Religion and Scientific Method

I With the immense success of modem science it has generally become accepted that the only way to acquire knowledge is by the use of the method uniformly practiced by working scientists. Consequently, the credibility of the claims of religion, which seem to be based on belief in revelation, tradition, authority and the like, have been considerably shaken. In the face of the serious threat provided by the ascendancy of modem scientific method­ ology, religious thinkers have adopted various defensive attitudes. Some have retreated into an extreme position where Theism is completely safe from any attack on it by the use of empirical methods of inquiry, maintaining that contrary to appearances, religion makes no factual claims whatsoever. To be religious, they say, is to subscribe to a certain value system; it is to adopt a set of practices and a given attitude to the meaning and purpose of life without making any assertions about this or that empirical feature of the universe. Others wishing to remain more faithful to what religion traditionally meant throughout the ages, agree that Theism does make factual claims but that these are so radically different from the kind of claims made by science that it is only right that they should be established by a separate method on its own. In matters of faith reliance on widely entrenched tradition and sacred authority is not objectionable according to some.

Contenu

I The Problem Of Evil.- 1: Stating the Problem of Evil.- 2: The Irrelevance of the Amount of Evil.- 3: The Standard by which Divine Acts are Appraised.- 4: Suffering as Punishment.- 5: The Question of an Afterlife.- 6: The 'Soul Making' Theodicy.- 7: The Question of Moral Evil.- 8: The Justification for Creating Opportunities for Virtuous Response.- 9: A New Solution.- 10: The Removal of Objections to the Last Solution.- II Free Will, Men and Machines.- 11: A Conflict Between Religion and Science.- 12: Newcomb's Problem of Choice.- 13: The Unpredictability of Some Human Choices.- 14: Some Queries Concerning the Absolute Incompetence of Predictors.- 15: The Predictor as a Diagnostician.- 16: ?-Machines and ?-Machines.- 17: ?-Machines and ?-Machines.- III The Confirmation of Theism.- 18: Pascal's Wager.- 19: Theism and the Verification Principle.- 20: The Vindication of the Verification Principle.- 21: The Principles Underlying Scientific Method.- 22: Miracles.- 23: The Evidence for Theism.- 24: Theism and Scientific Method.