Religion and Science. In the academy and the church, these words can invoke such intense and interesting responses. Strike up a conversation with a scientist about matters of faith,a nd watch how some quickly retreat into a safe world of "the scientific method" or "evaluation of the data."Conversely, ask theologians or pastors about how connections between science and faith, and frequently they will retreat into comfortable categories drawn from their theological and biblical training. In both cases, confusion, fear, assumptions about the reigning methodological paradigms, or ignorance frequently mean that scientists and theologians are simply talking past one another. Indeed, it seems they aren't even in the same universe.
Two recent books attempt to address some of the questions, concerns and prevailing assumptions surrounding the tensions between science and faith. Alister McGrath's
Dawkins' God and Dorothy Chappell and David Cook's
Not Just Science are two significant additions to the growing literature produced by Christian scholars engaging faith and science.
McGrath boldly takes on Richard Dawkins, perhaps one of the most renowned atheists in the world whose hostility to religion is well documented. As a professor of historical theology at Oxford, with a Ph.D. in molecular biophysics, McGrath is well-positioned for the task at hand. In the introduction, he writes that Dawkin's hostility to religion is deeply rooted, and finds four interconnected grounds of hostility in his writings.
1.A Darwinian worldview makes belief in God unnecessary or impossible;
2.Religion makes assertions which are grounded in faith, representing a retreat from a rigorous, evidence-based concern for truth. For Dawkins, truth is grounded in explicit proof; any form of mysticism grounded in faith is to be opposed vigorously;
3.Religion offers an impoverished and attenuated vision of the world;
4.Religion leads to evil. It is like a malignant virus, infecting human minds (page 12).
McGrath goes on to note that one of his primary reasons for writing the book is that as a Christian theologian, he believes it is essential to listen seriously and carefully to criticisms of his discipline, and respond appropriately to those criticisms. He writes, "One of the reasons for taking Dawkins so seriously is that I want to ask what may be learned from him. As any serious historian of Christian thought knows, Christianity is committed to a constant review of its ideas in light of their moorings in Scripture and tradition, always asking whether any contemporary interpretation of a doctrine is adequate oracceptable." (13).
McGrath critiques the operating assumptions of Dawkins worldview. In chapter three entitled "Proof and Faith: the Place of Evidence in Science and Religion," he reviews Dawkins engagement with theology and finds it seriously deficient. Particularly helpful is McGrath's discussion of Atheism as its own faith or worldview, and the confidence which Dawkins places in this explanation of the world.
Whether Christian, Atheist, Agnostic or otherwise, the critical questions that relate faith to science and science to faith require an intellectual honesty and humility-characteristics which are often in short supply in the heated debates over Intelligent Design, Evolution, Creationism-to name but a few of the contentious issues which abound in the faith-science intersection. In Not Just Science, Dorothy Chappell and David Cook have gathered together natural scientists from across multiple disciplines to take up the question of how faith and science intersect.
In the introduction to the work, the editors note that this text is meant to help address the deficiencies of many Christian first-year science and non-science students entering college, particularly in relationship to how their faith relates to science.The authors bring together faculty from various disciplines in the natural sciences, along with experts in technology, health care,agriculture and engineering and organize the book around a series of "crucial questions" such as: What is the Mind-Brain Problem?; How does Chemistry Impact Human Society?; Should Christians Embrace Technology?; and How Should the Christian's Foundational Beliefs Shape the Work of Scientists?
Just as McGrath examines the prevailing worldview assumptions of Richard Dawkins, Chappell and Cook rightly note that scientific questions are framed in and depend upon our worldviews, beliefs and moral values. Their objective is to help readers discern what are the questions at the intersection of faith and science, how does one approach these questions, and how does one appropriately respond to them. They hope to encourage confident Christians to engage responsibly in the scientific enterprise, and to help the nonscientist know how to go about positive critical reflection on the issues and questions that science raises for faith and faith raises for science.
For Christian college and university faculty and administrators working in the areas of faith and science, these texts represent distinct but complimentary approaches. Each work stands as an example of how scholarship, which takes seriously one's own worldview assumptions, can both inform and critique the prevailing assumptions within the study of science and theology, and bring the reader to a more nuanced appreciation of the role for both the scientist and the theologian in these conversations. In the end, McGrath, Chappell and Cook each raise important questions for the thinking Christian-be they an expert in the field, or a layperson who simply wants to better understand some of the foundational issues which shape and inform current debates and exchanges between science and religion.