3E: Science

Question 1

Is there always a fight between science and religion?

Answer 1

• Dawkins: faith undermines science
• Believers point to gaps in knowledge that science can’t explain
• Creationists take a literal approach to Genesis
• Galileo: heliocentric, believed everything goes around the sun. Persecuted by the Catholic Church. Took this mick out of the Pope’s viewpoint in his book

Question 2

Are science and religion nothing to do with each other?

Answer 2

• Religion: why - purpose
• Science: how - mechanics
• Separate domains of understanding
• Dawkins: a wall between religion and science
• Stephen Jay Gould: NOMA - non overlapping magisterium. Separate approaches

Question 3

Can science and religion learn from each other?

Answer 3

• Points of contact
• POMA: partially overlapped magisterium
• St Augustine: evolution, no time before creation
• Calvin: accommodation
• If evidence contradicts the Bible then look at evidence
• Religion gives us stories that science backs up
• Genetics explain selfishness: so does religion?

Question 4

Do science and religion both fit together in human understanding?

Answer 4

• Common search for understanding
• ‘2 books’: Book of words is the Bible, and the book of works is nature
• Newton: 4 million words on theology
• Present of Royal Society: clergy, Bishop as first president

Question 5

What is Dawkins’ view on religion and the relationship between religion and science? (Remember WAGER)

Answer 5

• There is a Wall between religion and science: Gould - NOMA
• Religion is an Abberation: our survival mechanism gone wrong
• God of the Gaps: science now explains things that religion used to
• Religion is the root of Evil: anti-theism - religion is harmful and anti-science. Compares religion to child abuse and a virus
• Rejection of God-hypothesis: there is no good reason to think God explains things

Question 6

What does Dawkins say our nature comes from?

Answer 6

Genes and nuture passed from memes

Question 7

What is a meme?

Answer 7

An element of culture that is passed from one person to another by imitation and suggestibility - therefore we inherit all kinds of beliefs and values, including belief in God, the afterlife etc

Question 8

Why does Dawkins think many ‘real scientists’ claim to be religious?

Answer 8

Because they are afraid of sharing their real beliefs or confuse religion with cultural values

Question 9

Who are some ‘real scientists’ who are thiests?

Answer 9

Alistair McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath

Question 10

What book did the McGrath’s write?

Answer 10

‘The Dawkins Delusion’

Question 11

What does ‘The Dawkins Delusion’ state about a US survey to defend religious scientists?

Answer 11

1916 and 1997 US surveys show that belief in God among scientists have held steady at about 40%. They argue that Dawkins cannot and should not speak for the entire scientific community

Question 12

What is the name of Dawkins’ book?

Answer 12

‘The God Delusion’ (2006)

Question 13

What does Dawkins argue in ‘The God Delusion’?

Answer 13

Religion is prone to anti-intellectualism and violence, whereas science unlocks life’s mysteries. He calls religious faith ‘the great cop out’

Question 14

What are the two qualities that provide survival value and show how people have a psychological disposition that can favour religious belief does Dawkins suggest?

Answer 14

1. We have a tendency to obey elders as it increases our safety (but only if the elders are not mistaken)
2. We are biologically programmed to assign meaning and purpose to the world, which helps us survive

Question 15

What is the God of the Gaps argument?

Answer 15

Dawkins questions the God hypothesis (the idea that God can be involved to explain a gap in our knowledge). He notes that theologians often explain gaps in our knowledge by invoking God

Question 16

How can Intelligent Design be applied to the God of the Gaps Argument?

Answer 16

The view of some contemporary creationists that biological forms of life and irreducible complex so therefore point to a God. The problem with such strategies is that the gaps in our knowledge decrease, God becomes increasingly irrelevant retreating further and further away from daily life

Question 17

Why do many theologians reject the God of the Gaps approach?

Answer 17

They argue that God is intimately and actively involved in life on earth

Question 18

How do the McGraths respond to the God of the Gaps argument?

Answer 18

It is not the gaps in our knowledge that require an explanation but the fact that we live in an intelligible universe

Question 19

How do the Richard Swinburne respond to the God of the Gaps argument?

