Science and Religion_A Very Short Introduction
Thomas Dixon
Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction
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VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology.
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Very Short Introductions available now:
AFRICAN HISTORY John Parker and Richard Rathbone
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones
ANARCHISM Colin Ward
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas
ANCIENT WARFARE Harry Sidebottom
ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair
ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia
ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn
ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland
THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin
ATHEISM Julian Baggini
AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick
BARTHES Jonathan Culler
BESTSELLERS John Sutherland
THE BIBLE John Riches
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea
BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright
BUDDHA Michael Carrithers
BUDDHISM Damien Keown
BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown
CAPITALISM James Fulcher
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe
CHAOS Leonard Smith
CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead
CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson
CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY Helen Morales
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard
THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon
CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore
CONTEMPORARY ART Julian Stallabrass
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley
COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman
CRYPTOGRAPHY Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
DADA AND SURREALISM David Hopkins
DARWIN Jonathan Howard
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Timothy Lim
DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick
DESCARTES Tom Sorell
DESIGN John Heskett
DINOSAURS David Norman
DOCUMENTARY FILM Patricia Aufderheide
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson
DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta
EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford
THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
EMOTION Dylan Evans
EMPIRE Stephen Howe
ENGELS Terrell Carver
ETHICS Simon Blackburn
THE EUROPEAN UNION John Pinder and Simon Usherwood
EVOLUTION Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn
FASCISM Kevin Passmore
FEMINISM Margaret Walters
THE FIRST WORLD WAR Michael Howard
FOSSILS Keith Thomson
FOUCAULT Gary Gutting
FREE WILL Thomas Pink
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION William Doyle
FREUD Anthony Storr
FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven
GALAXIES John Gribbin
GALILEO Stillman Drake
GAME THEORY Ken Binmore
GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh
GEOGRAPHY John A. Matthews and David T. Herbert
GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds
GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle
GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Bill McGuire
GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger
GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND
THE NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway
HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson
HEGEL Peter Singer
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood
HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson
HINDUISM Kim Knott
HISTORY John H. Arnold
HISTORY OF LIFE Michael Benton
HISTORY OF MEDICINE William Bynum
HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside
HOBBES Richard Tuck
HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood
HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham
HUME A. J. Ayer
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton
INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION Khalid Koser
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson
ISLAM Malise Ruthven
JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves
JUDAISM Norman Solomon
JUNG Anthony Stevens
KABBALAH Joseph Dan
KAFKA Ritchie Robertson
KANT Roger Scruton
KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner
THE KORAN Michael Cook
LAW Raymond Wacks
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews
LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler
LOCKE John Dunn
LOGIC Graham Priest
MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner
THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips
MARX Peter Singer
MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers
THE MEANING OF LIFE Terry Eagleton
MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths
MEMORY Jonathan Foster
MODERN ART David Cottington
MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter
MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta
MOLECULES Philip Ball
MORMONISM Richard Lyman Bushman
MUSIC Nicholas Cook
MYTH Robert A. Segal
NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
NELSON MANDELA Elleke Boehmer
THE NEW TESTAMENT AS LITERATURE Kyle Keefer
NEWTON Robert Iliffe
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner
NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew
NORTHERN IRELAND Marc Mulholland
NUCLEAR WEAPONS Joseph M. Siracusa
THE OLD TESTAMENT Michael D. Coogan
PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close
PAUL E. P. Sanders
PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig
PHILOSOPHY OF LAW Raymond Wacks
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Samir Okasha
PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
PLATO Julia Annas
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY David Miller
POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young
POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler
POSTSTRUCTURALISM Catherine Belsey
PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Catherine Osborne
PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns
PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and Freda McManus
THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion
QUANTUM THEORY John Polkinghorne
RACISM Ali Rattansi
THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton
RENAISSANCE ART Geraldine A. Johnson
ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway
THE ROMAN EMPIRE Christopher Kelly
ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
&nb
sp; RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION S. A. Smith
SCHIZOPHRENIA Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway
SCIENCE AND RELIGION Thomas Dixon
SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier
SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY John Monaghan and Peter Just
SOCIALISM Michael Newman
SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Helen Graham
SPINOZA Roger Scruton
STUART BRITAIN John Morrill
TERRORISM Charles Townshend
THEOLOGY David F. Ford
THE HISTORY OF TIME Leofranc Holford-Strevens
TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
THE TUDORS John Guy
TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan
THE VIKINGS Julian Richards
WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling
WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman
THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION Amrita Narlikar
Available soon:
1066 George Garnett
AUTISM Uta Frith
EXPRESSIONISM Katerina Reed-Tsocha
RELIGION IN AMERICA Timothy Beal
SCOTLAND Rab Houston
STATISTICS David J. Hand
THE UNITED NATIONS Jussi M. Hanhimáki
THE VIETNAM WAR Mark Atwood Lawrence
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Thomas Dixon
SCIENCE AND RELIGION
A Very Short Introduction
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
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© Thomas Dixon 2008
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First published 2008
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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ISBN 978–0–19–929551–7
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Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
