God, Humanity and the Cosmos - 2nd edition A Companion to the Science-Religion Debate

by Southgate, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780567030160
• ISBN10: 0567030164
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark

Summary

This fully revised and updated edition of God, Humanity and the Cosmos is an essential companion to the field, with exercises for the student, a comprehensive bibliography, and suggestions for further reading.

Author Biography

Christopher Southgate is Lecturer in Theology at the University of Exeter

Table of Contents

List of figures	xii
List of tables	xiii
List of exercises	xiv
List of contributors	xv
How to use this book	xvii
Foreword	xix
J. Wentzel van Huyssteen
Editor's note and acknowledgements	xxiv
BOOK ONE
An introduction to the debate between science and religion	3	(36)
Christopher Southgate
Michael Poole
Section A: Outlines of the debate
Two views of the conversation between science and religion
Important sources, figures and developments
Typologies of the relationship
Natural theology vs theology of nature
Further typologies
Two crucial points
Science and religion, or science and theology?
The metaphor of the maps
Critical realism in science
Critical realism in theology
The central role of model and metaphor
Consonances
Was religion necessary to the rise of science?
Section B: Three historical examples of tensions as science and theology developed
Copernicanism and the Galileo Affair
The love affair gone wrong: the eighteenth century
A contemporary instance of interplay between consonance and conflict
The Big Bang and the beginning of the universe
Section C: Key principles for developing theology in the light of science
Different types of causation and explanation
Determinism, indeterminism and their implications
Developing theology in the light of science
The interdependence of different aspects of a model
Three attributes of models of God, humanity and the cosmos
Questions of value
Conclusion
The significance of the theology of creation within Christian tradition: systematic considerations	39	(24)
Paul D. Murray
David Wilkinson
What do we mean by the theology of creation?
Telling the story of creation
The creation narratives of Genesis
The sovereignty of God in creation
The place of human beings in creation
From Alpha to Omega: the theology of creation in the broader scriptural narrative
The development of the theology of creation within Christian tradition
Creatio ex nihilo
Aquinas, causes and design
The Reformation and the growth of science
The modern period
Conclusion
Learning from the past	63	(19)
John Hedley Brooke
Introduction
Why history?
Myths and misconceptions: the Galileo Affair
Myths and misconceptions: the Darwinian controversies
The concept of science, viewed historically
The problem of selectivity
Four master narratives
The thesis of conflict
The thesis of harmony
The thesis of secularization
The thesis that certain developments in twentieth-century science created new spaces for human spirituality
Mapping mutual relevance
Lessons from the past
Conclusion
Truth and reason in science and theology: points of tension, correlation and compatibility	82	(37)
Paul D. Murray
Introduction
Section A: Early twentieth century: the challenge of logical positivism
The verificationist criterion of meaning
Strict accommodation: non-cognitive accounts of religious belief
Strict isolation: Christian existentialism
Relative accommodation: on the possible verification of Christian faith
Relative isolation: the Barthian emphasis upon the primacy of God's self-revealed Word
Section B: Mid-twentieth century: the unravelling of the positivist agenda
The problem of induction and Popperian falsificationism
Falsifiability, fallibility and theology
The Duhem--Quine rejection of thesis fallibilism
Section C: Latter part of the twentieth century: revolution, anarchy and resistance in scientific theory change, and the need for tempered post-foundationalist accounts of scientific and theological rationality
Thomas Kuhn's revolutionary account of scientific theory change
Feyerabendian anarchism
Imre Lakatos and Nancey Murphy's theological appropriation of Lakatos
Nicholas Rescher's pragmatic-idealist account of human rationality and its theological significance
Summary and conclusion
BOOK TWO
Theology and the New Physics	119	(35)
Lawrence Osborn
Introduction
Section A: Classical physics and the Newtonian worldview
The scientific revolution
From method to worldview
Change and continuity in the physical sciences
Section B: The rediscovery of time
Classical physics and the exorcism of time
Relativity and the rediscovery of time
Relativity and the spatialization of time
Time and space
Spacelike time and determinism
Spacelike time and causality
Space, time and theology
Section C: The rediscovery of the observer
The observational basis of quantum theory
The ultraviolet catastrophe
The photoelectric effect
Collapsing atoms and spectral lines
When is a particle a wave?
The quantum revolution
Shaking the foundations
Schrodinger's cat and the meaning of quantum theory
Quantum consciousness
Section D: Modern cosmology and universal history
The beginnings of scientific cosmology
The Big Bang
Evidence for a Big Bang?
The shape of things to come
Is the Big Bang a moment of creation?
From Big Bang to inflation
Section E: Modern cosmology and the rediscovery of purpose?
Some contemporary cosmological enigmas
The chemical composition of the universe
'Anthropic features'
Possible responses to the 'anthropic coincidences'
The Weak Anthropic Principle
The Strong Anthropic Principle
Is it science?
Anthropic design arguments
Section F: The rediscovery of complexity
'Newtonian' limits to Newtonian physics
Recognizing chaos
Coming to terms with chaos
Implications for the philosophy of science
Conclusion
Theology and evolutionary biology	154	(39)
Christopher Southgate
Michael Robert Negus
Andrew Robinson
Introduction
Section A: Human evolution
The discovery of pre-history
Human evolution and the Genesis accounts of creation
Made in the image of God
The Fall
The timescale of evolution
Section B: Darwin and Darwinism
Evolutionary ideas before Darwin
