*Criterion Winter 02-4.16 - Divinity School - University of Chicago

Religion and Science, Faith and Reason
Continued from page 37
But even if we could, should we even try to bridge the gap?
Perhaps it is better to leave the two sides as they are, uneasily
regarding one another across the chasm. Perhaps it is better
for each side to have the other around in order to limit its
own certainty and self-satisfaction. In a world in which conspiracies
do happen, it is probably good for those of us who
see a world of reason and light to have others around who
see a world of dark conspiracies to remind us that we may be
wrong, just as it is good for those with a conspiratorial worldview
to have the rest of us around to remind them that their
view might be mere paranoia. In the complex social world in
which we live, it is probably good to have both political liberals
and conservatives to challenge each other’s most basic
assumptions, and to prevent either from becoming too lazy
and complacent in their views. Similarly, it is probably good
for both those who subscribe to a secular scientific worldview
and for theists to have one another around to remind themselves
that, for all they know, the world might be a very
different place than they imagine. ❑
38 WINTER 2002
ENDNOTES
1. Ian Barbour, When Science Meets Religion (San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 2000), 23.
2. Barbour, 2.
3. References to the Pensées are by section number, which I will give
in the text. I am quoting from the translation of A. J. Krailsheimer
(Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1966), who follows the
ordering established by Louis Lafuma. The reader should be warned
that not all editions of the Pensées, in French or in English, follow
this ordering.
4. The text of the law is given in Michael Ruse, ed., But Is It Science?
(Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1988), 283.
5. Ruse, 318.
6. Ruse, 301.
7. Ruse, 320.
Secret Epiphanies
Continued from page 25
God from God and Light from Light,
guarding all creation,
one with us in flesh and blood,
calls to every nation
There among you is one you do not know.
Then let patience be your guide,
walk in ways of justice;
show each other at all times
every kind of goodness.
There among you is one you do not know.
Now be carefree, full of joy:
God, who knows and calls us,
brushes by us every day,
makes a home among us.
There among you is one you do not know.
The Bond Chapel choir, directed by Peder Jothen, sung this
hymn at the conclusion of Professor Mitchell’s sermon.
Hymn by Huub Oosterhuis and Bernard Huijbers, from John 1:26,
translated by Tony Barr. © 1967, 1996, Gooi en Sticht, bv., Baarn, the
Netherlands. All rights reserved. Printed with permission from Oregon
Catholic Press Publications.