TruthBook Religious News Blog

Last updated August 17, 2007

By Anthony B. Robinson
GUEST COLUMNIST

Who would have thought that on a summer Saturday night in Seattle a professor of philosophy could pack the house?

Alvin Plantinga, a professor at Notre Dame, did just that for a talk on science and religion last weekend. The crowd turned up at Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church in southeast Seattle where Plantinga's daughter, Jane Pauw, is the pastor. The topic was, "Science and Religion: Why Does the Debate Continue?"

... the topic of science and religion remains a hot one. Moreover, Seattle audiences have been treated to a string of appearances by authors such as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennettand Christopher Hitchens. All three represent the popular, if simplistic to the point of silly, viewpoint that religion is the source of the world's problems and getting rid of it is the path to salvation.

Religion and science are two different ways of knowing. Both have a place. Religion tends to deal in the "Why?" questions. Why is there a world? Religion answers, "God." No one has to accept that answer, but it is an answer that science can neither confirm nor deny. Science works on the "How?" questions. How have the world and its diverse life forms come to be? Science answers that the world has evolved slowly over time through the mechanism of natural selection. There's nothing about that answer that rules faith in a Creator out or in. After all, for believers, there's no reason that God can't make use of natural selection.

Plantinga argued that there is no intrinsic conflict between religion and science. Conflicts arise when spokespersons for one or the other make claims on behalf of science or religion that are exaggerated. For example, said the professor, it is perfectly appropriate that scientific work proceed without religious assumptions or references. Plantinga called that "secularism with respect to science."

But that's different than "scientific secularism," which argues that scientific method and knowledge are enough for all human understanding and that a secular approach to all of life is either satisfactory or required. In making the argument of "scientific secularism," that science is enough and that anything else is illegitimate, people go too far.

Turning to the hot button topic of evolution, Plantinga, who described himself as a "serious Christian," again saw no intrinsic conflict between religion and science. He argued that it is perfectly possible to credit Darwin's thesis of evolution through natural selection by genetic mutation and still hold to the Christian doctrine of creation, which believes that God created life and humans in God's image.

Plantinga said that scientists such as Dawkins who want to read religion out of the picture offer a faulty argument. In his book "The Blind Watchmaker," Dawkins argues that we know of no irrefutable objections to the possibility that all of life has come into being by way of unguided Darwinian process. But from this premise Dawkins jumps to an unwarranted conclusion, namely, "All of life has come to be by way of unguided Darwinian processes." Dawkins claims too much.

Some proponents of religion also claim too much. For example, they argue the Genesis story of creation over a seven-day period is a factual account of how the world came to be. Plantinga noted that a Christian as eminent and ancient as Augustine cautioned fellow believers not to treat the Genesis story of creation as a factual explanation or to waste their time developing calculations based on it.

So why does the conflict between religion and science rage on? Misunderstanding and exaggerated claims for either science or religion by their more zealous proponents is one explanation. Another is what's at the root of many, perhaps most, of our world's conflicts: fear and the lust for power. Religion has a word for that, "sin." And that is one religious doctrine, perhaps the only one, which is empirically, that is to say scientifically, verifiable.

Anthony Robinson's column appears Saturdays. He is a speaker, consultant and writer. His recent books include "Common Grace: How to be a Person and Other Spiritual Matters," and "Leadership for Vital Congregations."

Labels: Alvin Plantinga, Anthony B. Robinson, evolution, God, religion, science, secular