Answer 19

The best explanation is that the universe has been created by an intelligent Being

Question 20

What does Dawkins say are the 4 main roles that religion has traditionally filled?

Answer 20

1. Explanation: by understanding scientific ideas like natural selection we no longer need religion to explain life
2. Exhortation: we don’t have to be religious to be moral and for Dawkins religion has led to violence and segregation
3. Consolation: religion isn’t the only way to find consolation as science can help us think of new ways of contemplating
4. Inspiration: we don’t need religion to be inspired by the grandeur of nature and the world

Question 21

How does Dawkins echo Voltaire?

Answer 21

• Voltaire claimed “he who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities”
• Dawkins mirrors this by saying the ‘anti-intellectualism’ of religion and it’s reliance on faith means that people can be manipulated into doing awful things
• he identifies things such as fundamentalist terrorism, the negative impact of religion on issues such as gay rights, women’s equality and abortion, and the way that religion has sometimes appeared to hold back scientific progress on the teaching of evolution as key issues

Question 22

Why does Dawkins compare religion to child abuse?

Answer 22

It teaches children to abandon reason and priories blind faith. He thinks that even moderate expressions of religion are a problem because they are all rooted in faith, which he calls the ‘great cop out’

Question 23

Why does Dawkins disagree with the teleological argument?

Answer 23

He says there are two problems with what he called the “God hypothesis” - the conclusion that a designer intervenes in the world.
1. the reason why there is such complexity and intricacy in the world is because of the natural selection and adaptation
2. To say God designed the world just begs the question of who designed God?

Question 24

What is the ‘Anthropic approach’?

Answer 24

• Proposed by Dawkins: suggest that since we exist, the earth is “life friendly”
• Since there are possibly millions of planets in the universe where life could have developed it is unreasonable to think the conditions friendly to our life could only occur on only one of these
• States that since we are alive and conscious, our planet has to be one of the rare ones capable of sustaining life
• instead of invoking God we might consider the Multiverse hypothesis (there are endless numbers of universes each with different variations, and ours happens to be one with the variations to support life as it is here on earth”

Question 25

What does Dawkins mean by saying there is a wall between religion and science?

Answer 25

Many ‘real’ scientists who claim to be religious only do so because they’re scared of sharing their real beliefs. He argues religion is prone to anti-intellectualism and violence, whereas science unlocks life’s mysteries

Question 26

What does Dawkins mean by saying religion is an aberration?

Answer 26

• Religion doesn’t offer reasonable answers to life’s questions. it is a byproduct of these 2 qualities that provide survival value;
  1. Tendency to obey elders
  2. We’re biologically programmed to assign meaning and purpose to the world

Question 27

What does Dawkins mean by God of the Gaps?

Answer 27

• science can fill our instinctive need to find meaning and purpose in life, fulfilling the 4 main roles religion has traditionally filled:
  1. Explanation
  2. Exhortation
  3. Consolation
  4. Inspiration

Question 28

What does Dawkins mean by saying religion is the root of evil?

Answer 28

• religions reliance on faith means that people can be manipulated into doing awful things
• he identifies fundamentalist terrorism and the negative impact of religion on issues
• he argues that bringing up children within religion is a form of child abuse

Question 29

What does McGrath argue?

Answer 29

• many great intellectuals have become Christians in later years
• there is no scientific evidence to support ideas like religion being a virus
• Dawkins’ work is polemic and needs to be backed up with empirical evidence. He has reconstructed religious beliefs according to his own negative views
• evolution is a fact but can be interpreted atheistically and theistically
• Says Dawkins confuses atheistic worldview with the fact of natural selection and has chose to ignore many aspects such as prophetic critique, inclusive ministry of Jesus, danger of an absence of religion

Question 30

What does Peter Medawar state are the 3 questions science can never answer?

Answer 30

1. How did everything begin?
2. What are we here for?
3. What is the point of living?

Question 31

Einstein quite about religion and science

Answer 31

“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”

Question 32

What does POMA mean?

