Oracles of Science Celebrity Scientists Versus God and Religion

by Giberson, Karl; Artigas, Mariano

• ISBN13: 9780195386189
• ISBN10: 0195386183
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Oracles of Science examines the popular writings of the six scientists who have been the most influential in shaping our perception of science, how it works, and how it relates to other fields of human endeavor, especially religion. Biologists Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, and Edward O. Wilson, and physicists Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Steven Weinberg, have become public intellectuals, articulating a much larger vision for science and what role it should play in the modern worldview. The scientific prestige and literary eloquence of each of these great thinkers combine to transform them into what can only be called oracles of science. Their controversial, often personal, sometimes idiosyncratic opinions become widely known and perceived by many to be authoritative. Curiously, the leading 'oracles of science' are predominantly secular in ways that don't reflect the distribution of religious beliefs within the scientific community. Many of them are even hostile to religion, creating a false impression that science as a whole is incompatible with religion. Karl Giberson and Mariano Artigas offer an informed analysis of the views of these six scientists, carefully distinguishing science from philosophy and religion in the writings of the oracles. This book will be welcomed by many who are disturbed by the tone of the public discourse on the relationship between science and religion and will challenge others to reexamine their own preconceptions about this crucial topic.

Author Biography

Karl Giberson is Director of the Forum on Faith and Science at Gordon College in Wenham, MA and Professor of Physics at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA. For years he served as editor-in-chief of both Science Theology News and Science Spirit. He has written four books on science and religion, including Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution. The late Mariano Artigas was Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. He held doctoral degrees in physics and philosophy and was a Roman Catholic priest. Artigas wrote over a dozen books on science and religion, including Galileo Observed: Science and the Politics of Belief.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Oracles of Science	p. 3
A Good Devil's Chaplain	p. 19
Rocks of Ages and the Ages of the Rocks	p. 53
Reading the Mind of God	p. 87
A Light in the Darkness	p. 123
Understanding a Pointless Universe	p. 159
A Pulitzer for the Ants	p. 193
Conclusion: Science and Beyond	p. 225
Notes	p. 237
Bibliography	p. 259
Index	p. 269
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