Science & Religion

Alister E. McGrath is Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the editor of the Ian Ramsey Centre Studies in Science and Religion and the author of many influential works, including Dawkins' God: From the "Selftsh Gene" to the "God Delusion."

• Preface to the Third Edition ix1 Science and Religion: Exploring a Relationship 1Why Study Science and Religion? 2The Chessboard: The Diversity of Science and Religion 5Ian Barbour’s Four Models of the Relation of Science and Religion 7Conflict 8Independence 9Dialogue 10Integration 11Four Ways of Imagining the Relation of Science and Religion 13Science and Religion Offer Distinct Perspectives on Reality 13Science and Religion Engage Distinct Levels of Reality 14Science and Religion Offer Distinct Maps of Reality 15The Two Books: Two Complementary Approaches to Reality 152 Getting Started: Some Historical Landmarks 19Why Study History? 20Inventing the ‘Warfare’ of Science and Religion 21The ‘Essentialist Fallacy’ about Science and Religion 24Dispelling Myths about Science and Religion 25The Importance of Biblical Interpretation 28The Emergence of the Medieval Synthesis 29Copernicus, Galileo, and the Solar System 31Newton, the Mechanical Universe, and Deism 38Darwin and the Biological Origins of Humanity 43The ‘Big Bang’: New Insights into the Origins of the Universe 503 Religion and the Philosophy of Science 57Fact and Fiction: Realism and Instrumentalism 58Realism 59Idealism 61Instrumentalism 62Theology and Debates about Realism 64Explanation, Ontology, and Epistemology: Research Methods and the Investigation of Reality 65A Case Study in Explanation: Nancey Murphy on ‘Non‐Reductive Physicalism’ 68What Does it Mean to Explain Something? 70Ontic and Epistemic Approaches to Explanation 71Religion and Explanation 73Philip Clayton on Explanation in Religion 75How Do We Decide What is the Best Explanation? 76‘Logic of Discovery’ and ‘Logic of Justification’ 77Inference to the Best Explanation 79A Case Study: Darwin and Natural Selection 81Theory Choice and Religion 82Verification: Logical Positivism 84Falsification: Karl Popper 86Theory Change in Science: Thomas S. Kuhn 894 Science and the Philosophy of Religion 95Science, Religion, and Proofs for God’s Existence 96Traditional Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God 98Thomas Aquinas’s Five Ways 99The Kalam Argument 102A Case Study: William Paley’s Biological Argument from Design 103The Ambiguity of ‘Proof ’: Justification in Science and Theology 108God’s Action in the World 111Deism: God Acts Through the Laws of Nature 112Thomism: God Acts Through Secondary Causes 114Process Theology: God Acts Through Persuasion 116Quantum Theory: God Acts Through Indeterminacy 118Miracles and the Laws of Nature 120David Hume’s Critique of Miracles 121Keith Ward on Miracles 123Wolfhart Pannenberg on Miracles 124Natural Atheology? Evolutionary Debunking Arguments against God 125Natural Theology: Is God the ‘Best Explanation’ of our Universe? 128A Metaquestion: Creation and the Uniformity of Nature 1335 Models and Analogies in Science and Religion 143The Use of Models in the Natural Sciences 145The Kinetic Model of Gases 148Complementarity: Light as Wave and Particle 151Analogical Reasoning: Galileo and the Mountains of the Moon 153Using Scientific Models Critically: Darwin’s Principle of Natural Selection 155The Use of Models and Metaphors in Christian Theology 158Thomas Aquinas on the Analogia Entis (‘Analogy of Being’) 159Ian T. Ramsey on the Model of the Divine Economy 160Arthur Peacocke on the Theological Application of Models and Analogies 162Sallie McFague on Metaphors in Theology 163Using Religious Models Critically: Creation 164Using Religious Models Critically: Theories of the Atonement 167Models and Mystery: The Limits of Representation of Reality 169Ian Barbour on Models in Science and Religion 1736 Science and Religion: Some Major Contemporary Debates 179Moral Philosophy: Can the Natural Sciences establish Moral Values? 179Evolution and Ethics: The Debate about Darwinism and Morality 180Neuroscience and Ethics: Sam Harris on the Moral Landscape 182Philosophy of Science: Is Reality Limited to What the Sciences Can Disclose? 185Philosophy of Religion: Theodicy in a Darwinian World 189Theology: Transhumanism, the ‘Image of God’, and Human Identity 192Mathematics: Science and the Language of God 196Physics: Does the ‘Anthropic Principle’ have Religious Significance? 199Evolutionary Biology: Can we speak of ‘Design’ in Nature? 203The Psychology of Religion: What is Religion All About? 207The Cognitive Science of Religion: Is Religion ‘Natural’? 213Conclusion 218Sources of Citations 225Index 245

"Science and Religion: A New Introduction is now into its third edition and is an excellent introduction to the whole field of science and religion." - Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Volume 73, Number 1, March 2021