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I Appreciate Barbour 's Praiseworthy And Toilsome Effort

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III. Critique First of all, I appreciate Barbour’s praiseworthy and toilsome effort to put theology and science in a meaningful and fruitful dialogue, by seriously taking account of both continuities and discontinuities between scientific metaphors and religious metaphors. For Barbour, because both disciplines have continuities and discontinuities they can contribute to our more comprehensive understanding of the reality of our experiences in the world through their metaphorical relationship. While scientific models, theories, and paradigms are focused on the explanation of natural phenomena, the religious counterparts are more focused on the human experience of their natural/social environments and evoking moral and attitudinal responses, while religious affirmations do not exclude truth claims like the scientific claims do. Also, like religion, scientists also hold on to their traditions in their observation and interpretation of natural phenomena; hence, they are not neutral. In that sense, I agree with Barbour that science and religion bear significant similitude, while they can complement each other in our holistic understanding of our world. It seems to me that this is well supported by Peacocke’s concept of ontological monism. In our evolutionary understanding of the world, we could contend with Peacocke that “All concrete particulars in the world including human beings - with all of their properties - are constituted only of fundamental physical

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