Most people believe that science deals with proven facts but religion is merely superstitious opinion. They believe that in the past Christianity tried to suppress scientific truth and persecuted scientists but science triumphed and has made religion obsolete. This is the conflict model : it is true only to the extent that in western societies there have been periods when new science threatened established ecclesiastical authority. However, this model is historically naive and largely incorrect: modern science arose uniquely from within the belief system of Western Christianity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many famous scientists, such as Galileo and Newton, were convinced that, by exploring God¹s creation scientifically, they were glorifying the Creator. Even today, a high proportion of scientists are devout theists : there is a flourishing Society of Ordained Scientists. Science and religion are mutually relevant and are engaged in a far from simple debate.
Several popular scientific writers - such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking - are sincere atheists who advocate the conflict model. They have not written directly or at length about science and religion. The belief that science can completely explain everything and that any other claim to knowledge (especially religion) can be dismissed as nonsense is called scientism. This position is one of the polar extremes in the debate.
Among theists, there are those who fear that science threatens belief. Fundamentalists insist that Darwin¹s Theory of Evolution is an atheistic conspiracy to undermine the simple Biblical truth that God created the world and all living species distinct and complete, in six days in 4004 BCE. Creation Scientists attempt to demonstrate that whatever modern science has discovered - or may ever discover - must necessarily be what was revealed in the Bible and the faith of the Church all along. This conclusion is reached and held through impressive mental gymnastics as scientific theories undergo constant modification in the light of continuing research.
Science may no longer provide Evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature (William Paley, 1802) but it can still have a role in theology by helping to show that some traditional beliefs about the character of reality conflict with the evidence of scientific experience. Christianity claims that space-time and matter were created by God and had the potential to communicate the character of God in Christ. It follows that the universe is basically good, spiritually significant and worth studying. A dualistic spirituality, which sees the world as insignificant or a source of delusion or even evil, would not encourage science.
This is a good moment to think again about the relationships between science and religion. The last years of the twentieth century saw real progress being made in understanding how these subjects actually do relate. Learned societies, international conferences, new university courses, scholarly journals (such as Science and Christian Belief , Zygon and Science and Spirit ) and a growing range of well-written and accessible books, make it easy for anyone to replace mere prejudice with an informed view.
If the common stereotype, the conflict model, has been shown to be misleading, so too has the once-common belief in science as salvation . The twenty-first century is a time of global sensitivity to spiritual and ethical issues about the environment, about human consciousness and free will, about the genetically-engineered future, and continuing anxiety about the powerful role of science in arming the world. The insights of religion are now increasingly sought after by many scientists themselves. Their questions and doubts help make for both a humbler theology and a more humane science.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
POOLE, M., A Guide to Science and Belief , Lion, 1994, ISBN 0-7459-2652-5
This is the best book with which to start. It is competent with respect to both science and religion and is written in a clear, attractive format. It is copiously illustrated with colour photographs and drawings and deals with many of the main issues in an introductory and entirely straightforward way.
WARD, K., God, Chance and Necessity , Oneworld, 1996, ISBN 1-85168-116-7
This is a justly acclaimed, outstanding book which combatively engages with the writings of Dawkins, Atkins et al. It is written to set out the grounds for rational belief in a Creator God in the His later God, Faith and the New Millennium claims that there is a 'natural fit' between traditional Christian theism and the scientific worldview. Essential reading.
SOUTHGATE, C. ,ed, God, Humanity and the Cosmos, T&T Clark, 1999, ISBN 0-567-08679-8
This is an all-encompassing and accessible textbook for the new courses in science and religion. It is written with great attention to clarity and there are helpful summaries, questions and notes as well as a bibliography which will lead one to the edge of many of the main topics in science and religion. To have worked one¹s way through Southgate¹s book would be to bring one quickly up to speed in most areas of the field.
BROOKE, J. and CANTOR, G., Reconstructing Nature, T&T Clark, 1998, ISBN 0-567-08600-3
This book (and Brooke's earlier Science and Religion- Some Historical Perspectives, Cambridge UP, 1991) provides the historical scholarship needed to grasp the subtlety, complexity and diversity of the debate. Famous episodes, such as the trial of Galileo and the varied reception of Darwin's ideas by both scientists and theologians, are clearly set out. Natural theology, which makes use of insights derived from knowledge of the world, and historical scholarship are woven into a programme for future study.
