1. God and Science
James Fodor, March 2017

2. Incompatibility

3. Independence (NOMA)
“Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different, realm of human purposes, meanings, and values—subjects that the factual domain of science might illuminate, but can never resolve....These two magisteria do not overlap, nor do they encompass all inquiry (consider, for example, the magisterium of art and the meaning of beauty)” – Stephen Jay Gould

4. Concordance

5. The Conflict Thesis
1874

6. The Conflict Thesis
“The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising from traditionary faith and human interests on the other.” – John Draper

7. The Conflict Thesis
1896

8. The Conflict Thesis
“In all modern history, interference with science in the supposed interest of religion, no matter how conscientious such interference may have been, has resulted in the direst evils both to religion and to science—and invariably. And, on the other hand, all untrammeled scientific investigation, no matter how dangerous to religion some of its stages may have seemed, for the time, to be, has invariably resulted in the highest good of religion and of science.”
- Andrew White

9. The Conflict Thesis
“The vast majority of authors in the science and religion field is critical of the conflict model and believes it is based on a shallow and partisan reading of the historical record.”

10. The Conflict Thesis

11. Summary Table Conflict NOMA Concord Evolution Religious scientists
Origin of life
Galileo
Active dialogue
Fine tuning
Gene technologies
Oversimplified history
Genetic information
Big Bang Theory
Fact/value distinction
Origin of the universe
Old Earth
Consciousness
Faith vs reason
Laws of nature

12. 1. Cosmological Argument
P1. The universe began to exist
P2. Everything that begins to exist has a cause
P3. If the universe had a cause, that cause was a
personal creator
C. A personal creator exists

13. 2. Teleological Argument
P1. The universe is fine-tuned for the existence of
embodied, intelligent life
P2. The only explanations for this fine-tuning are
chance, physical necessity, or design
P3. Chance and physical necessity are not
plausible explanations
Fine-tuning can only be explained by design