Sunday, March 11, 2012
Are Science and Religion Incompatible?
Here is a link to an article in which two famous scientists, Kenneth Miller and Michael Shermer, who are regularly apart of the religion/science debates, each write an article on whether or not science and religion are incompatible. You are than allowed to vote on which one you think wrote the most convincing article. I think it's a fun thing to do and is certainly interesting, but one has to wonder how many people are simply voting Shermer because they are atheist or Miller because they are believers. I read both articles and tried to be as unbiased as I could and actually consider what they both had to say. In my honest opinion I still see no reason why one can't be both scientific and religious. I still tend to lean towards the two as dealing with separate issues. Science dealing with the observable and testable, and religion with the supernatural and untestable. Nevertheless both sides make some good points and it is worth the read and fun to vote on the discussion.
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Interesting. Thanks for the link. I enjoyed both arguments... but I don't think they really disagreed as much as it seems. It's not like the religious side was sticking up for fundamentalism or orthodoxy of any kind, which science is strongly incompatible with. I'm curious as to Miller's view of God. It seems to be quite deistic though he veils it with the term theism... no?
ReplyDeleteWell the scientific arguments for God's existence are technically deistic arguments at their core, the arguments for theism are more philosophical I think. Though once we can establish arguments for a God that are reasonable that opens the door for a theistic God whether or not it's exactly like christians or muslims think. I believe Kenneth Miller is a theistic evolutionist similar Francis Collins, Karl Gibberson and Michael Dowd. But yes science and religion disagree on a literal and fundamentalist level, but I think a more liberal stance is completely compatible. Though I haven't read Miller's book it's been on my to-read list for awhile.
ReplyDeleteHere's the book on goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206058.Finding_Darwin_s_God
Glad you enjoyed the article.
Cool. I just got Francis Collins book from the library.
ReplyDelete