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection
Scientific and theological responses to Darwin's theory
Section C: Darwinism evolving
Genetic Darwinism: the neo-Darwinian synthesis
DNA and the molecular revolution in biology
Hard neo-Darwinism and expanded neo-Darwinism
The Darwinian research programme
Gradualism, punctuated equilibrium and radical contingency
Adaptation, self-organization and complexity
The rhetoric of Darwinism
A note on natural theology and design
Intelligent Design Theory
Section D: Reduction, reductionism and religion
An analysis of reduction and reductionism
Notes on methodological issues
Genetic reductionism
New prophets of conflict
Francis Crick and the 'ultimate aim' of biology
Jacques Monod and the problems of cross-explanatory reductionism
E.O. Wilson and sociobiology
Richard Dawkins and the selfish gene
Religion, evolution and naturalism
Conclusion
Psychology and theology	193	(20)
Fraser Watts
Introduction
Section A: Human nature
Perspectives on human nature
Brain and consciousness
Theological concerns about neuroscience
The scope of artificial intelligence
Theological issues about artificial intelligence
Immortality
Section B: Religion
Psychological approaches to religion
Freud's critique of religion
Alternative psychoanalytic approaches to religion
Complementary approaches to religious experience
Neurological approaches to religious experience
Conclusion
BOOK THREE
Some resources for Christian theology in an ecological age	213	(29)
Christopher Southgate
Introduction
Process thought
A 'dipolar' God
Questions of theodicy
The critique of patriarchy
Ecological theology and the science-religion debate
'Realist' and 'pragmatist' approaches
An evolutionary approach to 'realism vs pragmatism'
A theological approach to 'realism vs pragmatism'
The development and assessment of theological models
Some models discussed
David Pailin
Jay McDaniel
Criticisms of process thought
Sallie McFague
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Jurgen Moltmann
Criticisms of Moltmann
Paul Fiddes
Fallenness and resistance in creation
Keith Ward
Recurrent motifs
Perspectives on panentheism
Perspectives on divine kenosis and divine suffering
Some recent contributions from evangelical theology
Conclusion
Some resources for theological thinking on God and the world from outside the Christian tradition	242	(18)
Michael Robert Negus
Christopher Southgate
Introduction
Two Jewish philosophers
The contributions of Eastern thought
Hindu metaphysics
Taoism
The contribution of Buddhism
Buddhist spirituality
The Gaia Hypothesis
Deep ecology
'New paradigm' thinking
Conclusion
A test case: divine action	260	(43)
Christopher Southgate
Introduction
General comments
God 'edged out'?
Law and chance
Section A: What God is doing: providence and miracle
How to think about providential agency
Theodicy
Determinism, compatibilism and the nature of physical law
Personal agency
The mind and the brain
The mind-brain debate
Views of God's action
The causal joint
Peacocke and Polkinghorne compared
Process schemes and double agency
Conclusion to the debate on special divine action
The contribution of Robert J. Russell
Section B: What God has done: the history of the universe
The Big Bang and 'before'
Anthropic considerations
The early universe
The origin of life
The evolutionary development of life
Questions of theodicy in respect of evolution
The probability of self-conscious beings
Possible theologies of divine action in respect of evolution
Section C: What God will do
Eschatology
Conclusion
BOOK FOUR
Science and education	303	(18)
Michael Poole
Introduction to Book Four
Science education and the science--religion debate
Meeting-points
The content of science
The nature of science
The applications of science
How science operates as a social activity
Some educational questions
A modus operandi
One way for science education to make a contribution
A second way
A third way
Recent developments in England
Primary education
Secondary education
Tertiary education
Islam and science	321	(19)
Michael Robert Negus
Introduction
The concept of God
The religious dimensions of Islam
The universe and its Creator
The Golden Age of Islam
The Islamic paradigm of the universe
Islam and modern science
Identifying problems and recognizing points of agreement
Proposals for the regulation and Islamization of science
Islam and Darwinism
Conclusion
Technology and Christianity	340	(21)
Jacqui Stewart
Introduction
What is technology?
Is technology good or bad?
Technology and Christianity in the history of Western Europe
The technical ideal: does technology have inherent values?
The 'defining' role of technology
Does the origin of a technology have implications for its effects?
Relation to religious values: Mumford, Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr
Ends and means: Ellul and William Temple
Current issues: technology and the information revolution
Two contemporary theologians' responses: Barbour and Susan White
Technosapiens
One technologist's reflection
Conclusion
Biotechnology: a new challenge to theology and ethics	361	(32)
Celia Deane-Drummond
What is biotechnology?
Genetic engineering in medicine
Genetic engineering and screening in humans
Genetic engineering in the production of food
What are the dangers?
Some hidden agendas
Public responses to genetic engineering
Religious dimensions to the public response
The possibility of human cloning
Theological issues
Ethical questions
A rediscovery of wisdom: some lessons from biotechnology
Wisdom in theology
Wisdom in practice
Conclusion
BOOK FIVE
A look to the future	393	(8)
Christopher Southgate
Introduction
One-way traffic
Looking to the future
Exploration across a range of religions
Three key areas of scientific advance
The implications of the new genetics
The status of animals and the uniqueness of Homo sapiens
The science and theology of consciousness
Three theological projects
Eschatology in conversation with science
Further investigations of theological anthropology
The role of wonder
Physics
The integration of science, technology, religion and ethics
Appendix: A note for teachers	401	(2)
References and bibliography	403	(30)
Index	433