The Gift of Spirituality

Christianity and science is complex and cannot be simplified to either harmony or
conflict, according to Lindberg. Lindberg reports that "the late medieval scholar rarely
experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free
(particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led.
There was no warfare between science and the church." Ted Peters in Encyclopedia of
Religion writes that although there is some truth in the "Galileo's condemnation" story
but through exaggerations, it has now become "a modern myth perpetuated by those
wishing to see warfare between science and religion who were allegedly persecuted by
an atavistic and dogma-bound ecclesiastical authority". In 1992, the Catholic Church's
seeming vindication of Galileo attracted much comment in the media.
A degree of concord between science and religion can be seen in religious belief and
empirical science. The belief that God created the world and therefore humans, can
lead to the view that he arranged for humans to know the world. This is underwritten by
the doctrine of imago dei. In the words of Thomas Aquinas, "Since human beings are
said to be in the image of God in virtue of their having a nature that includes an intellect,
such a nature is most in the image of God in virtue of being most able to imitate God".
During the Enlightenment, a period "characterized by dramatic revolutions in science"
and the rise of Protestant challenges to the authority of the Catholic Church via
individual liberty, the authority of Christian scriptures became strongly challenged. As
science advanced, acceptance of a literal version of the Bible became "increasingly
untenable" and some in that period presented ways of interpreting scripture according to
its spirit on its authority and truth.
Perspectives on Evolution
In recent history, the theory of evolution has been at the center of some controversy
between Christianity and science. Christians who accept a literal interpretation of the
biblical account of creation find incompatibility between Darwinian evolution and their
interpretation of the Christian faith. Creation science or scientific creationism is a branch
of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation
narrative in the Book of Genesis and attempts to disprove generally accepted scientific
facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology and
biological evolution. It began in the 1960s as a fundamentalist Christian effort in the
United States to prove Biblical inerrancy and falsify the scientific evidence for
evolution. [109] It has since developed a sizable religious following in the United States,
with creation science ministries branching worldwide. In 1925, The State of Tennessee
passed the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of the theory of evolution in all
schools in the state. Later that year, a similar law was passed in Mississippi, and
likewise, Arkansas in 1927. In 1968, these "anti-monkey" laws were struck down by the
Supreme Court of the United States as unconstitutional, "because they established a
religious doctrine violating both the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.
Most scientists have rejected creation science for several reasons, including that its
claims do not refer to natural causes and cannot be tested. In 1987, the United States
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