Faith Versus Fact : Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (9780698195516) (50 page)

BOOK: Faith Versus Fact : Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (9780698195516)
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End Times, 22, 164, 248, 249

Englert, François, 36

Enns, Peter, 130–31

entropy, 164

epidemics, 242–43

Epiphany Prize, 20

ethics.
See
morality; scientific ethics

Eucharist, 61, 84

eugenics, 107, 110, 152, 219, 221

euthanasia, 243–45

Euthyphro Argument, 189

“Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming,” 248–49

evidence

absence of evidence as provisional disproof, 23, 66, 80, 95, 118, 202–4

considering alternative explanations, 122–24

evidence-based beliefs, xii, 181–82, 208

evidence standards, 77, 83–86, 116–17, 121–23, 124

faith as belief without evidence, xxi, 152, 259

independent confirmation, 29, 121, 124, 186

religious claims as empirical claims, 21–25, 49, 51, 66, 90–91

science and, 9, 13, 30, 65

yearning for evidence of religious claims, 152–53

See also
confirmation bias; counterevidence; falsifiability; replicability

evil and suffering

caused by misuses of science, 110–11, 152, 217–21

theological explanations for, 16, 81, 147–49, 244

See also
religious harm

evolution

accommodationist statements about, 8–9, 98

characteristics of, 33, 157

as contingent process, 144–45

convergences, 142–44, 171–72

creationist critiques of, 32–33

as cruel process, 134

Dalai Lama's critique of, 106

debates over teaching of, 2, 5, 7, 98, 103–4, 134

development of, 32

implications of acceptance, 133–34

as indeterminate process, 145–47

mechanisms of, 133, 138, 139–40, 146–47

Muslim belief and, 105, 134

nonacceptance rates and reasons, xiii, xviii, 51, 59–61, 132, 245

of prosocial animal behaviors, 171–72

as scientific fact, 15, 31, 126

seen as conspiracy, 35, 72

theistic and natural-theological interpretations of, 60, 61, 66–67, 77–78, 154

See also
adaptation(s); creationism; human evolution; natural selection; theistic evolution

evolutionary biology

incompatibilities with religion, xiii, 7, 133–34, 135

research funding, 18, 19–20

See also
science

evolutionary psychology, 15, 167, 199

exaptations, 182

Exodus, 1, 72, 88

exorcism, 237–38

Expanding Circle, The
(Singer), 174

extinctions, 134, 139, 144–45, 147, 148, 246

fact, 29, 44

See also
scientific knowledge; truth

fairness, 169, 171, 172

faith

acquisition and foundations of, 65–66, 83–84

authority and, 66, 68, 69–72, 209

conflation of religious and secular notions of, 69, 207–8

considering a world without faith, xxi–xxii, 250–56, 260–61

as corrupting, 219–20, 225–26, 229, 231–32

definitions and key features of, xv, 67, 152, 207–8, 225, 259

doubt and, 38, 66, 68

emotion and, xv, 24, 44, 61–62

as essential to religion, 67–69

as a failing, xxi, 260

seen as basis of science, xix, 69, 152, 204–11

seen as progenitor of science, xix, 151, 211–17

seen as social good, xx, 98, 237, 253–54, 256

as solace, xx, 252–54, 255

See also
religion
entries

Faith Assembly, 236

faith-based healing, xviii, xix, 83, 108, 229–39, 262–63

Fall.
See
Adam and Eve's historicity; original sin

false beliefs, 179–80, 182–83, 185

See also
doubt; faith; self-deception

falsifiability and disproof, 30–31, 33–34, 65, 72, 188

absence of evidence as provisional disproof, 23, 66, 80, 95, 118, 202–4

mathematics and, 188

proving a negative, 201–4

unfalsifiability, 34

See also
counterevidence; replicability

Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, 19, 129

federal headship model (Adam and Eve story), 129–30

federal science funding, 7, 18, 240

Feynman, Richard, 28–29, 38, 189, 221

Fibiger, Johannes, 30

fideism, 68

film, 190, 191

Finding Darwin's God
(Miller), 102

fine-tuning argument, xix, 21, 156, 159, 160–66, 227

Fishman, Yonatan, 114

Focus on the Family, 241–42

Followers of Christ, 262, 263

Folly of Fools, The: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life
(Trivers), 179–80

