The Scientific and the Divine: Conflict and Reconciliation from Ancient Greece to the Present

There have been many-too many-attempts over the centuries to bring science and religion into harmony. James A. Arieti and Patrick A. Wilson survey and assess these various efforts, from Plato to Aquinas to present-day philosophers and theologians. The Scientific & The Divine examines the perennial issues that keep science and religion at arm's length, clarify those issues, and fit them into an historical framework. This book is ideal for use as a textbook in any course that discusses the interplay between science and faith. Arieti and Wilson do not push an agenda-they take a critical, analytical look at the theories that started when the ancient Greeks realized the religious implications of scientific discovery. The Scientific & The Divine shows the historical continuity of both the central issues and the many potential solutions, and demonstrates which of these theories comes closest to saving the marriage between science and religion. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Table of Contents Preface Part 1: Science and Religion 1: The Problem Some Preliminary Examples Sophocles Aristotle Augustine Nehemiah 2: Is Human Reason Able to Explain the World? Reason and Human Nature The Nature of Reason All Men Desire to Know Knowledge as Universal Degrees of Certainty Knowledge as a Good The Rationality of Desiring Knowledge Human Nature and Human Questions Bad Answers and Socratic Ignorance Religion's Answers God as Explanatory Principle: The Positive God as Explanatory Principle: The Negative Science's Answers Scientific Explanations: The Positive Scientific Explanations: The Negative 3: What Is Science? The Ancient View The Problem Plato's Solution Aristotle's Conception of Science Problems Concerning Religion and Science in the Light of Aristotle Modern Views of Science Faith and Scientific Knowledge 4: The Origin of Scientific Attempts to Explain the World The Origin of Science in Miletus Thales and Monism The Problem of Change: Parmenides and Heraclitus Empedocles Democritus Conclusion 5: The God of Ancient Philosophers Xenophanes' God Plato's God Aristotle's God Cicero's God Neoplatonism How God Affects the World Human Access to the Divine The God of Philosophy Part II: Reconciling Science and Religion 6: General Considerations Concerning the Reconciliation of Science and Religion God's Invisibility Evil in the World God's Omniscience and Human Free Will Human Corporeality 7: Plato 8: Philo of Alexandria 9: Reconciling Science and Religion in Medieval Islam Preliminary Comments Al Farabi Avicenna Al Ghazali Averroes 10: Reconciling Science and Religion in Medieval Judaism Saadia Gaon Abraham ibn Daud Maimonides 11: Reconciling Science and Religion in the Christian Middle Ages Bonaventure Thomas Aquinas Aquinas's Relation to Aristotle Aquinas's First Two Proofs of the Existence of God The Immutability of God and the Mutability of Creation Aquinas's Difference with Maimonides on the Immutability of God and Creation Aquinas's Final Three Proofs for the Existence of God The Degree to Which Science Can Explain God Conclusion 12: Reconciling Science and Religion from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment The Scientific Revolution Francis Bacon Galileo Johannes Kepler René Descartes Baruch de Spinoza Isaac Newton Gottfried Leibniz Final Thoughts on the Seventeenth Century The Enlightenment David Hume Immanuel Kant Conclusion 13: Science and Religion in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries A Few Pre-Darwinian Views Charles Darwin A Few Prominent Physicists of the Twentieth Century Albert Einstein Max Planck Erwin Schrodinger Werner Heisenberg Conclusion 14: Science and Religion at the End of the Twentieth Century The Intelligent Design Research Program Dembski's Explanatory Filter Refinement of the Explanatory Filter God of the Gaps Explanatory Power Religious Status Scientific Status Suboptimal Design Anthropic Selection Effect Applicability of Mathematics Hume's Objections Transcendent Designers Conclusion on the Intelligent Design Research Program Keith Ward Arthur Peacocke John Polkinghorne Gould versus Dawkins: Non-Overlapping Magisteria? Conclusion 15: Conclusion Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciling Science and Religion General Comments Types of "Reconciliation" That are Possible Denial of God Denial of Science Redefining the Key Term-God Separating the Spheres of Religion and Science Declaring God and His Operations Unknowable Problems A Proposal Conclusions about God and Humankind Works Cited Index Examines the perennial issues that keep science and religion at arm's length, clarifies those issues, and fits them into an historical framework--from Plato, to Aquinas, to today's thinkers. Visit our website for sample chapters!