Science vs. Religion: the Same Tired Old Line

Another comment showed up, in another blog, with the same dreary old line: religion is dumb, and is really anti-science.

I've decided to let the fellow have the last word there.

Since the comments reminded me that quite a number of religious Americans also are convinced that faith and reason do not play well together, I also decided to put together a short list of posts I've written on the topic.

And, more to the point, a short list of 'background' resources. Three of five of them are on the Vatican.va website: one published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Academy of Sciences? At the Vatican??

There's more at the "Science, Religion, and being Catholic" page. But, as I wrote yesterday, I don't expect to convince any zealots. The notion that science and religion, faith and reason are utterly opposed is, I think, too firmly entrenched in the American - and probably Western - culture's mythology.

Related posts:

• "Reason, Faith and 'What Folks Know, that Just Ain't So' "
  (June 4, 2010)
• "Copernicus, Galileo, Science and a Reality Check"
  (October 26, 2009)
• "Faith and Reason, Religion and Science"
  (March 20, 2009)
  Particularly
  • Darwin and Huxley vs. Ussher and Carlyle
  • What If Darwin Had Been an Astronomer?
• "Catholic Church, Creationism, Evolution, Facts and Faith"
  (March 5, 2009)

Background:

• "Scientific Insights Into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life"
  Pontificia Academia Scientiarvm (Pontifical Academy of Sciences), Vatican City (2009)
  • Particularly p. 31: remarks by Prof. Christian de Duve of the Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology
• "Creation, Culture and Faith"
  Cultures and Faith, Bicentenary Conference on "Faith and Culture: Chaos and Creation" St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland (1995)
• "Faith can never conflict with reason"
  Pope John Paul II's address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, translated into English
  L'Osservatore Romano via Caltech Newman Center (http://www.its.caltech.edu/~nmcenter/sci-cp/sci-9211.html)
  (November 4, 1992)
• "The Galileo Affair"
  George Sim Johnston via EWTN
• "Proceedings of the Trial Against Galileo Galilei"
  The Holy See, Rome (1616, 1632-33)