Forrest, Barbara, 94–95

Foundational Questions in Evolutionary Biology initiative, 19–20

France, Anatole, 117

Francis, Pope, 68–69, 122

Frank, Neil, 249

Freeman, Charles, 214

free will, 15, 16, 130

Frum cult, 22

fundamentalism, xvii, 14, 16, 55, 88, 108, 110

Galileo, 2, 4, 5, 215

Galton, Francis, 115

Garden of Eden.
See
Adam and Eve's historicity

genetic engineering, 224

genetics

genetic counterevidence for religious claims, 126–27, 131–32

genetic drift, 139–40

Lysenko and, 220–21

See also
DNA; mutations

Giberson, Karl, 46, 74, 119–20, 204–5

Gilkey, Langdon, 75

Gingerich, Owen, 102

global-warming denialism, xix–xx, 245–50, 251

GMOs, 224

God

anthropomorphic perceptions of, 43, 47–49, 56, 63, 133

as beyond description, 43–44, 49

as interactive in the world, 22, 23

personal connection to, 42

as supernatural agent, 41, 42–43

See also
deism; God's existence; theistic evolution

God Delusion, The
(Dawkins), 21

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
(Hitchens), 21

“god of the gaps” arguments, xiii, 153, 154–56, 161, 178, 226–27

See also
natural theology

God's existence, 44–49

as answer to unsolved questions (“god of the gaps” arguments), xiii, 153, 154–56, 161, 178, 226–27

and NOMA argument, 111

possibility of scientific evidence for, 23–24, 118–19, 203–4

See also
natural theology

God: The Failed Hypothesis; How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist
(Stenger), 21

golden rice, 224

Goldstein, Herbert, 101

Gould, Stephen Jay, 6, 182

on compatibility of science and religion, 99

on human inevitability, 144–45

NOMA thesis, xviii, 4, 64–65, 106–12, 226

scientific fact defined, 31

Gray, Asa, 81, 118

Grayling, Anthony, 110, 149

Greece, ancient, science in, 212, 213, 214

Greene, Brian, 20

Gyatso, Tenzin, Dalai Lama, 105–6

Haack, Susan, 196–97

Haidt, Jonathan, 62, 167–68

Hamelin, L. R., 23–24

Harris, Martin, 121

Harris, Sam, xii, xxi, 21, 190, 260

Hart, David Bentley, 49

Harvard University's Foundational Questions in Evolutionary Biology initiative, 19–20

Haught, John, 73–74, 79, 111, 135, 147–48, 206

health and disease.
See
disease and healing; medicine

hell, 54, 58, 71, 87, 88

See also
afterlife

Henry, Fred, 242

heresy, 58, 70, 72, 85, 214, 215

Higgs, Peter, 36

Higgs boson, 36, 39, 205, 209

Hinduism, 22, 84, 105, 108

Hindutva, 105

Hippocrates of Cos, 155

history, 32, 39, 40, 186, 187, 198–99

history of religion scholarship, 257–58

History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science
(Draper), 3, 4

History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, A
(White), 3–4

Hitchens, Christopher, 21, 23, 91, 166, 253

Holocaust denial, 187

homeopathy, 89, 96, 113, 236

Homo divinus
explanation (Adam and Eve story), 129–30

HPV vaccine, 241–42

Hubbard, L. Ron, 82

Hubble, Edwin, 28

Huff, Toby, 214

human dispersal, 127

Native American origins, 131–32

human evolution, 126–27, 131–34, 140–47

inevitability of, 140–47, 156, 157, 226

morality and, 15, 134, 166–68, 170–76

time required for, and anthropic principle, 165–66

See also
Adam and Eve's historicity; creationism; evolution
entries
; human inevitability; theistic evolution

