[Hazen] Do you see a difference in the so-called
"Battle for Science" - this big warfare that's going on out there -
between what we see in popular culture
and at the academic research level. [Craig] I certainly do,
Craig. On the academic level,
as I said, there's tremendous openness and dialogue between
scientists and theologians today. The
John Templeton Foundation is pouring millions and millions of dollars
into funding this kind of interdisciplinary dialogue,
conferences, publication projects. As you may know
John Templeton was a great financier.
He has set up large foundations in the United States and Britain
and elsewhere to help fund
this had to be interdisciplinary work. And both Oxford University
and Cambridge University have established shares
in science and theology. So there is a flourishing dialogue that's going on
today
in conferences in peer reviewed journals and academic publications.
But you would never know that
from reading the works - the popular level works -
of a Richard Dawkins or a Lawrence Krauss,
people of this sort, where they perpetuate the myth that somehow
theology and science are at each other's throats. And this kind of
popular level
warfare is just not reflective
of what's going on in the Academy. It is pop culture
and it is not an accurate representation of
what real experts in these
disciplines are doing today. [Zweerink] No I would very much
concur with that. And I had a opportunity to take a few history of
science classes when I was in college and graduate school
and one other professors that I had there, I ended up
getting one of the books he was an editor of and reading, and it talks about this
conflict thesis that science and religion and specifically Christianity
are in conflict with one another. And they say,
from a historic or the way the historians talk about it this conflict
thesis is still prevalent and
prominent. But from a history of science,
the best scholarship in the history of science it's a non-tenable hypothesis.
That there have been occasional times a conflict but often it's been one
of mutual benefit
or just kinda side by side operating independent that there's a far more
complex relationship
with these occasional hostilities. And so this idea that they're at war with one
another is academically a nontaxable hypotheses. And so I I find it very
interesting
but nonetheless exactly what I would expect if
God is the author creation and the inspiration for scriptures so. [Craig] I want to
second one point that
Jeff made and that is the complexity
of the way science and theology interact.
This isn't a simple one / one
relationship. There are all sorts of ways in which science and theology
can interact with each other for example, theology historically
has furnished a conceptual framework in which science can flourish.
And many historians would say that's why
modern science was birthed in the West rather than in the Orient
or in Africa. It was because of the conceptual framework
that Christian theology gave to the west that enabled science to flourish.
I think that science can either verify
or falsify certain claims religion. I would say
that theology can also provide
explanatory resources that would be helpful
in explaining the world in ways that science isn't equipped
to answer. So there is quite a variety of complex ways in which science and
theology
interrelate and it we shouldn't be overly simplistic about this.