Printed in Great Britain by
Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire
For Emma Dixon
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
1 What are science–religion debates really about?
2 Galileo and the philosophy of science
3 Does God act in nature?
4 Darwin and evolution
5 Creationism and Intelligent Design
6 Mind and morality
References and further reading
Index
Preface
Books about science and religion generally fall into one of two categories: those that want to persuade you of the plausibility of religion and those that want to do the opposite. This Very Short Introduction falls into neither category. It aims instead to offer an informative and even-handed account of what is really at stake. The polemical passion the subject often generates is an indication of the intensity with which people identify themselves with their beliefs about nature and God, whether they are religious or not. The origins and functions of those beliefs form the subject of this book.
In recent years the topic of ‘science and religion’ has become almost synonymous, especially in the United States, with debates about evolution. For this reason, two of the six chapters of this book are devoted to evolutionary subjects. The modern American debate about evolution and ‘Intelligent Design’ illustrates particularly clearly how stories about conflict or harmony between science and religion can be used in political campaigns – in this case relating to the control of education and the interpretation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Historical notions about famous individuals, especially Galileo Galilei and Charles Darwin; philosophical assumptions about miracles, laws of nature, and scientific knowledge; and discussions of the religious and moral implications of modern science, from quantum mechanics to neuroscience, are regular features of science–religion debates today. All of these are scrutinized here.
It is no part of my aim in this book to persuade people to stop disagreeing with each other about science and religion – far from it. My hope is only that it might help people to disagree with each other in a well-informed way.
Acknowledgements
I was first introduced to this fascinating topic, as an undergraduate student, by Fraser Watts’s lectures on theology and science at Cambridge University, and by John Hedley Brooke’s classic Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge, 1991). Subsequently, as a postgraduate, I was taught at the Universities of London and Cambridge by distinguished historians and philosophers of science, including Janet Browne, Hasok Chang, Rob Iliffe, Peter Lipton, Jim Moore, and Jim Secord. I am indebted to all of them and to the supportive and stimulating research environment I encountered in Cambridge both at the Department for the History and Philosophy of Science and in the Faculty of Divinity. I am also grateful for the support of colleagues, in more recent years, in Lancaster and London. I would particularly like to mention Stephen Pumfrey and Angus Winchester at Lancaster University, and Geoffrey Cantor for his help with the organization of a conference there on ‘Science and Religion: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives’ in July 2007 to mark John Hedley Brooke’s retirement. I learned a great deal from all the contributors to that conference. Most recently I have benefited from the guidance and encouragement of my colleagues at Queen Mary, University of London, especially Virginia Davis, Colin Jones, Miri Rubin, Yossef Rapoport, Rhodri Hayward, Joel Isaac, and Tristram Hunt. Emilie Savage-Smith and Salman Hameed have given me much-appreciated guidance on the subject of Islam and science. At Oxford University Press, Marsha Filion, Andrea Keegan, and James Thompson helped me through the production process with patience, skill, and enthusiasm. Fiona Orbell acquired the images and necessary permissions with great speed and efficiency, and Alyson Silverwood ensured that the text was copyedited to the highest standard. Special thanks are due to those friends who took the time and trouble to read drafts of the text and offer me advice on how to improve it, namely Emily Butterworth, Noam Friedlander, James Humphreys, Finola Lang, Dan Neidle, Trevor Sather, Léon Turner, and especially Giles Shilson. My greatest debt is to my family. The book is dedicated to my sister Emma, who advised me to become an academic and no
t a lawyer.
