Faith in Science: Scientists Search for Truth

Science vs religion-the two have traditionally been seen as having an adversarial relationship, from before Galileo to this day. Faith in Science demonstrates how misleading this portrayal is, by allowing those who know best—scientists—speak for themselves.

W. Mark Richardson and Gordy Slack, philosopher and science writer respectively, conducted interviews with twelve of the world's top scientists on subjects ranging from the existence and nature of God to the role of religion and spirituality in modern scientific work. What's revealed is a broad diversity of perspectives on the relationship between science and religion. The approaches are as surprising as they are varied, but all defy the stereotypes embedded in so much of the popular science versus religion debates.

The chapters open with brief profiles of the scientist interviewed. Conversations explore such issues as the comparative natures of scientific and religious truth; changing conceptions of God in a world whose materiality is increasingly emphasized; the implications for religion of new discoveries in physics and astronomy; and the limits of both science and religion. This complex mosaic of unguarded accounts demonstrates how two of the major cultural forces in modern life, so often portrayed as conflicting, can coexist.

Contents

Foreword by Ian G. Barbour

The volume includes interviews with the following scientists:

Charles Townes, Nobel Prize for invention of the maser and the laser, University of California at Berkeley; Anne Foerst, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Divinity School; Arno Penzias, former Research Director at Bell Labs, New Jersey, Nobel Prize winner in 1978; Mehdi Golshani, University of Technology, Tehran; Pauline Rudd, Glycobiology Institute, University of Oxford; Brian Cantwell Smith, Professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science, Indiana University; Bruno Guiderdoni, Paris Institute of Astrophysics; Joel Primack, University of California at Santa Cruz; Mark Pesce, co-creator of Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML), Principal Engineer for Shiva Corporation; John Polkinghorne, Anglican Priest, Past President of Queen's College, Cambridge, former Professor of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge; John Rodwell, Professor of Plant Ecology, Lancaster University and Anglican priest; Kenneth Kendler, Medical College of Virginia, Director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioural Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University