Book Description
A spirited defence of realism in the dialogue between science and religion.
Author : Paul Robinson
Publisher :
Page : 556 pages
File Size : 13,23 MB
Release : 2018
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780852449226
A spirited defence of realism in the dialogue between science and religion.
Author : Paul Robinson
Publisher :
Page : 556 pages
File Size : 15,77 MB
Release : 2018-02
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781781820131
Why do some religious believers slaughter those who refuse to convert to their faith, refuse scientific evidence for an ancient universe, or hold God to be an utterly arbitrary being? Why do some scientists believe that universes pop into existence from nothing, that aliens seeded life on earth, or that fish turn into reptiles by chance processes? The answer, for both, is the same: the abandonment of realism, the human way for knowing reality. In The Realist Guide to Religion and Science, Fr Paul Robinson explains what realism is all about, then undertakes an historical exploration to show how religion and science become irrational when they abandon realism and intellectually fruitful when they embrace it.
Author : Carlos Hernandez
Publisher : Rosarium Publishing
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 39,85 MB
Release : 2016-01-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1495607429
A quirky collection of short sci-fi stories for fans of Kij Johnson and Kelly Link Assimilation is founded on surrender and being broken; this collection of short stories features people who have assimilated, but are actively trying to reclaim their lives. There is a concert pianist who defies death by uploading his soul into his piano. There is the person who draws his mother's ghost out of the bullet hole in the wall near where she was executed. Another character has a horn growing out of the center of his forehead—punishment for an affair. But he is too weak to end it, too much in love to be moral. Another story recounts a panda breeder looking for tips. And then there's a border patrol agent trying to figure out how to process undocumented visitors from another galaxy. Poignant by way of funny, and philosophical by way of grotesque, Hernandez's stories are prayers for self-sovereignty.
Author : Karl Giberson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 37,16 MB
Release : 2009-02-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0199728240
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 : Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 32,40 MB
Release : 2011-07-20
Category : Science
ISBN : 0307801411
"People of good will wish to see science and religion at peace. . . . I do not see how science and religion could be unified, or even synthesized, under any common scheme of explanation or analysis; but I also do not understand why the two enterprises should experience any conflict." So states internationally renowned evolutionist and bestselling author Stephen Jay Gould in the simple yet profound thesis of his brilliant new book. Writing with bracing intelligence and elegant clarity, Gould sheds new light on a dilemma that has plagued thinking people since the Renaissance. Instead of choosing between science and religion, Gould asks, why not opt for a golden mean that accords dignity and distinction to each realm? At the heart of Gould's penetrating argument is a lucid, contemporary principle he calls NOMA (for nonoverlapping magisteria)--a "blessedly simple and entirely conventional resolution" that allows science and religion to coexist peacefully in a position of respectful noninterference. Science defines the natural world; religion, our moral world, in recognition of their separate spheres of influence. In elaborating and exploring this thought-provoking concept, Gould delves into the history of science, sketching affecting portraits of scientists and moral leaders wrestling with matters of faith and reason. Stories of seminal figures such as Galileo, Darwin, and Thomas Henry Huxley make vivid his argument that individuals and cultures must cultivate both a life of the spirit and a life of rational inquiry in order to experience the fullness of being human. In his bestselling books Wonderful Life, The Mismeasure of Man, and Questioning the Millennium, Gould has written on the abundance of marvels in human history and the natural world. In Rocks of Ages, Gould's passionate humanism, ethical discernment, and erudition are fused to create a dazzling gem of contemporary cultural philosophy. As the world's preeminent Darwinian theorist writes, "I believe, with all my heart, in a respectful, even loving concordat between . . . science and religion."
