{"id":73174,"date":"2019-04-20T16:53:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T22:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=73174"},"modified":"2019-04-20T16:53:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T22:53:10","slug":"yet-another-theologian-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/04\/yet-another-theologian-scientist.html","title":{"rendered":"Yet another theologian\/scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Oxford<\/a>
Among the very most distinguished, most venerable, universities in the world. \u00a0(From the Oxford University website)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the obviously false claims that I most enjoy refuting appears in several forms. \u00a0The crudest of them holds that religion and science are simply incompatible. \u00a0A rational person cannot be both a theist and a scientist. \u00a0It\u2019s so obviously false, in that formulation, and so easily rebutted via numerous examples to the contrary, that there is very little satisfaction to be derived from shooting it down \u2014 over and over and over again. \u00a0So the enjoyment occasioned by proving it false is shallow and short-lived, much like the pleasure to be derived from eating cotton candy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the claim sometimes rears its goofy-looking head in a rather different guise. \u00a0According to this variation, rational people can indeed be both theists and scientists, but they accomplish this almost impossible miracle by shutting their reason down when it comes to religious belief. \u00a0They \u201ccompartmentalize\u201d their minds. \u00a0Rather in the manner of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, they are reasonable when it comes to scientific matters, but quite unreasonable when \u201cthinking\u201d about theological issues. \u00a0Many of them, in fact, are simply carrying on childishly with what they were taught when they were small, scarcely reasoning about it in any genuine way. \u00a0They are pathetic and, from the superior vantage point of the enlightened atheist, to be pitied and condescended to \u2014 even if they happen to hold, say, a Nobel Prize in some science or another and even if the atheist is an anonymous internet poster with absolutely no scientific credentials or achievements to his name.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to see how such a complacently dismissive attitude fits someone like, say, the prolific Anglo-Irish writer Alister McGrath, with his current total of three Oxford doctorates \u2014 a D.Phil. in molecular biology, a D.D. in historical and systematic theology, and a D.Litt. in intellectual history. \u00a0(See \u201cFinding God through the history, philosophy of science.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0It seems implausible to suggest, especially in view of his many books on the subject, that he hasn\u2019t given much thought to religion and science.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve just now come across another person who seems to deserve some future attention in this regard:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Father Andrew Pinsent<\/a> (b. 1966) holds a first-class degree in physics and a D.Phil. in high-energy physics from\u00a0Oxford, as well as \u00a0three degrees in philosophy and theology from the\u00a0Pontifical Gregorian University\u00a0in Rome and a Ph.D. in philosophy from\u00a0Saint Louis University. \u00a0He\u00a0is currently Research Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, which is<\/sup>\u00a0part of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the\u00a0University of Oxford, as well as a\u00a0Research Fellow at\u00a0Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and an ordained Catholic priest. \u00a0I\u2019ll bet that he too has thought at least a bit about both science and religion, and about their relationship to each other. \u00a0Just a hunch, of course. \u00a0I could be wrong. \u00a0Maybe he\u2019s never really thought about anything at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 One of the obviously false claims that I most enjoy refuting appears in several forms. \u00a0The crudest of them holds that religion and science are simply incompatible. \u00a0A rational person cannot be both a theist and a scientist. \u00a0It\u2019s so obviously false, in that formulation, and so easily rebutted via numerous examples to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nYet another theologian\/scientist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    One of the obviously false claims that I most enjoy refuting appears in several forms. \u00a0The crudest of them holds that religion and science\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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