Questioning God at the Edge of Science... UNIST Professor Seungbae Park Publishes Introductory Philosophy of Religion Book for Science and Engineering Students

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion
Through Quantum Field Theory and Cognitive Science

How does science explain the world, and what does religion have to say?

UNIST (President Chong Rae Park) announced that Seungbae Park, Professor in the Department of Humanities, has published an introductory book on the philosophy of religion, Reflections upon Religion, through Korea Academic Information Co., Ltd.

Unlike existing introductory texts on the philosophy of religion, this book is tailored for students of science and engineering.

Cover of the book Reflections upon Religion.

It addresses topics in the philosophy of religion from a scientific perspective. For example, it discusses whether the mind can exist after the body dies, linking the topic to quantum field theory.

It examines whether God created the universe in light of the Big Bang theory, conformal cyclic cosmology, the theory of relativity, the first law of thermodynamics, and the second law of thermodynamics.

It also explains religious phenomena from the perspective of cognitive science. What is the origin of religion? Where does religious ecstasy come from? Why are religious believers so earnest in proselytizing? What function do religious rituals serve? How does religion influence morality? Why do religious wars occur? The book discusses how cognitive scientists have answered these questions and whether their answers are valid.

This book is based on Professor Park’s experience teaching philosophy of religion courses at the University of Maryland and UNIST. UNIST offers 100% English lectures and encourages discussion-based classes. Accordingly, the book is written in English and carefully curated with topics suitable for discussion-based learning.

Seungbae Park, Professor at UNIST.

Professor Seungbae Park, who specializes in the philosophy of science, has published more than 80 papers in international SCI-level journals. In 2022 and 2025, he published the scholarly books Embracing Scientific Realism and Induction, Science, and Morality with the world-renowned academic publisher Springer.

This is the first such achievement in the field of philosophy of science in Korea.