The Importance of Religion for Two Paradigms: Science and Natural Philosophy

Within philosophy, there has long been a question about the relationship between science and religion. These two systems of human experience have undoubtedly had a lot of influence in the course of mankind’s development. The philosopher Ian Barbour created a taxonomy regarding science and religion that has become widely influential. His taxonomy postulates that there are four ways in which science and religion are thought to interact. The four categories are: conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. By using articles from a select few philosophers, theologians, and scientists, it is clear to see the ways in which these two systems of human experience are categorized in the four categories presented by Ian barbour. However, it will be apparent that the category of conflict may be seen as the most dominant in regard to the interaction between science and religion.

When comparing science and religion there has been a great rift. As long as humanity has believed in a creator there as always been thinkers trying to quantify and evaluate the truth behind religion, trying to disprove or prove a supernatural force.

Scientific Naturalism and Christianity are possibly the two most contradictory worldviews that are in our culture today. They are also the two most difficult to understand by one another. There is very little about these two worldviews that they have in common. They are a vast amount of ideas and beliefs held by adherents of each that are different. In order for these two worldviews to successfully co-exist in society, it is important to understand, accept, and learn from each one.

theism versus science. During the beginning of this century and the next religion and science

In the 17th Century, there was much controversy between religion and science. The church supported a single worldview that God’s creation was the center of the universe. The kings and rulers were set in their ways to set the people’s minds to believe this and to never question it. From these ideas, the Enlightenment was bred from the Scientific Revolution.

John William Draper, in the History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science, states, “The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising from traditionary faith and human interests on the other.” John William Draper brings up a strong truth behind the progression of science. Human faith inevitably conflicts with the progression of science. One may think that religion is the moral part of human belief and science is the advancement of intellect. It is inevitable that morals and the advancement of intellect would. Emotions and morals sometimes may overpower what the advancement of science would lead to. This concept is present in the ethical controversy involved with the Catholic Church and stem cell research. The moral and heart of many members of the Catholic Church easily disables the acceptance and support of stem cell research. This is unfortunate because stem cell usage and research has tremendous potential in helping those that suffer from disease. Stem cell research will advance medical fields and assist in finding cures for deadly ailments. Many followers of the Catholic Church view the science of stem cell research as killing innocent lives, however a sense of the faithful needs to come into action in order to look passed tradition and history to

Summer for the Gods concentrates on the Dayton, Tennessee Scopes trial, or "Monkey Trial," of 1925. The trial was over a Tennessee law that banned teaching evolution in public schools. The American Civil Liberties Union protested the law with teacher, John Scopes, who agreed to help. The"trial of the century" brought together two famous political enemies, William Jennings Bryan, who led the anti-evolution crusade, and Clarence Darrow, who was known as the best criminal defense lawyer and evolution supporter. The author presents the history of controversy that led to the trial. Fossil discoveries, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and increased attendance in public high schools influenced the anti-evolution movement due to the

Is there a conflict between religion and science, or are both items compatible? This question is addressed in the debate that is written about in the book Science and Religion, Are they Compatible, by Daniel C. Dennett and Alvin Plantinga. Alvin Plantinga thoroughly debates the topic by covering the compatibility of Christianity and science. He continues his argument by stating the issue of naturalist and science harbor the conflict not the theism. Plantinga goes into detail how some scientific theories without the help of theism has conflict and should be considered falsifiable because of the contradictions they possess. While Alvin Plantinga does make a prominent effort to illustrate how religion and science are compatible, there are also

First is that ‘scientific progress during the middle ages’ or ‘the middle ages’ refers specifically to the middle ages in Europe, and that, for the purposes of this essay, Europe does not include the Byzantine Empire or Russia. The reason for this distinction is that Europe, with the exception of these two places, was unified by the Catholic faith and latin language. Areas that are outside the influence of the Catholic Church are therefore outside the scope of the argument being refuted by this essay. The reason for the exclusion of the rest of the world is that the argument that there was no scientific progress in the middle ages is inherently focused entirely on Europe as it ignores the developments made by Islamic scholars during this time period, including the creation of an early version of the modern scientific method. Second is that ‘science’ or its variants refer specifically to the modern practice of performing experiments in order to gather evidence to prove points, while ‘natural philosophy’ refers to the academic discipline of the middle ages which attempted to use logic and reason to explain the natural world. ‘Natural inquiry’ is used as a catch-all term to refer to either or both

The debate of the existence of God had been active since before the first philosopher has pondered the question. Anselm’s Ontological Argument was introduced during the 11th century and had stood deductively valid until the 18th century. Then there are the arguments to aim disprove God, such as the Argument from Evil.

Throughout the ages, the topic of religion has always been discussed and argued over. Some people will always argue that God does exist, whilst others will argue that he doesn’t.

The age of enlightenment is full of reformations in many areas of life, that many have lingering effects in today’s modern world. Science and society had a very significant impact, so much so that science quickly became highly valued and started to become more popular than the religious views on the world. This often caused many debates and was the centre of many scientist’s arguments on the world, and its creation.

What is the relationship between religion and science? In his book, Consilience, Edward O. Wilson aims to find a unified theory of knowledge. Consilence also seeks to show how science is superior to and can replace religion. In this paper, I intend to show how Wilson understands this relationship and science as well as how. as well as show John Stuart Mill would agree or disagree with Wilson.

Scientific naturalism, or simply naturalism, is revived materialism which is dependent upon science, and draws its modern stature from it. Although naturalism draws its value from science, it goes beyond the confines of legitimate scientific research methods and findings. It does not see the material world as true science does, naturalism states that the material

The scope of Natural Sciences is to create principles, theories and laws about the natural world. Natural Sciences theories and laws are based on a scientific methodology (hypothetico-deductive method ). The scientific method always tries to connect theory and observation, this is one manner to consistently organize our observation of the natural world . Experiments are often used in order to replicate aspects of the world in which we are interested. In fact, following this method before stating something to be true scientists needs first to arrange an hypothesis then make some tests in order to prove the theory and finally make up the law. Doing that we can say to acquire a proof and, therefore, good knowledge.