Understanding Religion and Science: Introducing the Debate [Paperback]

Most texts on religion and science rightly focus on the effect of modern cosmology and biology on views about God and on the place of humankind in the universe. Many analyze current disputes about Intelligent Design. Some add useful material about notions the soul and inner freedom. A few offer thoughts about miracles. Others devote time to differences in methods in religion and science. Understanding Religion and Science covers all those topics well and clearly.

This textbook also reviews relevant historical and philosophical background, showing, for example, that some ancient Christians speculated on how God might give order to history without having to intervene, or that the very earliest Christians did not believe in a naturally immortal soul.
Finally, the text asks why people differ in their basic commitments, some giving priority to a religiously meaningful life, others willing to face even the most uncomfortable conclusions. The author suggests this may be a divide not easily bridged..

This book will appeal to students of Religion and of Science and Religion Studies.

Michael Barnes's introduction to the debate carefully and systematically lays out the self-understanding of many in the scientific and religious communities in ways that make them comprehensible to the layman but in a sophisticated manner that will satisfy many who have been thinking about these issues throughout their lives. Tikkun

Barnes offers a very helpful analysis of contemporary interactions... The book is well-written, historically informed and presents multiple points of view fairly. Journal of Church and State Volume 53 Issue 2, Spring 2011

One rarely gets an overview that is fair to all sides. The best feature of Barness' book is that... it manages to bring together these different perspectives inlÃh