It has become a truism for many in the West that faith and science belong to two conflicting worldviews. An atheist may say that science is rational, based on empirical observation and necessarily self-correcting as new theories eventually modify or replace old and outdated ones.
Section: Faith And Reason
On Dominion and Progress: Sacramental Action in a Secular World
For good or ill, it has come to pass. Humanity has multiplied, filled the earth, and gained dominion over it. The earth’s ecosystems, biodiversity, geochemical cycles, and climate are all now powerfully affected by human decisions. The influence of humanity is so pervasive that geological societies have been debating whether to formally recognize the start[…..]
What Has Paris to Do with Byzantium?
Many contemporary Orthodox theologians regard philosophy with suspicion, and this has encouraged the same attitude within the wider Church. Several of the texts of the so-called neopatristic synthesis indulge in repeated condemnations of “Western” and “scholastic” philosophy and instead laud the “mystical” approach of the Eastern tradition. Orthodoxy, on this telling, has no recourse to[…..]
Faith and Science: Models of Reality as Sources of Conflict
It is my proposal to demonstrate that almost all of the apparent conflicts between science and faith arise from models of reality and not from reality itself. Such conflicts may be resolved by reexamining the models of reality we hold that are based on obsolete information.
In Vitro Fertilization and the Beginning of Human Life
In recent years, scientific approaches have been developed to treat some “fertility disorders” through in vitro fertilization or IVF, an alternative to the natural route of sperm fertilization of the egg in the womb of the mother. IVF has been used in many situations around the world to help couples who are unable to conceive[…..]
Creation, Faith, and Science
To take an aspirin for a headache, and then to repudiate Darwinian evolution, is hypocrisy. For aspirin’s work in our bodies, and the biochemistry of the willow tree from which it is derived, are inextricably bound to evolution. To drive a car and repudiate evolution is hypocrisy. For the car consumes fossil fuel, the knowledge,[…..]
Taxonomy and Anthropology
Taxonomy, the science of classification, is a basic means of understanding the world around us. In biology, organisms are classified according to the well-known system of kingdom, phylum, class, and subsequent levels of increasing specificity, all the way down to species and subspecies. Taxonomy is not inherent in the organisms themselves, however.
Science’s Deepest Belief
To understand the deep connection between science and religion, we need to study the assumptions lying at the roots of scientific thought. No discourse ever starts from nothing; we always make assumptions. When a discourse is young, these assumptions are debated and open to the light of day, but with the passage of time they[…..]