Faith Versus Fact : Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (9780698195516)

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Faith Versus Fact : Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (9780698195516) Page 35

by Coyne, Jerry A.


  “[T]here is a certain uniform deliverance”: James 1928, p. 508.

  We all know Catholics: Rejection of evolution by American Catholics in Masci 2009.

  “Religion isn’t a philosophical argument”: Spufford 2012, pp. 34–35.

  “It is a shame that this word”: Aslan 2005, p. xviii.

  “Now if Christ be preached”: 1 Corinthians 15:12–14.

  “For the practices of the Christian religion”: Swinburne 2012, p. 120.

  “A religion therefore contains”: Stenmark 2012, p. 65 (emphasis in the original).

  “The question of truth”: Polkinghorne 2011, p. 2.

  “A religious tradition”: Barbour 2000, pp. 36–37.

  “Likewise, religion in almost all of its manifestations”: Giberson and Collins 2011, p. 86.

  A 2011 survey of belief: Ipsos/Reuters 2011.

  But three surveys: Smith 2012.

  “The Untold Story of Creation”: Awake!, March 2014, p. 4, http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201403/untold-story-of-creation/.

  “Attributes of God”: Franciscan Clerics of Holy Name College 1943, pp. 147–48.

  “I take the proposition”: Swinburne 2004, p. 7.

  “What [Daniel Dennett] calls”: Plantinga 2011, p. 11.

  “It’s really important”: Bickel and Jantz 1996, p. 40.

  Liberal theologians like Karen Armstrong and David Bentley Hart: Armstrong 2009; Hart 2013.

  The most recent survey: Harris Interactive 2013.

  To get data on the content: Baggini 2011 (includes both survey results and quotation).

  The 2011 Ipsos/Reuters poll: Ipsos/Reuters 2011.

  The world’s Muslims: Pew Research 2012b.

  “Only a small minority of believers”: Wieseltier 2013.

  “non-negotiables of Christianity”: Dembski 2012.

  “There’s no evidence”: Sullivan 2011, responding to Coyne 2011.

  “When, however, there is question”: Pius XII 1950, para. 37.

  “Regardless of how differently”: Livingstone 2011, p. 5. My thanks to Jason Rosenhouse for pointing out this quote.

  “Augustine says . . . ‘Three general opinions prevail’”: Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Question 102, Article 1, http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1102.htm#article1.

  “the tragedy of theology”: Bernstein 2006, p. 26.

  “The narrative indeed”: Augustine 2002, pp. 346–47.

  Julian Baggini’s online survey: Baggini 2011.

  And yet it is supported: Coyne 2009a.

  And indeed, evolution: Worldwide and U.S. surveys on evolution from Ipsos/Reuters 2011; Coyne 2012; Gallup 2014.

  When asked in 2007: Gallup 2007.

  This arrant rejection of facts: Kahan 2014 and references therein.

  Nevertheless, 27 percent: John Paul II 1996; Masci 2009.

  A survey of Americans: Pew Research 2010.

  The psychologist Jonathan Haidt: Haidt 2013.

  How many Christians: See Ehrman 2013 on the historicity of Jesus.

  “People come to faith”: Luhrmann 2012, p. 223.

  “The aim is to discover”: Plantinga 2011, p. 154.

  “[In Christianity, Judaism, and Islam]”: Plantinga 2010.

  “the substance of things hoped for”: Hebrews 11:1.

  “intense, usually confident, belief”: Kaufmann 1961, p. 2.

  “blessed are they that have not seen”: John 20:29.

  “But the natural man receiveth”: 1 Corinthians 2:14.

  “The Son of God died”: Evans 1956 (“. . . et mortuus est Dei filius: prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est; et sepultus resurrexit: certum est, quia impossibile”).

  “To be right in everything”: Fordham University, “Medieval Sourcebook: St. Ignatius Loyola: Spiritual Exercises,” Thirteenth Rule, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/loyola-spirex.asp.

  “The spirit of curiosity is not a good spirit”: Elise Harris, “Pope Francis: Kingdom of God ‘Comes by Wisdom,’” Aleteia.org, November 14, 2013, http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/news/pope-francis-kingdom-of-god-comes-by-wisdom-14774001.

  “For reason is the greatest enemy”: Luther 1857, p. 164.

  “There is on earth among all dangers”: Luther quoted in Kaufmann 1961, p. 75.

