Science and Spirituality: Making Room for Faith in the Age of Science

by Michael Ruse

• ISBN13: 9780521755948
• ISBN10: 0521755948
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Michael Ruse provides a new analysis of the often troubled relationship between science and religion. Arguing against both extremes - in one corner, the New Atheists; in the other, the Creationists and their offspring the Intelligent Designers - he asserts that science is undoubtedly the highest and most fruitful source of human inquiry. Yet, by its very nature and its deep reliance on metaphor, science restricts itself and is unable to answer basic, significant, and potent questions about the meaning of the universe and humankind's place within it: Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the ultimate source and foundation of morality? What is the nature of consciousness? What is the meaning of it all? Ruse shows that one can legitimately be a skeptic about all of these questions, and yet why it is open for a Christian, or member of any faith, to offer answers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
The World as an Organism	p. 11
The World as a Machine	p. 32
Organisms as Machines	p. 54
Thinking Machines	p. 85
Unasked Questions, Unsolved Problems	p. 117
Organicism	p. 149
God	p. 181
Morality, Souls, Eternity, Mystery	p. 208
Conclusion	p. 234
Bibliography	p. 237
Index	p. 251
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