geologia: Relationship between science and religion

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The relationship between science and religion involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern understandings of "science" or of "religion", certain elements of modern ideas on the subject recur throughout history. The pair-structured phrases "religion and science" and "science and religion" first emerged in the literature during the 19th century. This coincided with the refining of "science" (from the studies of "natural philosophy") and of "religion" as distinct concepts in the preceding few centuries—partly due to professionalization of the s…

Evidence: 60 • authority: 88

Science and Religion in the 19th Century. Cambridge English Prose Texts consists of volumes devoted to substantial selections from non-fictional English prose of the late sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. The series provides students, primarily though not exclusively those of English literature, with the opportunity of reading significant prose writers who, for a variety of reasons (not least their generally being unavailable in suitable editions) are rarely studied, but whose influence on their times was very considerable. This volume contains selections from nineteenth-century writers involved in the debate about the relation of science and religion. It centres on the Darwinian c…

Evidence: 52 • authority: 72

The conflict thesis is a historiographical approach in the history of science that originated in the 19th century with John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White. It maintains that there is an intrinsic intellectual conflict between religion and science, and that it inevitably leads to hostility. The consensus among historians of science is that the thesis has long been discredited, which explains the rejection of the thesis by contemporary scholars. Into the 21st century, historians of science widely accept a complexity thesis. The lack of engagement with the advancements in the history of science perpetuates belief in the thesis. Global studies on scientists show that most scientists do…

Evidence: 25 • authority: 72

John William Draper (May 5, 1811 – January 4, 1882) was an English polymath: a scientist, philosopher, physician, chemist, historian and photographer. He is credited with pioneering portrait photography (1839–40) and producing one of the first detailed photographs of the moon in 1840. He was also the first president of the American Chemical Society (1876–77) and a founder of the New York University School of Medicine. One of Draper's books, the History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, popularised the conflict thesis proposing intrinsic hostility in the relationship between religion and science. It was widely read and was translated into several languages. It makes minimal use o…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

"Capitalism as Religion" (German: Kapitalismus als Religion) is Walter Benjamin's (1892–1940) unfinished work, written in 1921. It was published in 1985 and forms part of Benjamin's early sketches on social and political theory, religion, and the theory of history. In this fragment, Benjamin argues that capitalism should be understood as a religion. This thesis reinterprets Max Weber's view of the Protestant work ethic as a condition for capitalism’s emergence. Rather than viewing capitalism as influenced by religious origins, Benjamin argues it is itself a religious phenomenon. He identifies three key features: its nature as a pure cult without dogma, its continuous duration, and its empha…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

"God of the gaps" is a theological concept that emerged in the 19th century, and revolves around the idea that certain gaps in scientific understanding are regarded as indications of the existence of God. This perspective has its origins in the observation that some individuals, often with religious inclinations, point to areas where science falls short in explaining natural phenomena as opportunities to insert the presence of a divine creator. The term itself was coined in response to this tendency. This theological view suggests that God fills in the gaps left by scientific knowledge, and that these gaps represent moments of divine intervention or influence. This concept has been met with…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

American racism and the lost legacy of Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, the father of plant neurobiology.. Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, India's first modern biologist departed boldly from mainstream botany by claiming that plants possess "nerves" and "pulsating cells" that function respectively much like the nerve and heart cells of animals. These ideas were based on highly sensitive measurements he made of various plant functions by means of assorted ingenious instruments of his own design. Despite being the most internationally celebrated plant biologist of the early 20 th century, by the end of his life, Bose had become a scientific pariah whose work was expunged from Western histories of plant bi…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

Darwin's foil: the evolving uses of William Paley's Natural Theology 1802-2005.. This essay traces the divergent readings of William Paley's 1802 Natural Theology from its initial publication to the recent controversies over intelligent design. It argues that the misinterpretation of the Natural Theology as a scientific argument about the origins of complex life-which Darwin's Origin of Species refutes-did not develop all at once. Rather this reading evolved gradually, drawing from a variety of uses and appropriations during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This study demonstrates the fluidity of "science" and "religion" during these centuries, and highlights the role t…