  The Lutheran theologian whom I debated: Lutheran creeds from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, http://www.elca.org/Faith/ELCA-Teaching.

  “an expression of the determination”: Royal Society, “History,” http://royalsociety.org/about-us/history/.

  “Natural selection was a revolution”: Atkins 1995, p. 98.

  “And therefore, if in some historically contingent circumstances”: William Lane Craig, “Dealing with Doubt,” video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-fDyPU3wlQ; see also “Set Free” at http://www.jcnot4me.com/Items/contra_craig/contra_craig.htm#Comments%20on%20Craig%27s%20Book:%20Reas.

  “Let’s take the resurrection”: Justin Thacker in interview with Julian Baggini, in Baggini 2012a, pp. 516–17.

  “if you ask me”: John Haught in interview with Steve Paulson, at http://asylum.za.org/viewtopic.php?t=1860&sid=e5bccce6ea47858d464185b968a14142; see also Paulson 2010, pp. 83–98.

  “As a believer in God”: Giberson 2009, p. 213.

  “Genesis is a book of religious revelations”: Ayala 2007, p. 175.

  “As we have seen”: Gilkey 1985, pp. 113–14.

  “How should we understand the narratives of Genesis?”: Pope Benedict, 2013. Text from http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/02/06/audience:_god,_creation_and_free_will/en1-662454.

  Unfortunately, many believers: Jones 2011.

  “The Bible’s prime purpose”: Wieland 2000, p. 4.

  “A world of life with evolution”: Ayala 2012, p. 291.

  “Seeking to populate this otherwise sterile universe”: Collins 2006, pp. 200–201.

  “The presence of God is veiled”: Polkinghorne and Beale 2009, p. 11.

  “It is essential to religious experience”: Haught 2003, p. 86.

  “The other day I was praying”: Weaver 2014.

  “The invisible and the non-existent”: McKown 1993, p. 39.

  Given that nobody has returned: For criticisms of two recent reports of visits to heaven, see Dittrich 2013 and T. A. McMahon, “‘Is Heaven for Real’ for Real? An Exercise in Discernment,” at The Berean Call (a religious site), http://www.thebereancall.org/content/heaven-real-real-exercise-discernment-0/.

  “In any case, were I to try”: Haught 2006, pp. 203–4.

  “With respect to the theological view”: Darwin letter to Asa Gray, May 22, 1860. Darwin Correspondence Project, letter 2814, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-2814.

  If born in Utah: Newport 2014a.

  The Quran also claims: Quran, Surat An-Nisa’ 4:157.

  How many different religions are there?: Number of Christian sects from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, http://www.gordonconwell.edu/resources/documents/StatusOfGlobalMission.pdf.

  And even today: Pew Research 2011.

  “It is highly likely”: Loftus 2013, pp. 16–17.

  “argument from symmetry”: Kitcher 2014, chapter 1.

  The progress of science: Increase in life span from Finch 2010.

  “The nesting relationship of successive scientific theories”: Polkinghorne 1994, pp. 7–8.

  “The slow progress in philosophy and theology”: Moreland 1989, pp. 238–39.

  “Name me an ethical statement”: Hitchens 2007b, p. xv. Hitchens’s corollary to this question is “If you ask an audience to name a wicked statement or action directly attributable to religious faith, nobody has any difficulty finding an example.”

  “It is not that the methods and institutions of science”: Lewontin 1997, p. 31.

  “First, science is a
limited way of knowing”: Scott 1996, p. 518.

  “Taken together, the (1) proven success”: Forrest 2000, p. 21.

  Chapter 3: Why Accommodationism Fails

  “There is no harmony between religion and science”: R. G. Ingersoll, “The Truth Seeker,” September 5, 1885, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38808/old/orig38808-h/main.htm.

  “Cognitive dissonance” is a well-known phenomenon: Tavris and Aronson 2007, especially chapter 1.

  Some of these, whom I call “faitheists”: “Belief in belief” discussed in Dennett 2006, chapter 8.

  “We have a political battle”: My post: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com /2011/04/21/another-tom-johnson-did-dawkins-call-religious-people-nazis/; Stanyard’s comment: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/another-tom-johnson-did-dawkins-call-religious-people-nazis/#comment-94522.

  “Unless at least half of my colleagues”: Gould 1987, p. 70.

  Even Indian scientists: Ram 2013.

  In America, religious scientists: Ecklund 2010.

