Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not

Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not PDF Author: Robert N. McCauley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199341540
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
A comparison of the cognitive foundations of religion and science and an argument that religion is cognitively natural and that science is cognitively unnatural.

Science Vs. Religion

Science Vs. Religion PDF Author: Elaine Howard Ecklund
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0195392981
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
That the longstanding antagonism between science and religion is irreconcilable has been taken for granted. And in the wake of recent controversies over teaching intelligent design and the ethics of stem-cell research, the divide seems as unbridgeable as ever.In Science vs. Religion, Elaine Howard Ecklund investigates this unexamined assumption in the first systematic study of what scientists actually think and feel about religion. In the course of her research, Ecklund surveyed nearly 1,700 scientists and interviewed 275 of them. She finds that most of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. Nearly 50 percent of them are religious. Many others are what she calls "spiritual entrepreneurs," seeking creative ways to work with the tensions between science and faith outside the constraints of traditional religion. The book centers around vivid portraits of 10 representative men and women working in the natural and social sciences at top American research universities. Ecklund's respondents run the gamut from Margaret, a chemist who teaches a Sunday-school class, to Arik, a physicist who chose not to believe in God well before he decided to become a scientist. Only a small minority are actively hostile to religion. Ecklund reveals how scientists-believers and skeptics alike-are struggling to engage the increasing number of religious students in their classrooms and argues that many scientists are searching for "boundary pioneers" to cross the picket lines separating science and religion.With broad implications for education, science funding, and the thorny ethical questions surrounding stem-cell research, cloning, and other cutting-edge scientific endeavors, Science vs. Religion brings a welcome dose of reality to the science and religion debates.

Science and Religion

Science and Religion PDF Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921710
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Book Description
In recent years a noticeable trend toward harmonizing the distinct worldviews of science and religion has become increasingly popular. Despite marked public interest, many leading scientists remain skeptical that there is much common ground between scientific knowledge and religious belief. Indeed, they are often antagonistic. Can an accommodation be reached after centuries of conflict? In this stimulating collection of articles on the subject, Paul Kurtz, with the assistance of Barry Karr and Ranjit Sandhu, have assembled the thoughts of scientists from various disciplines. Among the distinguished contributors are Sir Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and numerous other works of science fiction); Nobel Prize Laureate Steven Weinberg (professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin); Neil deGrasse Tyson (Princeton University astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium); James Lovelock (creator of the Gaia hypothesis); Kendrick Frazier (editor of the Skeptical Inquirer); Steven Pinker (professor of psychology at MIT); Richard Dawkins (zoologist at Oxford University); Eugenie Scott (physical anthropologist and executive director of the National Center for Science Education); Owen Gingerich (professor of astronomy at Harvard University); Martin Gardner (prolific popular science writer); the late Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize-winning physicist) and Stephen Jay Gould (professor of geology at Harvard University); and many other eminent scientists and scholars. Among the topics discussed are the Big Bang and the origin of the universe, intelligent design and creationism versus evolution, the nature of the "soul," near-death experiences, communication with the dead, why people do or do not believe in God, and the relationship between religion and ethics.

Science and Scientism in Nineteenth-century Europe

Science and Scientism in Nineteenth-century Europe PDF Author: Richard Olson
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252074335
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
The 19th century produced scientific and cultural revolutions that forever transformed modern European life. Richard Olson provides an integrated account of the history of science and its impact on intellectual and social trends of the day.

Science and Religion

Science and Religion PDF Author: John F. Haught
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 9780809136063
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
"Has science made religion intellectually implausible? Does it rule out the existence of a personal God? In an age of science can we really believe that the universe has a "purpose"? And, finally, doesn't religion hold much of the blame for the present ecological crisis?" "These questions form the nucleus of today's debate between science and religion. This book is a guide for that debate, identifying the questions, isolating the issues and pointing to ways the questions can be resolved." "There are four possible ways, says John F. Haught, that we can view the relationship between religion and science. First, they can stand in complete opposition - the conflict position. Or, we can believe they are so different that conflict is impossible - the contrast position. A third approach holds that while science and religion are distinct, each has important implications for the other. A fourth way views them as different but mutually supportive."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Science and Religion

Science and Religion PDF Author: Jeff Astley
Publisher: T&T Clark
ISBN:
Category : Religion and science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
This reader brings together carefully selected material from a wide range of authors on the relationships between science, religion and theology.....It samples the recent literature on the challenges to religion posed by both modern physics and evolutionary biology as well as exploring the relationship between scientific and theological approaches.....Topics include models of interaction between science and religion, historical reflections on the 'conflict thesis', scientific and theological methods, creation and modern cosmology, uncertainty and chaos, creationism and evolutionary theory, the anthropic principle and design, and the challenge of reductionism.....Contributors include Ian Barbour, Michael Behe, Richard Dawkins, John Habgood, Mary Hesse, T.H.Huxley, Alister McGrath, Arthur Peacocke, John Polkinghorne, Michael Ruse, Keith Ward and Fraser Watts.

Religion, Science, and Empire

Religion, Science, and Empire PDF Author: Peter Gottschalk
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195393015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442

Book Description
Peter Gottschalk offers a compelling study of how, through the British implementation of scientific taxonomy in the subcontinent, Britons and Indians identified an inherent divide between mutually antagonistic religious communities. England's ascent to power coincided with the rise of empirical science as an authoritative way of knowing not only the natural world, but the human one as well. The British scientific passion for classification, combined with the Christian impulse to differentiate people according to religion, led to a designation of Indians as either Hindu or Muslim according to rigidly defined criteria that paralleled classification in botanical and zoological taxonomies. Through an historical and ethnographic study of the north Indian village of Chainpur, Gottschalk shows that the Britons' presumed categories did not necessarily reflect the Indians' concepts of their own identities, though many Indians came to embrace this scientism and gradually accepted the categories the British instituted through projects like the Census of India, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the India Museum. Today's propogators of Hindu-Muslim violence often cite scientistic formulations of difference that descend directly from the categories introduced by imperial Britain. Religion, Science, and Empire will be a valuable resource to anyone interested in the colonial and postcolonial history of religion in India.

Religion in an Age of Science

Religion in an Age of Science PDF Author: Ian G. Barbour
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion and science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
Religion and Science is a comprehensive examination of the major issues between science and religion in today's world. With the addition of three new historical chapters to the nine chapters (freshly revised and updated) of Religion in an Age of Science, winner of the Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in 1991, Religion and Science is the most authoritative and readable book on the subject, sure to be used by science and religion courses and discussion groups and to become the introduction of choice for general readers.

Encyclopedia of Science and Religion

Encyclopedia of Science and Religion PDF Author: Jacobus Wentzel Van Huyssteen
Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 538

Book Description
A multidisciplinary approach that addresses all aspects of the dialogue between the sciences and the world's religions, reaching into the humanities as well as into the physical sciences and technology. Examines controversial issues such as human cloning and stem cell research long with more traditional questions such as the origins of life, the nature of sin, and the philosophy of science and religion. 4 volumes.
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Rits Blog by Crimson Themes.