Relating Science and Religion

Religion and Science

In this course Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie (University of Edinburgh) explores the relationship between science and religion, and looks at some specific areas of debate in these fields. In the first module, we examine different views on the relationship between science and religion using Ian Barbour’s typology. In the second module, we look at the role of explanation in science and religion, and the notion of ‘God of the gaps’. In the third module, we move on to review debates concerning creation and evolutionary biology, before turning our attention to cosmology in the fourth module. In the fifth module, we examine religious attitudes to reproductive technologies, gene editing, and transhumanism. In the sixth and final module, we look at how we should approach science and religion as sources of knowledge and authority with special attention to the situated knower and the myth of objectivity.

Relating Science and Religion

In this module, we examine the relationship between science and religion, focusing in particular on (i) the role of human endeavours in science and religion (ii) how typologies can help to discern the relationship between science and religion (iii) science and religion as an interdisciplinary field of research (iv) the conflict approach in Ian Barbour’s typology, which argues that science and religion are mutually exclusive and competing disciplines (v) the independence approach in Barbour’s typology, which argues for the respective validity, as well as the separation, of science and religion (vi) the dialogue approach in Barbour’s typology, which argues for engagement between science and religion (vii) the integration approach in Barbour’s typology, which aims to unify science and religion.