Possible Conflicts Between Religion and Science

In this week’s lecture, Professor John Evans talked about possible conflicts between religion and science. He outlined several in his lecture. First, there is conflict over a System of Knowledge. This focuses on the method by which knowledge is obtained. There can be no agreement between Christians who only look at the bible as their source of knowledge on human origins as opposed to scientists who look at fossil records. Therefore, people who claim not to believe in Darwin because they are depending on the bible as their method of world perspective shouldn’t believe in any scientific claim. This would include modern science such as chemistry and medicine for instance.

The second type of conflict outlined by Professor Evans is the Propositional Knowledge Conflict. A proposition is an assertion without justification. For example, a conservative Protestant would say that God created mankind as stated in Genesis whereas scientists would claim that humans evolved from primates. Though these are a conflict of assertions, they may not be connected to the broader ways of knowing about the world. For instance, this same conservative Protestant may believe the Genesis version of evolution but also believe in science-backed claims about atoms and electrons. Therefore, this conflict has fewer consequences because it doesn’t bleed into other fields of knowledge in the physical world.

The third conflict is Moral Conflict. This conflict happens when religious conservatives may feel that science or scientists are teaching claims to the public which are in direct opposition to the moral stance they personally hold. Professor Evans explains a situation in Victorian times when this became an issue. In his book Descent of Man, Darwin laid out the similarities of sexual decision-making between animals and man as further proof of his theory of evolution. One thing that is known about the Victorian era is how narrow and repressed it was in its sensibilities. Therefore, you can imagine the public outrage that Darwin faced from his Victorian audience; especially from the more religious followers who felt moral conflict over Darwin’s proposed theory of evolution.