  “The most beautiful and deepest experience”: Albert Einstein, “My Credo,” 1932, Albert Einstein in the World Wide Web, http://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/credo.html.

  “I believe in Spinoza’s God”: Quoted in Isaacson 2007, pp. 388–89.

  “dilutes religion to the point of meaninglessness”: Miller 1999, p. 221.

  “Gingerich is still baffled”: Tom Mueller, “Whale Evolution,” National Geographic, August 2010, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/08/whale-evolution/mueller-text.

  “frisson in the breast”: Dawkins described his spirituality in an interview on Al Jazeera, quoted in Mooney 2010.

  “Our results show unexpectedly”: Ecklund and Long 2011, pp. 255, 261–62.

  “truth cannot contradict truth”: Address of Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 22, 1996, http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm.

  “God is the source of both reason and revelation”: Pope 2004, p. 189.

  “The fire you kindle arises from green trees”: Nurbaki 2007, p. 133, translation of Quranic verse 36:80.

  “simply grabs whatever theory”: Nanda 2004.

  “If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate”: Dalai Lama 2005, p. 3.

  “Remember the widely different aspects”: Whitehead 1925, p. 265.

  “that grants dignity and distinction”: Gould 1999, p. 51.

  “Science tries to document”: Ibid., p. 4.

  “the potential harmony”: Ibid., p. 43.

  “Religion just can’t be equated”: Ibid., pp. 209–10.

  “Thou shalt not mix the magisteria”: Ibid., pp. 84–85.

  “In other words”: Ibid., pp. 128, 148–49.

  Recall that 42 percent of Americans: Polls on belief in and teaching of evolution: Gallup 2014; Newport 2014b.

  “quibble about the labels”: Gould 1999, p. 62.

  “But the religion”: Hutchinson 2011, p. 207.

  “[A] closer look at Gould’s writings”: Haught 2003, pp. 6–7.

  “Because they are not a part of nature”: National Academies 2008, p. 1.

  “Science is a method”: National Science Teachers Association 2013.

  “[if] we could apply natural knowledge”: Pennock 1999, p. 290.

  “1. Intercessory prayer can heal the sick”: Fishman and Boudry 2013, p. 929.

  It’s surprising how often Americans pray: Gallup and Lindsay 1999, p. 46; Jones 2010; Luhrmann 2012; U.S. News and Beliefnet Prayer Survey: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Faith-Tools/Meditation/2004/12/U-S-News-Beliefnet-Prayer-Survey-Results.aspx.

  Over 35 percent of Americans . . . 24 percent: Barnes et al. 2004; McCaffrey et al. 2004.

  In fact, such a test: Galton 1872.

  there are more modern and scientifically controlled studies: Aviles et al. 2001; Krucoff et al. 2005; Astin et al. 2006; Benson et al. 2006; Schlitz et al. 2012.

  There’s no substantive difference: Offit 2012.

  The “miracle” that clinched: Rohde 2003.

  “When I was at Lourdes”: France 1894, p. 203 (my translation).

  The question, “Why won’t God heal amputees?”: See “Why Won’t God Heal Amputees?” at http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/.

  “That seems sensible”: France 1894, p. 204 (my translation).

  In his book The Varieties of Scientific Experience: Sagan 2006, chapter 6.

  “Your question what would convince me”: Darwin letter to Asa Gray, September 17, 1861. Darwin Correspondence Project, letter 3256, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/entry-3256.

  “Any sufficiently advanced technology”: Clarke 1973, p. 21.

  “As a purely practical matter”: Giberson 2009, pp. 155–56.

  “a religious faith that depended upon a belief”: Hutchinson 2011, p. 222.

  The classic test for the truth of miracles: Hume 1975 [1748].

  The Shroud of Turin: Philip Pullella, “Italian Scientist Reproduces Shroud of Turin,” Reuters, October 5, 2009, http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/10/05/us-italy-shroud-idUSTRE5943HL20091005; Inés San Martin, “Pope Francis to Venerate Famed Shroud of Turin,” Crux, November 5, 2014, http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/11/05/pope-francis-to-venerate-famed-shroud-of-turin-in-2015/.

  In 2012, a statue of Jesus: J. White 2012.

  One was suggested by the philosopher Herman Philipse: Philipse 2012, chapter 10.

  “The body of Jesus probably decayed”: Funk and the Jesus Seminar 1998, p. 36.

  Of course, more conservative Christians: Branch 1995.

  “God created man in his own image”: Genesis 1:27.

  “For since by man came death”: 1 Corinthians 15:21–22; see also Romans 5:12–21.

  As we’ve learned, Augustine: Augustine, City of God, Book XIV, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120114.htm.

  “The account of the fall”: United States Catholic Conference 1994, Section 2, chapter 1, paragraph 7.

  And Americans as a whole: Bishop et al. 2010.

  The genetic evidence tells us: Y chromosome data from Francalacci et al. 2013; Poznik et al. 2013; Mendez et al. 2013. Other genome data from Garrigan and Hamer 2006.

  But the evidence is even stronger: Henn, Cavalli-Sforza, and Feldman 2012; Li and Durbin 2011; Sheehan, Harris, and Song 2013.

  “The denial of an historical Adam and Eve”: Mohler 2011.

  “Really, without a doctrine of original sin”: Aus 2012.

  “For the faithful cannot embrace”: Pius XII 1950; see also United States Catholic Conference 1994, Section 390.

  “According to this model”: Alexander 2010–11.

  The most “sophisticated” attempt: Enns 2012.

  “One can believe that Paul is correct”: Ibid., p. 143.

  “Paul’s handling of Adam”: Ibid., p. 102.

  “possess[ed] this land among themselves”: Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 1:5–9; see also Ether 13:2.

  But as with the existence of Adam and Eve: Genetic data on Native Americans from N. A. Rosenberg et al. 2002; Murphy 2002.

  “DNA studies cannot be used”: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Book of Mormon and DNA Studies,” 2014, https://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-and-dna-studies.

  On twelve occasions since 1982: Gallup 2014; Newport 2014b.

  “The Teaching Authority of the Church”: Pius XII 1950, Section 36.

  And because life itself: Pross 2012.

  “in [a modern human’s] large and well-developed brain”: Wallace 1870, p. 343.

  “Religions can put up with all kinds”: Haught 2003, p. 185.

  “What is not consistent with Christian belief”: Plantinga in Dennett and Plantinga 2010, pp. 4–5.

  “The world of molecules”: Barbour 2000, p. 164.

&n
bsp; While ID arguments: See Pennock 1999; Miller 1999, 2008; Coyne 2005; Orr 2005.

  “With man, we find ourselves”: John Paul II 1996.

  “Fortunately, in scientific terms”: Miller 1999, p. 241.

  What we have shown: Sniegowski 1995.

  “Contrary to popular belief”: Conway Morris 2003, p. xv.

  “But as life re-explored adaptive space”: Miller 2008, pp. 152–53.

  In his book Wonderful Life: Gould 1989.

  “a wildly improbable evolutionary event” and “a cosmic accident”: Ibid., pp. 44, 291.

  “The idea that secondary causes”: Haught 2003, p. 57.

  “The theory of evolution provided”: Ayala 2007, pp. 4–5.

  “But any world that contains atonement”: Plantinga 2011, p. 59.

  “arbitrary superfluity”: Grayling 2013.

  Chapter 4: Faith Strikes Back

  “When I was working as a pastor”: Aus 2012.

  “there must always be many extraordinary facts”: Humphrey 1996, p. 71.

  “No one infers a god”: Ingersoll 1879, p. 56.

  “the attempt to argue for the truth”: Philipse 2012, p. 14.

  “As far as the examination of the instrument goes”: Paley 1809, p. 18.

  “Men think epilepsy divine”: Hippocrates of Cos, ca. 400 BCE. Quoted in Sagan 1996, p. 8.

  “How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap”: Bonhoeffer 1967, p. 311.

  “A word of caution is needed”: Collins 2006, pp. 92–93.

  As for the origin of life: Hazen 2005; Pross 2012; Keller, Turchyn, and Ralser 2014.

  Neuroscience has already made: Baars, Banks, and Newman 2003; Pinker 2007 and personal communication; Dehaene and Changeux 2011.

  “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences”: Wigner 1960.

  A full 69 percent of Americans: Bishop et al. 2010.

  “It almost seems”: Miller 1999, pp. 228, 232.

  Assuming that life can inhabit: Siegel 2013.

  “What reasons can God have had”: Philipse 2012, p. 276.

  “But why should we think of God”: Craig 2012, responding to Carroll 2012.

  “The following proposition”: Darwin 1871, pp. 71–72.

  “Scientists and humanists”: Wilson 1975, p. 562.

  “the sudden appearance in consciousness”: Haidt 2001, p. 818.

 

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