Science and Religion, A Very Short Re-Introduction
By Adam R. Shapiro When Thomas Dixon first asked me to work with him to revise and update his excellent 2008 book Science and Religion, A Very Short Introduction, my first thought was to ask why such a text might need a new edition. On the face of it, many of the issues we typically associate […]
How should we respond to prejudices about belief?
By Stephen H. Jones Reflections on Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All The publication of The Runnymede Trust’s report Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All in 1997 was a watershed moment in the history of recognising and opposing anti-Muslim prejudice. The first British policy report to focus on the problem of Islamophobia, it is […]
One Nation, United? Science, Religion, and American Public Opinion
By Shiri Noy and Timothy L. O’Brien Debates about science and religion—whether they conflict and how they factor into public opinion, policies, and politics—are of longstanding interest to social scientists. Research in this area often examines how those in elite positions use science and religion to justify competing claims. But, more generally how do members of […]
Revelatory Evolution and Cosmological Creation Tales: when science is presented like a religion
By Will Mason-Wilkes When you sit down to watch a science documentary you’re probably expecting to learn something about science. You might even be hoping to pick up a few facts to impress your colleagues at the office or your friends at the pub. However, along with these nuggets of knowledge, a science programme will […]
Authority, Authenticity, and Belief: British and Canadian life scientists and publics’ narratives of evolution and religion
In April 2017 the team from the Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum project hosted a symposium in Birmingham. In this video, project member Dr Tom Kaden presents some of the preliminary findings of the qualitative sociological research being undertaken as part of the project.
Science and religion conflict for non-religious Britons and Canadians
By Rebecca Catto ***This original version of this post was published on the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network website on 6th April 2017*** The “conflict thesis” is the label historians of science give to the purported essential and enduring incompatibility or clash between science and religion. However, today this thesis is considered historically inaccurate (Harrison, […]
‘How much faith does it take?’ Arguing for Creationism on Facebook
By Stephen Pihlaja For the last 10 years, I have been studying interactions between Christians and atheists on YouTube and social media, focusing particularly on how they structure arguments and categories to fit very specific social contexts. One recurring issue in my work, and one that seems particularly prescient as we collectively practice saying […]
Can creationists be pro-science?
By James Reilly
What’s the best way to think about creationists?
By Jeffrey Guhin What’s the best way for non-creationists to think about creationists? Some view them, unhelpfully, as inescapably anti-modern, utterly unwilling to face facts. This unwillingness is often supposed to be linked to religion itself, with religious belief understood as diametrically opposed to the scientific process. Science, we are told, is about facing facts, […]
What’s in a name? Does Darwin hinder the acceptance of evolution?
By Daniel Kuebler For nearly 35 years, Gallup has polled Americans regarding their views on human evolution using a polling question that gives respondents three options to choose from regarding human origins. Surprisingly, the results of the survey question remained relatively steady over time. Since 1982, the percentage of Americans that believe God created humans […]