Author : Melville Y. Stewart
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 1168 pages
File Size : 10,26 MB
Release : 2009-12-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781444317367
This two-volume collection of cutting edge thinking aboutscience and religion shows how scientific and religious practicesof inquiry can be viewed as logically compatible, complementary,and mutually supportive. Features submissions by world-leading scientists andphilosophers Discusses a wide range of hotly debated issues, including BigBang cosmology, evolution, intelligent design, dinosaurs andcreation, general and special theories of relativity, dark energy,the Multiverse Hypothesis, and Super String Theory Includes articles on stem cell research and Bioethics byWilliam Hurlbut, who served on President Bush's BioethicsCommittee
Author : Juha Saatsi
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 456 pages
File Size : 33,19 MB
Release : 2020-06-30
Category :
ISBN : 9780367572556
Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the The Routledge handbook of Scientific Realism covers the following central topics: the historical development of the realist stance; core issues and positions of classic debate; perspectives on contemporary debates and the realism debate in disciplinary context.
Author : Christian Smith
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 10,28 MB
Release : 2019-03-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0691191646
A groundbreaking new theory of religion Religion remains an important influence in the world today, yet the social sciences are still not adequately equipped to understand and explain it. This book advances an innovative theory of religion that goes beyond the problematic theoretical paradigms of the past. Drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and personalist social theory, Christian Smith explores why humans are religious in the first place—uniquely so as a species—and offers an account of secularization and religious innovation and persistence that breaks the logjam in which religious scholarship has been stuck for so long. Certain to stimulate debate and inspire promising new avenues of scholarship, Religion features a wealth of illustrations and examples that help to make its concepts accessible to readers. This superbly written book brings sound theoretical thinking to a perennially thorny subject, and a new vitality and focus to its study.
Author : Ian G. Barbour
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 169 pages
File Size : 32,21 MB
Release : 2013-03-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0062276425
Scientist and philosophers have more in common than might first appear, especially when the language used in the two disciplines receives a closer scrutiny, Ian G. Barbour treats three scientific view-points that can clarify the specific nature of religious language. The first theme is the diverse function of language. Science and religion each has its own task and its own applicable logic and language. Religious symbols and their expression in myths imply a perspective and interpretation of human history and experience, directing attention to particular patterns in events. The second theme is the role of models in both scientific and religious language. What the "billiard ball model" of a gas and the biblical model of personal God both achieve is an interpretation of experience, a restructuring of how one sees the world. The third area in which science and religion have a common stake is the role of paradigms. Paradigms are standard examples of scientific investigation which embody a set of assumptions and becomes a research tradition until replaced by other assumptions. Religions has its paradigms, like the covenant of Sinai, wich have issued in traditions. Dr. Barbour concludes that scientific and religious language bother offer knowledge of reality based on experience. In determining the appropriate data and criteria for this experience the philosopher of religion can profit greet from the work of the scientist.
Author : Tom Harrison
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 371 pages
File Size : 19,71 MB
Release : 2018-01-03
Category : Education
ISBN : 135196691X
The Theory and Practice of Virtue Education offers the reader a comprehensive and authoritative account of both the theoretical and practical complexities of cultivating virtue in education and beyond. The book moves beyond the usual philosophical literature that merely discusses virtue in the abstract, and offers scholarly, research-informed suggestions for practice. Drawn from a highly successful international conference organised by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, the chapters in this volume offer a unique insight into the varieties of approaches that leading scholars have identified for putting the learning and nurturing of virtues into practice. Featured are chapters from internationally acclaimed scholars primarily in the fields of philosophy, psychology and education, which are categorised under three headings: philosophical and theoretical foundations for cultivating virtues; developing virtues in practice; and nurturing specific virtues. Beginning with chapters that examine differing theoretical complexities of virtue education, the book then moves on to explore different approaches to nurturing virtue in the classroom and beyond. This practical approach is further evidenced in the final section, where individual virtues are discussed. The Theory and Practice of Virtue Education highlights the theoretical complexity of putting virtue education into practice and, as a result, is of real use to researchers, academics and postgraduates in the fields of education, philosophy, psychology, sociology and theology. It should also be essential reading for educators in character and virtue.