Cover Image

Issues in science and religion

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Barbour, Ian G.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall [1966]
Subjects:
Religion and science > History.
Religion et sciences > Histoire.
Religion and science.
Geloof en wetenschap.
Wetenschappelijke technieken.
Religion and science > History
History.
Table of Contents:
  • I. The medieval world drama
  • Methods in science: explanation by purposes
  • Nature as a hierarchy of beings
  • Methods in theology: reason and revelation
  • God as the supreme good
  • Man as center of the cosmic drama
  • II. Galileo's "Two new sciences"
  • Methods in science: Mathematics and observation
  • Nature as particles in motion
  • Methods in theology: Aristotle, Scripture, and nature
  • God as first cause
  • Man as demoted spectator
  • III. The Newtonian world-machine
  • Methods in science: experiment and theory
  • Nature as a law-abiding machine
  • Methods in theology: "natural theology"
  • God as divine clock-maker
  • IV. Contributions of religion to the rise of science
  • Attitudes toward nature and the doctrine of creation
  • The "protestant ethic" and the pursuit of science
  • V. Summary
  • VI. The Age of Reason
  • Nature as a deterministic mechanism
  • God as a debatable hypothesis
  • Man as perfectible by reason
  • VII. The Romantic Reaction
  • Romanticism in literature
  • Pietism and Methodism
  • VIII. Philosophical responses
  • Scientific empiricism and religious agnosticism (Hume)
  • Science and religion as separate realms
  • IX. Summary
  • X. Darwin and natural selection
  • Forerunners of Darwin
  • Darwin's scientific work
  • Nature as dynamic process
  • XI. Theological issues in evolution
  • God and nature: the challenge to deism
  • Man and nature: the challenge to human dignity
  • Methods in science: the challenge of evolutionary ethics
  • Methods in theology: the challenge to scripture
  • XII. Diverging currents in theology
  • Traditionalist responses to evolution
  • The modernist movement
  • The rise of liberal theology
  • Naturalistic philosophies of evolution
  • XIII. Summary
  • XIV. Contrasts of theology and science
  • God's self-revelation versus Man's discovery (neo-orthodox)
  • Subjective involvement versus objective detachment (Existentialism)
  • The variety of uses of language
  • XV. The parallels of theology and science
  • similar attitudes in science and religion (liberal theology)
  • An inclusive metaphysical system (process philosophy)
  • XVI. Derivations of theology from science
  • Arguments from design and order
  • Arguments from physics and biology
  • XVII. Experience and interpretation in science
  • The interaction of experiment and theory
  • The formation of theories
  • Criteria for evaluating theories
  • Understanding as the goal of science
  • XVIII. The scientific community and its language
  • The scientific community and its paradigms
  • The symbolic character of scientific language
  • The use of analogies and models
  • IXX. The relation of scientific concepts to reality
  • theories as summaries of data (positivism)
  • Theories as useful tools (Instrumentalism)
  • Theories as mental structures (Idealism)
  • Theories as representations of the world (Realism).
  • XX. Conclusions: on knowing in science
  • XXI. Objectivity and personal involvement in science
  • The influence of the observer on the data
  • The personal judgment of the scientist
  • Objectivity as intersubjective testability
  • XXII. Objectivity and personal involvement in the social sciences
  • Personal involvement in the study of man
  • Subjectivity and objectivity in the Social sciences
  • XXIII. Lawfulness and uniqueness in history
  • The uniqueness of historical events
  • The logic of historical explanations
  • XXIV. Conclusions: on subject and object
  • XXV. Experience and interpretation in religion
  • Religious experience and theological interpretation
  • The Christian experience of reconciliation
  • The role of the religious community
  • Analogies and models in religious language
  • XXVI. Personal involvement and religious faith
  • Personal participation and "ultimate concern"
  • Biblical theology versus natural theology
  • The interaction of faith and reason
  • Religious commitment and reflective inquiry
  • XXVII. Revelation and uniqueness
  • Revelation and interpretation
  • Revelation and human experience
  • The problem of particularity
  • XXVIII. Interim Conclusions
  • XXIX. Verification and religious language
  • Verification by sense-data (Logical positivism)
  • The diverse uses of language (Linguistic analysis)
  • Cognitive and noncognitive functions in religion
  • Theism and verifiability
  • XXX. The evaluation of religious beliefs
  • Criteria for evaluating religious beliefs
  • Naturalistic interpretations of religion
  • The limits of evaluation
  • World- views and metaphysical systems
  • XXXI. Conclusions: on methods in science and religion
  • XXXII. The strange world of the atom
  • The background of nineteenth-century physics
  • The quantum theory
  • The Heisenberg principle and the wave-particle dualism
  • The principle of complementarity
  • XXXIII. Implications of the new physics
  • The downfall of naïve realism
  • "Idealist" interpretations of physics
  • The significance of coplementarity
  • The whole and the parts
  • XXXIV. Interpretations of indeterminacy
  • Uncertainty as human ignorance (Einstein, Bohm)
  • Uncertainty as experimental or conceptual limitations (Bohr)
  • Uncertainty as indeterminacy in nature (Heisenberg)
  • XXV. Indeterminacy and human freedom
  • assertions of determinism
  • Freedom as indeterminacy
  • Freedom as an alternative language
  • Freedom as act of the total person
  • XXXVI. Conclusions: on implications of physics
  • XXXVII. The physical basis of life
  • The living and the nonliving
  • DNA and the genetic code
  • The physiology of the human brain
  • XXXVIII. Emergence versus reduction
  • Vitalism, mechanism, and organicism
  • The logic of reduction
  • Levels of scientific analysis
  • Parts and whole
  • XXXIX. Teleology versus mechanism
  • Four meanings of purpose
  • The directiveness of organisms
  • Spontaneity and self-creation.
  • XL. The status of mind
  • Computers and minds
  • The mind-body problem
  • A "Two-aspect" theory
  • L. Conclusions: on man and nature
  • LI. The evolving universe
  • Theories of creation in astronomy
  • From matter to man
  • Genes, mutations, and natural selection
  • LII. Traditional theism and the doctrine of creation
  • The origins of man (Roman Catholicism)
  • The religious meaning of creation (neo-orthodoxy)
  • Creation and evolution as unrelated languages
  • Continuing creation
  • LIII. Liberal theology and the argument from design
  • Alleged inadequacies of evolutionary theory
  • Design in the structure of the world
  • LIV. Evolutionary theism and the Immanence of God
  • Emergent evolution
  • The "convergence" of evolution (Teilhard)
  • Reactions to Teilhard
  • LV. Evolutionary naturalism and the status of man
  • The "evolutionary vision"
  • Critiques of evolutionary ethics
  • LVI. Conclusions: on continuing creation
  • LVII. Classical views
  • God as sovereign redeemer (Barth)
  • God as primary cause (Neo-Thomism)
  • God as controller of indeterminacies
  • LVIII. Existentialist and linguistic views
  • God in the sphere of selfhood (Bultmann)
  • God in a distinctive dimension (Heim)
  • God and man's attitude toward events
  • LIX. Process views
  • God as creative persuasion (Whitehead)
  • God as sympathetic participant (Hartshorne)
  • Discussion of process views
  • LX. Conclusions: Toward a theology of nature.