Landscapes of Science and Religion
What Are We Disagreeing About?
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Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198878759
Number of Pages: 288
Published: 14/03/2025
Width: 14.3 cm
Height: 22.3 cm
The relationship between science and religion has long been a heated debate and is becoming an ever more popular topic. The scientific capacity to manipulate and change humans and their environment through genetic engineering, life extension, and AI is going to take a huge leap forward in the twenty-first century, provoking endless debates around humans “playing God”.
But what do we mean by this? Asking this question is surprisingly hard work. Attempts to 'essentialise' science, let alone religion, quickly run into trouble. Where are the boundaries? Whose definition of science is definitive? Which concept of religious is the authoritative one?
Ultimately, neither “science” nor “religion” can be pinned down to one single meaning or definition. Rather, they encompass a family of definitions that relate to one another in a complex web of shifting ways. Drawing on extensive research with over a hundred leading thinkers in the UK — including Martin Rees, Brian Cox, Susan Greenfield, A.C. Grayling, Ray Tallis, Linda Woodhead, Steve Bruce, Adam Rutherford, Robin Dunbar, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, and Iain McGilchrist — The Landscapes of Science and Religion takes the much-needed step of asking what science and religion actually are, before turning to the familiar question of how they relate to one another.
Building on this, by paying particular attention to those who sense some form of conflict here, Spencer and Waite explore where the perceived conflict really lies. What exactly are people disagreeing about when they disagree about science and religion, and what, if anything, can we do to improve that disagreement and bring about a fruitful dialogue between these two important human endeavours.
1: Introduction: The Landscapes of Science and Religion
Part I: Surveying the Landscapes of Science and Religion: Defining and Disaggregating Terms
2: Defining Science
3: Disaggregating Science
4: Defining Religion
5: Disaggregating Religion
6: Disaggregating Science and Religion: Public Views
Conclusion to Part I
Part II: Touring the Landscapes of Science and Religion: Understanding Where the Disagreements Lie
7: Metaphysics
8: Methodology
9: Anthropology
10: Public Authority and Public Reasoning
Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography