Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship?

by Robert W. Fuller

Overview

Although grievances leap to mind when we consider making peace with an old foe, ultimate success depends on identifying not where each side is wrong, but where each is right. Seeing some good in others doesn't mean blinding ourselves to what's wrong, and harping on the latter is no way to make peace.

Current attacks on religion are ignoring the fact that it got some very big things right. However, religion must acknowledge that its spokesmen have repeatedly failed to distinguish between its great discoveries and its mistakes.

Not only have some religious leaders ignored compelling evidence, but they, like the leaders of secular institutions, have all too often failed to live up to the standards of behavior they espouse.

Paradoxically, science makes even more mistakes than religion; but it saves itself by being quicker to recognize and correct them. Niels Bohr, the father of atomic physics, ascribed his breakthroughs to "making my mistakes faster than others."

The difference between science and religion is not that one has "babies" in its bath water and the other doesn't. The difference is that science drains its dirty bath water faster, leaving its gleaming babies for all to admire.

Science gives us reason to think we can vanquish famine, disease, and poverty. Religion heralds "peace on Earth, goodwill toward men." Neither of these venerable institutions can deliver on its promise without help from the other, but together there is reason to hope that they can.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940044754706
Publisher:	Robert W. Fuller
Publication date:	07/30/2012
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	197,014
File size:	240 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

ROBERT W. Fuller earned his Ph.D. in physics at Princeton University and taught at Columbia, where he co-authored Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics. After serving as president of Oberlin College, he became a "citizen diplomat," working toward improving international relations during the Cold War. During the 1990s, he served as board chair of the non-profit global corporation Internews and promoted democracy via free and independent media.

When the Cold War ended with the collapse of the USSR, Fuller reflected on his career and realized that he had been, at different times in his life, a somebody and a nobody. His periodic sojourns into "Nobodyland" led him to identify rankism—abuse of the power inherent in rank—and ultimately to write SOMEBODIES AND NOBODIES: OVERCOMING THE ABUSE OF RANK. Three years later, he published a sequel that focuses on building a "dignitarian society" titled ALL RISE: SOMEBODIES, NOBODIES, AND THE POLITICS OF DIGNITY. With co-author Pamela Gerloff, he has also published DIGNITY FOR ALL: HOW TO CREATE A WORLD WITHOUT RANKISM. His most recent books are RELIGION AND SCIENCE: A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP?; GENOMES, MENOMES, WENOMES: NEUROSCIENCE AND HUMAN DIGNITY; THE WISDOM OF SCIENCE; BELONGING: A MEMOIR; THE THEORY OF EVERYBODY; and THE ROWAN TREE: A NOVEL.