Science vs. religion : what scientists really think - File PDF

CHAPTER 1The Real Religious Lives of ScientistsIt is a centuries-old debate: Is there truly an inescapable conflict betweenscience and religion? Many today—mostly scientists and policy makers—arguethat there is, and the existence of this “irreconcilable” difference is coddled asfact. But how then does one explain a scientist such as Margaret, a chemist whoteaches a Sunday school class? What about scientists like Evelyn, who embracesa spirituality that she feels is more compatible with science than traditionalreligion. Or the physicist Arik who, well before science took root in his mind,decided at a young age that he did not believe in God? 1 These are real people,not stereotypes. We can’t simply assume that they live in conflict with theirreligion or that they avoid religion because it conflicts with their science. Weneed to ask them why they walk the paths they do.A LONG HISTORY OF THE CONFLICTPARADIGMGalileo, a father of modern science, insisted that the earth revolved around thesun—not the other way around, as then commonly believed. According to theChurch, this contradicted Holy Scripture. The scientific findings did not conflictwith religion, Galileo argued; unfortunately, the people in charge didn’tagree.2The idea that religion and science are necessarily in conflict has been institutionalizedby our nation’s elite universities. When Cornell was established in1865, Andrew Dickson White—one of the university’s founders—announcedthat it would be different from the other colleges of the time; it would be a safeplace for science, protected from the authorities and constraints of theology. 3The idea that science was oppressed by religion—and would over time evenreplace religion—was nicely encapsulated in the title of White’s landmarkvolume, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom .43