God Without the Supernatural

God Without the Supernatural
Author: Peter Forrest
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1996
Genre: Religion and science
ISBN: 9780801432552

Peter Forrest expounds a program of best-explanation apologetics. He contends that since the existence of God would provide the best possible explanation of various facts, those facts support theism. Among the facts cited are the suitability of the universe for life, the regularity of the universe, the human capacity for intellectual progress, the experience of a moral order, and various forms of beauty. The beauty that interests Forrest as evidence for the existence of God includes sensuous beauty; the beauty of the natural order, as revealed by the sciences; and the beauty of necessity discovered by mathematicians. In addressing the need for an adequate motive for creation, Forrest conjectures that God created the universe for embodied persons not for their life on earth alone but also for an afterlife. Forrest acknowledges the speculative nature of such an account. He suggests that philosophical speculation is also required to defend theism against the charge that it is too extravagant a hypothesis to be warranted. Providing a speculative defense against the argument from evil, he explains how such speculations can be used to support best-explanation arguments without the conclusions themselves being rendered purely speculative.

Theology for a Scientific Age

Theology for a Scientific Age
Author: Arthur Robert Peacocke
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 452
Release: 1993
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781451403930

This second, expanded edition of Arthur Peacocke's seminal work now includes the author's Gifford Lectures, as well as a new part three, in which he deals roundly with the central corpus of Christian belief for a scientific age. "Distinctively theological commitments are being rethought in light of scientific apprehensions of nature".--Ted Peters, Zygon.

God in the Age of Science?

God in the Age of Science?
Author: Herman Philipse
Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2012-02-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199697531

Herman Philipse puts forward a powerful new critique of belief in God. He examines the strategies that have been used for the philosophical defence of religious belief, and by careful reasoning casts doubt on the legitimacy of relying on faith instead of evidence, and on probabilistic arguments for the existence of God.

Theology and the Scientific Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century

Theology and the Scientific Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century
Author: Amos Funkenstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 442
Release: 1986
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780691024257

"(This work) promises to raise the level and transform the nature of discourse on the relations of Christianity and science . . . (Funkenstein) leaps fearlessly from one philosophical mountaintop to another, comparing and contrasting doctrines in an amazing display of intellectual dexterity. The result is a bold study of ideas . . . bristling with insight and perceptive reinterpretation of familiar episodes in the history of natural philosophy".--David C. Lindberg, "Journal of the History of Medicine". *Lightning Print On Demand Title

Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning

Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning
Author: Nancey Murphy
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1501724533

In this timely and provocative book, Nancey Murphy sets out to dispel skepticism regarding Christian belief. She argues for the rationality of Christian belief by showing that theological reasoning is similar to scientific reasoning as described by contemporary philosophy of science. Murphy draws on new historicist accounts of science, particularly that of lmre Lakatos. According to Lakatos, scientists work within a "research program" consisting of a fixed core theory and a series of changing auxiliary hypotheses that allow for prediction and explanation of novel facts: Murphy argues that strikingly similar patterns of reasoning can be used to justify theological assertions. She provides an original characterization of theological data and explores the consequences for theology and philosophy of religion of adopting such an approach.

Belief in God in an Age of Science

Belief in God in an Age of Science
Author: John Polkinghorne
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1998-03-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300174101

John Polkinghorne is a major figure in today’s debates over the compatibility of science and religion. Internationally known as both a theoretical physicist and a theologian—the only ordained member of the Royal Society—Polkinghorne brings unique qualifications to his inquiry into the possibilities of believing in God in an age of science. In this thought-provoking book, the author focuses on the collegiality between science and theology, contending that these "intellectual cousins" are both concerned with interpreted experience and with the quest for truth about reality. He argues eloquently that scientific and theological inquiries are parallel. The book begins with a discussion of what belief in God can mean in our times. Polkinghorne explores a new natural theology and emphasizes the importance of moral and aesthetic experience and the human intuition of value and hope. In other chapters, he compares science’s struggle to understand the nature of light with Christian theology’s struggle to understand the nature of Christ. He addresses the question, Does God act in the physical world? And he extends his ideas about the role of chaos theory, surveys the prospects for future dialogue between scientific and theological thinkers, and defends a critical realist understanding of the activities of both disciplines. Polkinghorne concludes with a consideration of the nature of mathematical truths and the links between the complementary realities of physical and mental experience.

The Territories of Human Reason

The Territories of Human Reason
Author: Alister E. McGrath
Publisher: Ian Ramsey Centre Studies in S
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2019
Genre: PHILOSOPHY
ISBN: 0198813104

Our understanding of human rationality has changed significantly since the beginning of the century, with growing emphasis being placed on multiple rationalities, each adapted to the specific tasks of communities of practice. We may think of the world as an ontological unity-but we use a plurality of methods to investigate and represent this world. This development has called into question both the appeal to a universal rationality, characteristic of the Enlightenment, and also the simple 'modern-postmodern' binary. The Territories of Human Reason is the first major study to explore the emergence of multiple situated rationalities. It focuses on the relation of the natural sciences and Christian theology, but its approach can easily be extended to other disciplines. It provides a robust intellectual framework for discussion of transdisciplinarity, which has become a major theme in many parts of the academic world. Alister E. McGrath offers a major reappraisal of what it means to be 'rational' which will have significant impact on older discussions of this theme. He sets out to explore the consequences of the seemingly inexorable move away from the notion of a single universal rationality towards a plurality of cultural and domain-specific methodologies and rationalities. What does this mean for the natural sciences? For the philosophy of science? For Christian theology? And for the interdisciplinary field of science and religion? How can a single individual hold together scientific and religious ideas, when these arise from quite different rational approaches? This ground-breaking volume sets out to engage these questions and will provoke intense discussion and debate.

Rocks of Ages

Rocks of Ages
Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2011-07-20
Genre: 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."