Three Views On Christianity And Science

When it comes to relating Christianity to modern Western culture, perhaps no topic is more controversial than the relationship between Christianity and science. Outside the church, the myth of a backwards, anti-science Christianity is very common in popular culture and can poison the well before a fruitful dialogue can begin. Within the church, opposing viewpoints on the relation between Christianity and science often lead to division. Three Views on Christianity and Science addresses both types of conflict. Featuring leading evangelical scholars, this book presents three primary options for the compatibility of Christianity and science and models constructive dialogue on the surrounding controversial issues. The highlighted contributors and their views are: Michael Ruse, representing the Independence View - When functioning correctly, science and Christian theology operate independently of each other, seeking answers to different questions through different means. Alister McGrath, representing the Dialogue View - Though the natural sciences and Christian philosophy and theology function differently, they can and should inform each other. Bruce L. Gordon, representing the Constrained Integration View - Science, philosophy, and theology all contribute to our understanding of reality. Their interactions constrain each other and together present an optimally coherent and integrated picture of reality. By engaging with the viewpoints of the contributors, readers will come away with a deeper understanding of the compatibility of science and Christianity, as well as of the positions of those who disagree with them. Scholars, students, pastors, and interested laypeople will be able to make use of this material in research, assignments, sermons and lessons, evangelism, and apologetics. The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.

For Christians, the issues raised by the different views on creation and evolution are challenging. Can a "young earth" be reconciled with a universe that appears to be billions of years old? Does scientific evidence point to a God who designed the universe and life in all its complexity? Three Views on Creation and Evolution deals with these and similar concerns as it looks at three dominant schools of Christian thought. Proponents of young earth creationism, old earth creationism, and theistic evolution each present their different views, tell why the controversy is important, and describe the interplay between their understandings of science and theology. Each view is critiqued by various scholars, and the entire discussion is summarized by Phillip E. Johnson and Richard H. Bube. The Counterpoints series provides a forum for comparison and critique of different views on issues important to Christians. Counterpoints books address two categories: Church Life and Bible and Theology. Complete your library with other books in the Counterpoints series.

The New York Times bestselling author explains why any attempt to make religion compatible with science is doomed to fail. What we read in the news today is full of subjectivity, half-truths, and blatant falsehoods; and thus it is more necessary now than ever to safeguard the truth with facts. In his provocative new book, evolutionary biologist Jerry A. Coyne aims to do exactly that in the arena of religion. In clear, dispassionate detail he explains why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion—including faith, dogma, and revelation—leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Coyne is responding to a national climate in which over half of Americans don’t believe in evolution (and congressmen deny global warming), and warns that religious prejudices and strictures in politics, education, medicine, and social policy are on the rise. Extending the bestselling works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, he demolishes the claims of religion to provide verifiable “truth” by subjecting those claims to the same tests we use to establish truth in science. Coyne irrefutably demonstrates the grave harm—to individuals and to our planet—in mistaking faith for fact in making the most important decisions about the world we live in.

Evolution--or the broader topic of origins--has enormous relevance to how we understand the Christian faith and how we interpret Scripture. Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design presents the current "state of the conversation" about origins among evangelicals representing four key positions: Young Earth Creationism - Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis) Old Earth (Progressive) Creationism - Hugh Ross (Reasons to Believe) Evolutionary Creation - Deborah B. Haarsma (BioLogos) Intelligent Design - Stephen C. Meyer (The Discovery Institute) The contributors offer their best defense of their position addressing questions such as: What is your position on origins - understood broadly to include the physical universe, life, and human beings in particular? What do you take to be the most persuasive arguments in defense of your position? How do you demarcate and correlate evidence about origins from current science and from divine revelation? What hinges on answering these questions correctly? This book allows each contributor to not only present the case for his or her view, but also to critique and respond to the critiques of the other contributors, allowing you to compare their beliefs in an open forum setting to see where they overlap and where they differ.

“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith “A stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being. I miss him so.” —Kurt Vonnegut Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship." Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century.

The Christian View of Science and Scripture book on the complex problems of science and scriptures is strategically important for evangelicals. -- Amazon.com

Science versus Christianity? Reason versus Faith? The relationship between science and Christianity is all too often framed within such modernist polarizations, even though we are now living in a postmodern world! But from a Christian perspective, if such conflict theses are to be discredited, what assumptions about the scientific endeavor, the nature of nature, reason, revelation, and knowledge should undergird the relation between science and Christianity? Science & Grace critically examines contemporary assumptions and then positively re-describes scientific endeavors in ways that encourage faithful and joyful Christian involvement in the science of our day, both as "consumers" of the fruits of scientific work and as producers of new scientific insights into God's works on display in His universe. In Science & Grace, the authors go beyond the more common focus on creation, evolution, and intelligent design to address more novel questions concerning science and Christianity. The first section reviews a variety of developments both inside and outside of science to indicate that the Enlightenment hope of a simple picture of science, providing its own foundation and sustaining power, doesn't work. The section goes on to locate a faithful Christian approach to science in the midst of the general cultural shift from modernism to postmodernism as one that thoroughly embraces the need for each worldview to give its own account of how science "works." For the Christian, this indicates the need for a theology of science. The second section approaches the relation of God to His creation through a robust trinitarian theology that highlights the divine action of the transcendent purposes of the Father, mediated through the Son, and brought to fruition by the immanent presence of the Spirit. The triune God's covenantal faithfulness to His creation is then the reason for the regularities we perceive as scientific laws. In this context, the dualistic tendency to pit "natural processes" against "supernatural intervention" perceived as miracles is shown to be an unnecessary consequence of the history of the rise of mechanism. We can thus understand science from a Christian perspective as one avenue of many through which we are able to see and respond to God's faithfulness to His covenant promises. The third section examines how doing science from a Christian perspective naturally flows from the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor, or put it another way, to love God with all our being, knowing, and doing. In terms of being, this section re-orients the meaning of our scientific work and its significance in history by exploring who humans are and what creation is in terms of their relation to God and how those relationships are impacted by the major episodes in redemptive history: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. Then knowing is described in terms of faithfully responding to God's revelation in His Word and world, responses that include both submission to "order as given" and creative stewardship in handling "order as task." Pleasing God in our knowing should be the Christian's prime concern, rather than narrowly pursuing the satisfaction of humanly formulated knowing criteria. Finally concerning the doing aspect, being good stewards of our scientific gifts requires that we "do" as confident, attentive and submissive servants who are committed to the gracious authority of His Word, His Church, and His World. In the final section, in seeking out ways to "do" as good neighbors in the scientific culture of our times, Science & Grace describes how Christians are to be good stewards of God's favor and His judgment in scientific work. We are to rejoice in the fruits of our common labors with our non-Christian colleagues but also we are not to neglect our obligation, in love, to warn them of the wrath of God that will judge persisting unbelief.