science

Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised

I keep meaning to explain the reference to science and Christianity in my first post, since it may look a bit out of place. Science was the day job (it’s now technology, whether these two are the same thing is a whole other discussion), and I’m still interested in how it interacts with a Christian viewpoint.

I’m generally disappointed in the books that are written on the subject. They seem to all be in awe of science as dominant force in our culture. This is the case whether they are ‘how do we deal with all these things that science has discovered?’ or the creationist ‘science has got it all wrong – here is the true version’. I kept meaning to write a ‘book review in search of a book’, but too many thoughts started attaching themselves to the idea & it started to sound like a book! I guess some of the ideas will creep out here.

The starting point has to be a clear understanding of science. There are at least four things we mean by science: ‘the scientific method’, ‘science as cultural enterprise’, ‘the discoveries of science’ and ‘science as worldview/dominant cultural force’. It seems to me that it’s easy to merge these. So, we never get to discussing Christianity and ‘science as cultural enterprise’ (e.g., what is the purpose of science in the Christian story, how should it be carried out, etc.), because we never get past the issues brought up by the supposed clash of ‘worldviews’.

My hope is that at least one thing the whole post-modern thing will give us is the ability to look at science from a theological perspective. As post-modernism questions the dominance of the scientific view, maybe it can clear a little bit of space for us to consider other issues.

(Phew!)

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Permalink | January 29th, 2005

2 Responses to “science”

  1. jonnyjpg Says:
    jonnyjpg January 31st, 2005 at 9:04 am

    Nice approach to how to think about science. I like that. I look forward to reading the book when it comes out!

  2. Mark Says:
    Mark February 1st, 2005 at 1:42 pm

    can i pre-order it on amazon yet?

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