Relationship between religion and science

"Science and Religion" redirects here. For the 1991 book by John Hedley Brooke, see Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives.
"Science and theology" redirects here. For the 1998 book by John Polkinghorne, see Science and Theology.

God the Geometer — Gothic frontispiece of the Bible moralisée, representing God's act of Creation. France, mid-13th century

The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern understandings of "science" or of "religion",[1] certain elements of modern ideas on the subject recur throughout history. The pair-structured phrases "religion and science" and "science and religion" first emerged in the literature during the 19th century.[2][3] This coincided with the refining of "science" (from the studies of "natural philosophy") and of "religion" as distinct concepts in the preceding few centuries—partly due to professionalization of the sciences, the Protestant Reformation, colonization, and globalization.[4][5][6] Since then the relationship between science and religion has been characterized in terms of "conflict", "harmony", "complexity", and "mutual independence", among others.

Both science and religion are complex social and cultural endeavors that may vary across cultures and change over time.[7][8][9] Most scientific and technical innovations until the scientific revolution were achieved by societies organized by religious traditions. Ancient pagan, Islamic, and Christian scholars pioneered individual elements of the scientific method. Roger Bacon, often credited with formalizing the scientific method, was a Franciscan friar[10] and medieval Christians who studied nature emphasized natural explanations.[11] Confucian thought, whether religious or non-religious in nature, has held different views of science over time. Many 21st-century Buddhists view science as complementary to their beliefs, although the philosophical integrity of such Buddhist modernism has been challenged.[12] While the classification of the material world by the ancient Indians and Greeks into air, earth, fire, and water was more metaphysical, and figures like Anaxagoras questioned certain popular views of Greek divinities, medieval Middle Eastern scholars empirically classified materials.[13]

Events in Europe such as the Galileo affair of the early 17th century, associated with the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, led scholars such as John William Draper to postulate (c. 1874) a conflict thesis, suggesting that religion and science have been in conflict methodologically, factually and politically throughout history. Some contemporary philosophers and scientists, such as Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Peter Atkins, and Donald Prothero subscribe to this thesis; however, historians such as Stephen Shapin claim that "it is a very long time since these attitudes have been held by historians of science."[14]

Many scientists, philosophers, and theologians throughout history, from Augustine of Hippo to Thomas Aquinas to Francisco Ayala, Kenneth R. Miller, and Francis Collins, have seen compatibility or interdependence between religion and science. Biologist Stephen Jay Gould regarded religion and science as "non-overlapping magisteria", addressing fundamentally separate forms of knowledge and aspects of life. Some historians of science and mathematicians, including John Lennox, Thomas Berry, and Brian Swimme, propose an interconnection between science and religion, while others such as Ian Barbour believe there are even parallels. Public acceptance of scientific facts may sometimes be influenced by religious beliefs such as in the United States, where some reject the concept of evolution by natural selection, especially regarding Human beings. Nevertheless, the American National Academy of Sciences has written that "the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith",[15] a view endorsed by many religious denominations.[16]

  1. ^ Harrison, Peter (2015). The Territories of Science and Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780226184517. Retrieved 22 May 2019. So familiar are the concepts 'science' and 'religion,' and so central to Western culture have been the activities and achievements that are usually labeled 'religious' and 'scientific,' that it is natural to assume that they have been enduring features of the cultural landscape of the West. But this view is mistaken. [...] 'science' and 'religion' are concepts of relatively recent coinage [...].
  2. ^ Roberts, Jon (2011). "10. Science and Religion". In Shank, Michael; Numbers, Ronald; Harrison, Peter (eds.). Wrestling with Nature : From Omens to Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 254, 258, 259, 260. ISBN 978-0226317830. Indeed, prior to about the middle of the nineteenth century, the trope "science and religion" was virtually nonexistent.".."In fact, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed the creation of what one commentator called "whole libraries" devoted to reconciling religion and science. That estimate is confirmed by the data contained in figures 10.1 and 10.2, which reveal that what started as a trickle of books and articles addressing "science and religion" before 1850 became a torrent in the 1870s." (see Fig. 10.1 and 10.2)
  3. ^ Harrison, Peter (2015). The Territories of Science and Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 171. ISBN 9780226184517. When did people first begin to speak about science and religion, using that precise terminology? As should now be apparent, this could not have been before the nineteenth century. When we consult written works for actual occurrences of the conjunction "science and religion" or "religion and science" in English publications, that is exactly what we discover (see figure 14).
  4. ^ Harrison, Peter (2015). The Territories of Science and Religion. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-18448-7.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Before Religion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cahan Natural Philosophy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Stenmark, Mikael (2004). How to Relate Science and Religion: A Multidimensional Model. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8028-2823-1. Recognizing that science and religion are essentially social practices always performed by people living in certain cultural and historical situations should alert us to the fact that religion and science change over time.
  8. ^ Roberts, Jon (2011). "10. Science and Religion". In Shank, Michael; Numbers, Ronald; Harrison, Peter (eds.). Wrestling with Nature : From Omens to Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226317830.
  9. ^ Lindberg, David C. (2007). "1. Science Before the Greeks (On changes in science here)". The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450 (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-0226482057.
  10. ^ Clegg, Brian. "The First Scientist: A Life of Roger Bacon". Carroll and Graf Publishers, NY, 2003
  11. ^ Ronald Numbers (2011). "Science without God: Natural Laws and Christian Beliefs". In Gordon, Bruce; Dembski, William (eds.). The Nature of Nature : Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science. ISI Books. p. 63. ISBN 9781935191285. Long before the birth of modern science and the appearance of "scientists" in the nineteenth century, the study of nature in the West was carried out by Christian scholars known as natural philosophers, who typically expressed a preference for natural explanations over divine mysteries." & "By the late Middle Ages the search for natural causes had come to typify the work of Christian natural philosophers. Although characteristically leaving the door open for the possibility of direct divine interventions, they frequently expressed contempt for soft-minded contemporaries who invoked miracles rather than searching for natural explanations.
  12. ^ Thompson, Evan (2020). Why I am not a Buddhist. New Haven. ISBN 978-0-300-24870-8. OCLC 1130904542.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ Science and Islam, Jim Al-Khalili. BBC, 2009
  14. ^ Shapin, S. (1996). The Scientific Revolution. University of Chicago Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780226750200. In the late Victorian period it was common to write about the 'warfare between science and religion' and to presume that the two bodies of culture must always have been in conflict. However, it is a very long time since these attitudes have been held by historians of science.
  15. ^ National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2008). Science, Evolution and Creationism. Vol. 105. National Academy of Sciences. pp. 3–4. doi:10.17226/11876. ISBN 978-0-309-10586-6. PMC 2224205. PMID 18178613. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  16. ^ National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2008). Science, Evolution and Creationism. Vol. 105. National Academy of Sciences. pp. 3–4. doi:10.17226/11876. ISBN 978-0-309-10586-6. PMC 2224205. PMID 18178613. Many religious denominations and individual religious leaders have issued statements acknowledging the occurrence of evolution and pointing out that evolution and faith do not conflict. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)