News & Blog : International Research Network

4th August 2020

The Pope is looking to scientists to find a cure for coronavirus – but so are Ricky Gervais and Richard Dawkins

By Alper Bilgili A cartoon, widely circulated on social media, depicts clergy of various religions in despair, begging a scientist to find a cure for COVID-19. In another, clergy are staring at a picture of a nurse who asks for silence with a “SHHH” sign. Those who share these cartoons seem certain that the ensuing pandemic once again proves the superiority of natural sciences over other forms of knowledge.

14th July 2020

How Does the Science-Religion Conflict Narrative Affect Christians?

By Kimberley Rios This article was originally published on the Heterodox Blog and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No-Derivatives 4.0 International License. Just a few weeks ago, a blog post appeared in my social media news feed titled “Why your Christian friends and family members are so easily fooled by conspiracy theories.” The post caught my…

30th June 2020

The ‘Scientific Interpretation’ of the Bible and the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom

By James C. Ungureanu In his Autobiography, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) gave three specific reasons for his growing religious doubts. He became morally revolted by the God of the Old Testament, whom he characterised as a “revengeful tyrant.” Moreover, the discovery of the “fixed laws of nature” made belief in miracles seem “incredible” to him. Finally, he concluded that recent historical-critical scholarship—or biblical criticism—demonstrated that the Gospels were completely…

18th June 2020

Funding Success for INSBS Network member

Congratulations to our Network member, Bastiaan Rutjens (University of Amsterdam) on his recent success in securing a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to set up a lab focussed on the psychology of science skepticism. We caught up with Bastiaan recently and he explained that “The rejection of science that we see across various segments of society represents an important challenge. While recent research has…

16th June 2020

Teaching evolution in Mexico: bringing creationism to the classroom?

By Juan Manuel Rodriguez-Caso UNAM Central Library, south wall, seen from the esplanade of the rectory. Source: José Miguel García Fernández, Wikimedia Commons (CC Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license) When problems related to the teaching of evolution in the classroom, and the conflicts arising from various forms of creationism – particularly scientific creationism and “intelligent design” – are discussed, the country which may…

2nd June 2020

A Brief Look at the History of Extraterrestrial Life Debate

By Parandis Tajbakhsh A lithograph of the hoax's "ruby amphitheater", as printed in The Sun. Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain). In 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) began its two-year mission searching for extrasolar planets, orbiting around 200,000 stars located within 300 light-years of the Earth. TESS followed in the footsteps of NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, launched in 2009to find Earth-sized or smaller planets around…

19th May 2020

The other Christians: Science and Orthodox Christianity

By Kostas Tampakis Science and Religion, as a field of study, is flourishing. This is an easy assessment to make, if one considers the number of conferences, articles, books and dedicated journals that operate within the broad boundaries of the field. A subtler sign of the field’s growth is to be found in the disciplines that Science and Religion scholars have brought into the field in recent years. As last…

5th May 2020

History of Science and Religion: A Historiographical Introduction

By Sarah A. Qidwai Historiography, or how historians write history, is often a tricky topic to pin down. Methods are often developed over time, or sometimes they seemingly appear out of nowhere. To that end, the field of the history of science and religion in the academic context has its own historiographical past. Understanding and engaging with scholars in the field is often difficult without this historiographical context.

21st April 2020

Are there 100,000,000 creationists in the USA?

By James Riley In June, 2019, Gallup released their most recent poll of public attitudes on evolution and creation in the USA. According to their survey, 40% of the sampled US population were creationists. That is, when asked: “Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings?” 40% of respondents selected: “God created human beings pretty…

7th April 2020

A Social Psychologist’s Journey into the Study of Science and Belief

By Jordan LaBouff Like most of us, I am often blind to my own biases - even in my research. Nothing has made that more clear to me recently than my wonderful experiences beginning to study the intersection of Science and Belief. In my first project, I was confronted by my biases about the relationship between science and religion, my expectations about the beliefs of religious westerners, and some…