Answer 32

partially-overlapping magisteria: science and faith can assist each other

Question 33

Quote from the McGraths suggesting Dawkins’ work is polemic

Answer 33

“…more designed to reassure atheists whose faith is faltering than to engage fairly or rigorously with religious believe and others seeking for truth”

Question 34

What does NOMA mean?

Answer 34

non-overlapping magisteria; religion and science do not overlap and each have their own separate domains of inquiry

Question 35

Do the McGraths prefer POMA or NOMA?

Answer 35

POMA; they maintain evolution is a fact but it can be interpreted atheistically or theistically

Question 36

What factors do the McGraths believe Dawkins has ignored?

Answer 36

• The Prophetic critique: religion is actually capable of self-critique
• The inclusive ministry of Jesus
• The capacity of religion to transcend and transform human conflicts: the Bible is full of teaching about loving one’s neighbours
• The danger of an absence of religion: without religion society can turn ideas into idols and violence
• The fact that religion is more than believe: it has many dimensions eg binding people together

Question 37

The McGraths accuse Dawkins of scientism. What does this mean?

Answer 37

a fundamentalist belief that scientific and technological knowledge will find answers to absolutely everything

Question 38

Reasons to suggest that scientists must be atheists

Answer 38

• scientific inquiry will inevitably lead to atheism
• scientists who claim to be religious do so because they’re afraid of sharing their real beliefs or confuse religion with cultural value
• although Einstein said positive things about religion, he did not believe in the God of classical theism
• Dawkins argues theism and science are incompatible because religion is a biological and psychological aberration which has no value in our quest for knowledge: religion represents undesirable tendencies which are really about survival
• Dawkins: evidence suggests that religion has lead to fanaticism, wars, bloodshed, segregation and suppression of truth by the church and is thus completely incompatible with religion, so scientists, in the pursuit of truth, must inevitably be athiests

Question 39

Reasons to suggest scientists don’t necessarily have to be atheists

Answer 39

• even if all scientists were atheists, would this prove they must be?
• The McGraths see science and religion as separate fields of study eg Stephen Jay Gould’s NOMA
• many intelligent people have given up childish beliefs such as Santa, but continue into adult life as theists (a survey in US repeated over 80 years showed there was no decrease in scientists believing in God)
• Dawkins’ analysis fails to acknowledge the positive messages of Christianity: EXEMPLIFY teachings of Jesus on love, peace, forgiveness and tolerance: ML King and Civil Rights Movement
• McGraths: historically, when religion is eradicated violence and injustice has got worse (eg French Revolution)
• Some studies suggest that religious belief can lead to well-being and longevity: this doesn’t mean religious belief is necessarily true but more scientific advancement can be accomplished with these factors in place

Question 40

Reasons to suggest that science has reduced the role of God in Christianity

Answer 40

• For secularists and atheistic scientists, belief in God is destined to fade, only to be remembered as a quaint aspect of human life
• the theory of natural selection has replaced God in traditional Christianity by providing an answer to the appearance of complex and intricate design in the natural world
• Dawkins asks why keep turning to a “God hypothesis”? Natural selection doesn’t need a God hypothesis. Dawkins references the Anthropic Principle as a reason why our planet is so finely tuned for the emergence of life
• Dawkins argues that theistic belief persists because people are afraid they won’t be able to fill the gap in their need for meaning and purpose (God of the Gaps). He says science can fill this gap and provide consolation, inspiration, explanations and moral guidance in a humanistic way
• Dawkins said positing God is just another ‘God of the Gaps’ argument (eg invoking God when we don’t have an explanation). When we find an explanation God retreats until he finally becomes irrelevant

Question 41

Reasons to suggest that science has NOT reduced the role of God in Christianity

Answer 41

• Science cannot explain all mysteries; the biggest mystery is why is there something rather than nothing? natural selection cannot explain why there is life
• The McGraths maintain that the ‘Gaps’ argument is associated with William Paley and was popular in 18/19th centuries, but today most Christians see God as actively sustaining life. The McGraths see evolution as completely compatible with theism
• Dawkins’ view that God is retreating is not a fact, but a worldview (a bias that Dawkins brings to the facts)
• Richard Swinburne argues that we live in an intelligible world because of an intelligible creative force behind everything, a view held by many scientists