Can religion and science coexist peacefully?

The Scopes Trial in 1925 dealt with whether or not the theory of evolution could be taught in the classroom.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

• A jury in Tennessee was to decide the fate of John Scopes, a high school biology teacher charged with illegally teaching the theory of evolution. The guilt or innocence of John Scopes, and even the constitutionality of Tennessee's anti-evolution statute, mattered little. The meaning of the trial emerged through its interpretation as a conflict of social and intellectual values.

• Opening statements pictured the trial as a titanic struggle between good and evil or truth and ignorance. Bryan claimed that "if evolution wins, Christianity goes." Darrow argued, "Scopes isn't on trial; civilization is on trial." The prosecution, Darrow contended, was "opening the doors for a reign of bigotry equal to anything in the Middle Ages." Darrow said that the anti-evolution law made the Bible "the yardstick to measure every man's intellect, to measure every man's intelligence, to measure every man's learning." It was classic Darrow, and the press--mostly sympathetic to the defense--loved it.

Clarence Darrow and WilliamJennings Bryan during the trial.Modernism vs. Fundamentalism

Copernicus, Galileo and Bruno challenged the (Biblical) belief that Earth is the center of the universe

• In the early 17th century, Galileo and Bruno, embraced the Copernican theory that Earth spins on its axis and travels around the sun once every year. As a result, they suffered much personal injury at the hands of the powerful church inquisitors.

• Giordano Bruno had the audacity to even go beyond Copernicus, and, dared to suggest, that space was boundless and that the sun was and its planets were but one of any number of similar systems: Why! -- there even might be other inhabited worlds with rational beings equal or possibly superior to ourselves. For such blasphemy, Bruno was tried before the Inquisition, condemned and burned at the stake in 1600.

• Galileo was brought forward in 1633, and, there, in front of his "betters," he was, under the threat of torture and death, forced to his knees to renounce all belief in Copernican theories, and was thereafter sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his days.

Links

Scopes Trial Video (2+ mins) RICHARD DAWKINS VIDEO (YOU TUBE) (4 MINUTES) Evolution and Intelligent Design (Part 1, 8 mins)

Short Ken Miller on motivation for anti-evolution "science" (YouTube 3:40 minutes)

Intelligent Design 10 minute video

Non-Overlapping Magistrata (Gould)

Religion Science

RulesRational facts and theories describe (current) physical model of reality.

PredictiveExperimental falsifiability.

RulesBeliefs and Faith describe religious

reality.Revelatory.

Addresses deep emotional needs.

No falsifiability

Science attacks religion based on science's rules. Religion feels threatened

Religion Science

RulesBeliefs and Faith describe religious

reality.Emotional comfort

No falsifiability

Creationism inconsistent with physical models

RulesRational facts and theories describe (current) physical model of reality.

PredictiveExperimental falsifiability.

Religion attacks science - ostensibly using rules of science - but really pseudoscience

Religion Science

RulesBeliefs and Faith describe religious

reality.Emotional comfort

No falsifiability

Teach intelligent design alongside evolution!

Motivated by belief

RulesRational facts and theories describe (current) physical model of reality.

PredictiveExperimental falsifiability.

Conflict caused by insistence that there is only one set of rules and one "reality" – that of

science!

Religion Science

RulesBeliefs and Faith describe religious

reality.Emotional comfort

No falsifiability

RulesRational facts and theories describe (current) physical model of reality.

PredictiveExperimental falsifiability.

Is it possible or desirable for us to apply the rules of science in all areas of our lives?

• Aesthetics– Art, Music, Dance, Literature, Poetry

• Personal relations– Hate, love, physical attraction– Morality and ethics (e.g. abortion issues, cloning)

• Economics• Politics• Law

Irrational Economic Behavior?

by Mark G. Brennan

Exa m pl e s o f i r r a t i ona l e c onom i c be ha v i o r p r ov i de un l i m i t e d oppo r t un i t i e s f o r spe c u l a t i on a nd t he o ri z a t i on by e c onom i s t s .

Fo r exam pl e , why do i nd i v i dua l s bo r r ow m one y f rom t he i r c r e d i t c a rd s a t 19% wh i l e s i m u l t a ne ous l y r e c e i v i ng l e s s t han 4% on t he i r s av i ngs a c c oun t ? Wou l dn ' t i t m a ke m or e s ense t o pa y o ff t he h i gh - ra t e c r ed i t c a r d ba l a nc e w i t h f unds e a r n i ng a l owe r r a t e ?

Cl e a r l y, som e t h i ng de epe r t ha n pu re e c onom i c c a lc u l a t i on d r i ve s t he se a c t i ons .

Templeton Prize for "spirituality" and science.

Substitute Politics for Religion when comparing with Science