The Relationship between Science and Religion
Vital discussions on the relationship between science and religion. The topics are given below each video. Most of these topics are disputed questions and can be used as a standalone activity as the basis of group discussions.
1. The Relationship between Science and Religion
Topics include:
Part 1
· The Christian worldview was the motor that drove the rise of science.
· Christians expected and looked for a law in nature because they believed in a Lawgiver who created the universe:
o in an ordered way.
o to be rationally intelligible by us (Kepler: We can think God’s thoughts after him.)
· Science also has faith in a rationally intelligible universe.
· The postmodern claim as truth that there is no truth is self-defeating.
· The ‘conflict model’ of the relationship between science and religion is false and a minority view. The
conflict is usually between:
o two interpretations of religion, or
o the worldviews of materialism and theism.
Part 2
· Historical conflicts between science and religion, such as the Galileo Affair, are complex political events
involving power, professionalism and privilege.
· The Church shouldn’t attach itself to a scientific paradigm because they are subject to change.
· Thomas Huxley: ‘Science commits suicide if it adopts a creed’. It is a method not a worldview.
· Science answers the ‘why’ questions of function (aka ‘how’ questions), whereas religion answers the ‘why’
questions of purpose.
· The science/religion divide is one part of the broader science/humanities divide, as ways of knowing, in our
culture.
· Quantum mechanics undermines a strictly mechanistic view of the universe.
· Today there is a drive for seeing science as the only way to truth.
· Both reason and science have their limits. At points they are rationally persuasive but they are also
existentially deficient, i.e., they don’t answer the big questions that people puzzle over.
Part 1
· The Christian worldview was the motor that drove the rise of science.
· Christians expected and looked for a law in nature because they believed in a Lawgiver who created the universe:
o in an ordered way.
o to be rationally intelligible by us (Kepler: We can think God’s thoughts after him.)
· Science also has faith in a rationally intelligible universe.
· The postmodern claim as truth that there is no truth is self-defeating.
· The ‘conflict model’ of the relationship between science and religion is false and a minority view. The
conflict is usually between:
o two interpretations of religion, or
o the worldviews of materialism and theism.
Part 2
· Historical conflicts between science and religion, such as the Galileo Affair, are complex political events
involving power, professionalism and privilege.
· The Church shouldn’t attach itself to a scientific paradigm because they are subject to change.
· Thomas Huxley: ‘Science commits suicide if it adopts a creed’. It is a method not a worldview.
· Science answers the ‘why’ questions of function (aka ‘how’ questions), whereas religion answers the ‘why’
questions of purpose.
· The science/religion divide is one part of the broader science/humanities divide, as ways of knowing, in our
culture.
· Quantum mechanics undermines a strictly mechanistic view of the universe.
· Today there is a drive for seeing science as the only way to truth.
· Both reason and science have their limits. At points they are rationally persuasive but they are also
existentially deficient, i.e., they don’t answer the big questions that people puzzle over.
2. Design - A Biological Reflection
Topics include:
· Through design in nature God can be perceived, not proved.
· ‘Creation’ refers to an ongoing, not original, event.
· The ‘language’ of DNA may point to God’s existence.
· Biological finetuning permits life.
· Through design in nature God can be perceived, not proved.
· ‘Creation’ refers to an ongoing, not original, event.
· The ‘language’ of DNA may point to God’s existence.
· Biological finetuning permits life.
3. Design - A Cosmological Reflection
Topics include:
· Cosmological finetuning (according to Fred Hoyle, Paul Davies, Martin Rees)
· The multiverse theories (don’t disprove God’s existence).
· Cosmological finetuning (according to Fred Hoyle, Paul Davies, Martin Rees)
· The multiverse theories (don’t disprove God’s existence).