay between the two, addressing ontological presumptions, theory-ladenness, and underdetermination. Their framework rejects positivist limitations, envisioning a model where science and religion interact constructively, maintaining scientific rigor while adhering to religious principles that promote societal prosperity.
This paper analyzes the intellectual development of the Bahá'í principle of the harmony of science and religion through the works of Alimorad Davoudi, William Hatcher, Farzam Arbab, and Todd Smith. Over the last fifty years, these scholars have conceptualized the relationship between science and religion, evolving the discourse from Davoudi’s early delineation of their distinct yet complementary roles to Hatcher’s critique of materialism and emphasis on rational religious argumentation. Arbab and Smith build upon these foundations, integrating the philosophy of science and addressing key issues such as theory-ladenness and underdetermination. While affirming the complementarity of science and religion, they reject positivist limitations, proposing a dynamic, constructive interaction between the two systems. This paper traces the evolution of Bahá'í thought on this subject, highlighting its implications for both theoretical and practical applications in the understanding of knowledge.