Are science and faith, particularly Christianity, inevitably in conflict, as the New Atheists proclaim? Have they not always been so? Weren't early scientists hounded for their discoveries until Darwin burst on the scene and sent faith packing? Not if you look at the facts, says Dr Allan Chapman, who teaches the History of Science at the University of Oxford. History shows us that Galileo was not the victim of Church persecution - nor did Huxley 'win' the debate with Wilberforce. Drawing on contemporary sources, Dr Chapman proves that the history of science and of faith always have been closely intertwined. From the leading scientists of medieval times, many in Holy Orders, to the seventeenth-century Popes who maintained an astronomical observatory in the Vatican, to the Christian people of science today, science and faith have grown up together.
Autorentext
Allan Chapman teaches history of science in the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and author of eight books.
Zusammenfassung
In 'Slaying the Dragons', professor and member of the Faculty of History at Wadham College, Oxford, Allan Chapman examines the claims of the 'New Atheists that: religion really belongs to an earlier phase of human development, and that nowadays science has taken its place as the yardstick of authority. But are science and religion friends or foes? There are a great many scientists of the highest intellectual distinction - ranging from cosmology to medical research, who make no bones about their faith and cannot understand what the 'New Atheists' are getting so worked up about.Chapman explores whether anything has changed in the nature of scientific discovery to allow for the modern atheistic interpretations of science that did not exist in the past. He also examines whether or not modern discoveries in biology, brain science, cosmology and physics seriously undermine religious belief.In this study, Allan Chapman examines popular misunderstandings about key events in the history of science-faith relations. He covers the major episodes such as Galileo's trial, the Wilberforce-Huxley debate and the Scopes trial of 1925, but also looks further back through the medieval period to the Classical age, revealing how these events have acquired mythical and misleading status.Asking if religious modern scientists just the fools that new atheists paint them to be, or are the latter just so blind in their dogmatic brain-washing that they cannot see the bigger world beyond their test-tubes, 'Slaying the Dragons' exposes the atheists' worn-out tale which itself goes back centuries, and which they are trying to spice up with big helpings of rhetoric and ridicule.
Inhalt
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6
1 MYTHS, MONOTHEISM, AND THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN SCIENCE 9
2 THE ORIGINS OF UNBELIEF
Part 1: Ancients and Early Moderns 24
THE POPULAR MYTH THAT ATHEISM IS NEW 24
CLASSICAL AND MEDIEVAL UNBELIEF 26
THOMAS HOBBES, MATERIALISM,
AND MAN THE MACHINE 31
ATHEISTS, DEISTS, AND UNBELIEVERS 37
3 THE ORIGINS OF UNBELIEF
Part 2: Dreams of a Brave
New World 43
ROMANTIC AND REVOLUTIONARY ATHEISM 43
ROBERT OWEN, GEORGE HOLYOAKE, AND THE VICTORIAN SECULAR ATHEISTS 50
THE MYTH THAT SIMPLE FAITH WAS DESTROYED BY DARWIN IN 1859 56
4 THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
Part 1: Two Persistent Myths 57
THE MYTH OF THE MEDIEVAL "DARK AGE" 57
THE MYTH OF THE "ENLIGHTENMENT" 65
5 THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
Part 2: Myths of Changing Circumstances 75
THE PROBLEM OF ETERNAL DAMNATION 75
BIBLICAL CRITICISM, "MYTH", AND EARLY BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 79
NATIONALISTIC CHRISTIANITY 89
THE GROWTH AND POWER OF SCIENCE 92
6 SOME POPULAR MYTHS ABOUT
SCIENCE AND RELIGION 94
CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE IN "CONFLICT": TWO NINETEENTHCENTURY AMERICAN "ATHEISTS" 94
ALL CHRISTIANS ARE REALLY BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISTS 98
THE CHURCH HAS ALWAYS PERSECUTED SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS 100
RELIGION CAUSES THE WORLD'S TROUBLES: ONLY SECULARISM CAN BRING PEACE 107
7 MONKEYING AROUND WITH HISTORY: THE MYTH OF THE BIG 1860 "OXFORD DEBATE" ON EVOLUTION 113
8 THE MYTH OF THE YOUNG EARTH AND THE ORIGINS OF EVOLUTIONARY IDEAS 121
DATING THE CREATION 121
THE ORIGINS OF LIFE: PRE-DARWINIAN IDEAS OF "EVOLUTION" 130
9 CHARLES DARWIN: MONKEY, MAN, AND MYTH 136
10 COUNTERING THE "BIG LIE" 149
WHY IS NATURE CONGRUENT? 149
WHY DO HUMANS RESPOND SO POSITIVELY TO BEAUTY AND ELEGANCE? 151
SCIENCE DESCRIBES EFFECTS, RELIGION TALKS OF CAUSES AND PURPOSES 156
11 DOES SCIENCE CHALLENGE RELIGION? THE GREAT ATHEIST MYTH 160
LACK OF NEW SECULARIST IDEAS 160
WHY HAS RELIGION FAILED TO DIE AWAY? 166
ARE ATHEISM AND SECULARISM MORE SUPERSTITIOUS THAN CHRISTIANITY? 169
DOUBTING SCEPTICISM 173
SEDUCTION BY REDUCTION 176
12 THE AGE THAT LOST ITS NERVE: THE DILEMMA OF CHRISTENDOM IN THE MODERN WORLD
Part 1: Myths and Mechanisms 180
THE MYTH OF A SECULAR SOCIETY 182
FORCED TO ACT: MECHANISM AND EVOLUTIONARY AND NEUROLOGICAL DETERMINISM 186
THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE EXPLANATIONS, AND THEIR EXPLOITATION BY SECULARIST MYTH-MAKERS 194
13 THE AGE THAT LOST ITS NERVE: THE DILEMMA OF CHRISTENDOM IN THE MODERN WORLD
Part 2: The Myth of Secular
Transcendence 204
THE MYTH OF HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY 205