Science without God ? : rethinking the history of scientific naturalism / edited by Peter Harrison and Jon H. Roberts.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Harrison, Peter, 1955- editor.

Roberts, Jon H., editor.

Series:

Ian Ramsey Centre studies in science and religion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion and science.

Naturalism--Religious aspects.

Naturalism.

Religion and science--History.

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 263 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Summary:

"Can scientific explanation ever make reference to God or the supernatural? The present consensus is no; indeed, a naturalistic stance is usually taken to be a distinguishing feature of modern science. Some would go further still, maintaining that the success of scientific explanation actually provides compelling evidence that there are no supernatural entities, and that true science, from the very beginning, was opposed to religious thinking. Science without God? Rethinking the History of Scientific Naturalism shows that the history of Western science presents us with a more nuanced picture. Beginning with the naturalists of ancient Greece, and proceeding through the middle ages, the scientific revolution, and into the nineteenth century, the contributors examine past ideas about 'nature' and 'the supernatural'. Ranging over different scientific disciplines and historical periods, they show how past thinkers often relied upon theological ideas and presuppositions in their systematic investigations of the world. In addition to providing material that contributes to a history of 'nature' and naturalism, this collection challenges a number of widely held misconceptions about the history of scientific naturalism."

Contents:

"All things are full of gods" : naturalism in the classical world / Daryn Lehoux

Naturalist tendencies in medieval science / Michael H. Shank

Laws of God or laws of nature? : natural order in the early modern period / Peter Harrison

Between Isaac Newton and enlightenment Newtonianism : the "God question" in the eighteenth century / J. B. Shank

God and the uniformity of nature : the case of nineteenth-century physics / Matthew Stanley

Chemistry with and without God / John Hedley Brooke

Removing God from biology / Michael Ruse

Christian materialism and the prospect of immortality / Michelle Pfeffer

The science of the soul : naturalizing the mind in Great Britain and North America / Jon H. Roberts

Down to earth : untangling the secular from the sacred in late-modern geology / Nicolaas Rupke

Naturalizing the Bible : the shifting role of the biblical account of nature / Scott Gerard Prinster

Anthropology and original sin : naturalizing religion, theorizing the primitive / Constance Clark

The theology of Victorian scientific naturalists / Bernard Lightman.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0198834586

9780198834588

OCLC:

1044554296

Publisher Number:

99979902035