human exceptionalism, 54, 59, 132–35, 183–86, 243

Humani Generis
, 55–56, 71, 128–29, 133

human inevitability, 140–47, 156, 157, 226

anthropic principle (fine-tuning argument), xix, 21, 156, 159, 160–66, 227

humanities.
See
arts and humanities

human papillomavirus vaccine, 241–42

Hume, David, 121–22, 124, 154

Humphrey, Nicholas, 152

Hutchinson, Ian, 111, 120–21, 196, 200, 212, 213

hydrodynamic sorting hypothesis, 104

ID.
See
intelligent design

Ignatius Loyola, Saint, 68

Ikiru
(film), 190, 191

Immaculate Conception, 87

immorality.
See
evil and suffering; morality

immunizations, xix, 5, 217, 235–36, 241–42

income inequality, 255–56

Index Librorum Prohibitorum
, 87, 215–16

indigenous science, 40

Ingersoll, Robert Green, 97, 152, 155, 225

integrative medicine, 238–39

intelligence, 139, 143, 144

in other animals, 184–85

superfluous, as argument for God's existence, 134, 183–86

See also
consciousness; reason

intelligent design (ID), 14–15, 109, 136, 154–55, 248–49

Irenaeus, 126

Isaacson, Walter, 101

Islam, xvi, 22, 83

apostasy and, 85, 251–52

and human origins/evolution, 56, 105, 134

Muslim accommodationism, 75, 105

opposition to assisted dying, 245

opposition to vaccination, 235–36

Quranic literalism, 53, 58, 75, 76, 106

sectarian strife, 85, 220, 252

sharia law, 251–52

Islamic science, 212, 214, 215

Jacoby, Susan, 201–2

Jainism, xvi, 42

James, William, 42, 44, 118, 195

Jardin d'Épicure, Le
(France), 117

Jehovah's Witnesses, 47–48, 84, 232

Jesus Christ, 62, 84, 124, 259

and Adam and Eve's historicity, 125–26, 128

Eucharist, 61, 84

literal belief in, 52, 59, 60

Shroud of Turin, 122

See also
Resurrection

Jesus Seminar, 123–24

Jews, persecution of, 220

Job story, 54, 77

John Paul II, Pope, 103, 136–37, 244

Jonah story, 54, 124

Judaism, xvi, 22, 56

justificationism, 206

Kahan, Dan, 246–47

Kant, Immanuel, 110, 154

karma, 22, 41, 106

Kass, Leon, 197

Katme, A. Majid, 235–36

Kaufmann, Walter, 30, 67, 207–8

Kieran, Matthew, 192

Kierkegaard, Søren, 68

King, Ashley, 230–31

King, Catherine, 230–31, 236

King, John, 230–31, 236

Kitcher, Philip, xxii, 86

knowledge

defined, 186

mathematical or philosophical, 188–89, 198

See also
scientific knowledge; truth; ways of knowing

Kurosawa, Akira,
Ikiru
, 190, 191

Laestadianism, 84

Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 185

Language of God, The: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
(Collins), 185

Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 92, 149

law

assisted dying, 243, 245

religious privileging and exemptions, xviii, 231, 234–36, 242, 263

sharia law, 251–52

stem cell research bans, 240

laws of nature.
See
physical laws

learning

beliefs and, 181–82

morality and, 170–71, 172, 176, 181

Letter to a Christian Nation
(Harris), 21

Lewontin, Richard, 26, 92–93

liberal theology, xvii, 16, 44, 49, 75, 113, 129

See also
specific theologians

liberation theology, 87

Liberia, Ebola in, 243

life, origins of, 37, 146, 156, 157

Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism
(Kitcher), xxii

Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe
(Conway Morris), 142–43

linguistics, 39, 187, 199

Linker, Damon, 168, 175

literalism.
See
scriptural literalism

literature, 190–93

Livingstone, David, 56

Long, Elizabeth, 103

Lotfus, John, 85–86

Lovett, Ryan, 236

Lovett, Tamara, 236

Luhrmann, Tanya, 62

Luther, Martin, 69, 70, 72, 215

Lutheranism, 70

Laestadianism, 84

lyrebirds, 184

Lysenko affair, 220–21

McKown, Delos, 80

marsupials, 142, 143, 149

Marx, Karl, 256

materialism, 91

mathematics, xii, 156, 158, 159, 184, 188, 198

Mécanique Céleste
(Laplace), 92

medical neglect, xix, 229–39

harm to adults, 233, 236

harm to children, xix, 230–34, 236, 237, 262–63

and law, 231, 234–35, 237

medicine

abnegation of, 5, 83, 149, 229, 242–43, 251

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