Читать книгу Science & Religion - Alister E. McGrath - Страница 11

The Darwinian controversy caused many to distrust the ‘warfare’ or ‘conflict’ model. In the first place, it was seen to be historically questionable. Yet in the second, there was growing concern to prevent any alleged ‘conflict’ to damage either science or religion. This led many to insist that the two fields had to be regarded as completely independent of each other. This approach insists that science and religion are to be seen as independent, autonomous fields of study or spheres of reality, with their own distinct rules and languages. Science has little to say about religious beliefs, and religion has little to say about scientific study.

This approach is found in the 1981 policy statement of the American National Academy of Science, which declared that: ‘Religion and science are separate and mutually exclusive realms of human thought whose presentation in the same context leads to misunderstanding of both scientific theory and religious belief.’ It is also found in Stephen Jay Gould's model of ‘non‐overlapping magisteria’ (NOMA), which argues for the affirmation of mutual respect and the recognition of differing methodologies and domains of interpretation between science and religion:

I believe, with all my heart, in a respectful, even loving concordat between our magisterial – the NOMA solution. NOMA represents a principled position on moral and intellectual grounds, not a mere diplomatic stance. NOMA also cuts both ways. If religion can no longer dictate the nature of factual conclusions properly under the magisterium of science, then scientists cannot claim higher insight into moral truth from any superior knowledge of the world's empirical constitution. This mutual humility has important practical consequences in a world of such diverse passions.

A variant of this approach is provided by the American theologian Langdon Gilkey (1919–2004). In his 1959 work Maker of Heaven and Earth, Gilkey argues that theology and the natural sciences represent independent and different ways of approaching reality. The natural sciences are concerned with asking ‘how’ questions, where theology asks ‘why’ questions. The former deals with secondary causes (that is, interactions within the sphere of nature), while the latter deals with primary causes (that is, the ultimate origin and purpose of nature).

This independence model appeals to many scientists and theologians because it gives them freedom to believe and think what they like in their own respective fields (‘magisteria’, to use Gould's phrase), without forcing them to relate these magisterial to each other. However, as Ian Barbour points out, this inevitably compartmentalizes reality. ‘We do not experience life as neatly divided into separate compartments; we experience it in wholeness and interconnectedness before we develop particular disciplines to study different aspects of it.’ In other words, these circles cannot avoid some degree of overlap and interaction; they are not completely separate.