Abstract
In the second half of the nineteenth century, a good number of scientists — prominent among whom was Darwin’s great supporter Thomas Henry Huxley — subscribed to what is known as the ‘warfare’ thesis about the relationship between science and religion (Desmond, 1994, 1997). They argued that science and religion are in conflict, and that, if one holds to the one, one cannot hold to the other (Draper, 1875; White, 1896). The name of Galileo came up frequently in these discussions, and it was pointed out that it was only to be expected that the Catholic Church would have shown such opposition to so distinguished and fertile-thinking a scientist. Naturally enough, the recently published theory of evolution of the English naturalist Charles Darwin was another topic of conversation by these conflict theorists. Again it was suggested that one is faced with a stark dichotomy: either one accepts that organisms had natural origins or one accepts that we all arrived supernaturally. There is no other option.
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Ruse, M. (2012). The Compatibility of Science and Religion: Why the Warfare Thesis Is False. In: Nagasawa, Y. (eds) Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137026019_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137026019_13
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