Science and religion.

"The Search for Truth" (December 26), Dennis Behreandt's excellent article about cosmogenesis and theology, can be supplemented with data from other areas of scientific research. I refer to studies about the power of prayer and meditation, the anthropoid principle, unified field research, and quantum indications of some of the traditional attributes of God, such as nonlocality (omnipresence) and zero-point energy (omnipotence).

Science in its true form is a rational system for investigating the universe. However, some scientists turn it into a closed philosophy called scientism. The philosophy is based on atheism and materialism, and holds that reality is only physical. It follows that what cannot be observed by science does not exist--i.e., there is nothing metaphysical in the universe.

It is to the credit of science that scientism itself is being shown its own shortcomings and blind spots. Perhaps the primary factor is parapsychology, formerly known as psychic research. In the 1980s the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) acknowledged that parapsychology was a legitimate scientific discipline. Although the AAAS did not comment on the findings of parapsychology, it found its methods to be scientifically rigorous.

Parapsychology studies three major areas of human experience: extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis (PK) and postmortem existence. The evidence obtained during more than a century of research indicates that the human mind can operate external to the body and even independent of the body. All this points to a rational basis for religious faith. The great religions of the world are united in their view that we humans are more than merely a body or bundle of matter; we have a nonmaterial aspect which points directly to the traditional concept that reality includes a metaphysical realm, and that the source of it all is the Divine Creator of the cosmos.

JOHN WHITE

Cheshire, Connecticut