POLKINGHORNE, J., Reason and Reality, SPCK, 1991, ISBN 0-281-04487-2
The author is both prolific and highly knowledgeable: he conveys a real sense of the excitement of scientific research. He is particularly clear in dealing with the theological relevance of modern physics' most successful theory, Quantum Theory. His Science and Christian Belief , SPCK, 1994, takes the phrases of the credal summary of Christian belief and maps these assertions against the world of contemporary science. His recent textbook is Science and Theology: An Introduction (SPCK, 1998). Always worth reading.
PEACOCKE, A., Theology for a Scientific Age , SCM , 2nd Enlarged Edition, 1993, ISBN 0-334-02547-8
Arthur Peacocke, first Warden of the Society of Ordained Scientists, is an extremely important UK author on science and religion. Peacocke writes with an encyclopaedic grasp of the technicalities of the debate. His books are written at a somewhat more demanding level than Ward or even Polkinghorne. However, he is willing to be more radical in the theological conclusions he reaches. His many other books are all worth consulting.
MIDGLEY, M. Science as Salvation, Routledge, 1992, ISBN 0-415-06271-3
Scientists create and live with their own mythology, often making quasi-religious claims to be able to save humankind and even the universe itself. Midgley is a professional philosopher and a very lively writer: her earlier Evolution as a Religion also deflates the claims of scientism. Tom Sorrell's Scientism: philosophy and the infatuation with science, Routledge, 1991, would be a more technically demanding approach to this end of the spectrum.
BARBOUR, I.G. Religion in an Age of Science, SCM, 1990, ISBN 0-334-02298-3
Ian Barbour is the doyen of the study of science and religion. His magisterial survey, Issues in Science and Religion, SCM, 1966, is still worth consulting as an overview of the field. Later works display his immense learning and are required reading for anyone trying to hold the wider picture together. Barbour organises, summarises and criticises science and religion in this volume. It was expanded and updated in 1998 under the new title Religion and Science, SCM, 1998 ISBN 0 334 02721 7. In its sequel, Ethics in an Age of Technology, SCM, 1992, he looks at how values such as freedom and justice relate to the control and direction of applied science.
TEMPLETON, J.M. & HERMANN, R.L., Is God the Only Reality? Continuum 1994, ISBN 0-8264-0650-5
In this book, Sir John Templeton (founder of most of the new university courses in science and religion) explores the sense of mystery generated by advances in contemporary physical and biological science. The doctrine of God is defended as providing a coherent metaphysical basis for the world of science and the ground of the widespread sense of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the 'love which moves the sun and the other stars' (Dante) in religion. His other books are also usefully accessible to the general reader.
NUMBERS, R. L., The Creationists: the evolution of scientific creationism, UCalP, 1993, ISBN 0-520-08393-8
This is a detailed, objective, well-balanced account of the rise of modern creationism and creation science. The author spells out clearly the arguments put forward for believing in a young earth. Perhaps Philip Kitcher's Abusing Science: the case against creationism, MIT, 1982, would be the best supplement to guide one through more scientific aspects of these controversies.
RICHARDSON, W.M. & WILDMAN, W.J. Religion and Science: History, Method, Dialogue, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-91667-4
A collection of essays by leading scholars sets out the creative tension which exists in three main areas described in the subtitle, this volume is also a firm basis for understanding the crucial issues and a guide for further study. A useful feature of this book is that the leading scholars respond to one another¹s essays: it allows the reader to participate in the debate. Highly recommended.
VAN HUYSSTEEN, J.W., The Shaping of Rationality, Eerdmans, 1999, ISBN 0-8028-3868-5
Following his excellent Duet or Duel? SCM, 1998, van Huyssteen defends the possibility of debate in the face of the assault on rationality from postmodernism. This boos is not for the beginner and uses the technical vocabulary of philosophy, science and theology. He sets out an interdisciplinary approach to human reasoning and knowledge shaped by evolutionary pressures.