{"id":87989,"date":"2020-09-09T14:54:31","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T20:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=87989"},"modified":"2020-09-09T18:23:17","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T00:23:17","slug":"is-religion-a-failed-attempt-at-scientific-explanation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/is-religion-a-failed-attempt-at-scientific-explanation.html","title":{"rendered":"Is religion a failed attempt at scientific explanation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Glacier<\/a>
Swiftcurrent Lake, Glacier National Park
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph). A not obviously relevant but very beautiful image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a passage from Alister McGrath, The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010).\u00a0 McGrath is a former atheist, now an Anglican priest, who holds three Oxford doctorates \u2014 in molecular biophysics, theology, and intellectual history.\u00a0 In this passage, he cites the very prominent British literary theorist and critic Terry Eagleton:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the new atheists Christianity represents an antiquated way of explaining things that can be pensioned off in the modern scientific age.\u00a0 In one of the wonderfully unsubstantiated assertions that make up so much of his case against religion, Christopher Hitchens tells us that since the invention of the telescope and microscope religion \u201cno longer offers an explanation of anything important.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a nice sound bite which, when placed alongside many other equally unsubstantiated sound bites, almost manages to create the semblance of an evidence-based argument.\u00a0 But is it anything more than that?<\/span><\/p>\n

In his brilliantly argued critique of the new atheism, Terry Eagleton ridicules those who treat religion as a purely explanatory matter.\u00a0 \u201cChristianity was never meant to be an explanation of anything in the first place.\u00a0 It\u2019s rather like saying that thanks to the electric toaster we can forget about Chekhov.\u201d\u00a0 Believing that religion is a \u201cbotched attempt to explain the world\u201d is on the same intellectual level as \u201cseeing ballet as a botched attempt to run for a bus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eagleton is surely right here.\u00a0 There is far more to Christianity than an attempt to make sense of things.\u00a0 The New Testament is primarily concerned with the transformation of human existence through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.\u00a0 The gospel is thus not so much about explanation as about salvation \u2014 the transformation of the human situation.\u00a0 (9-10)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a helpful five-minute video that was recommended by this blog\u2019s own Sam LeFevre:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs the CDC LYING about COVID DEATH numbers?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And these two items (also, if I\u2019m not mistaken, recommended by Sam LeFevre) are also worthwhile:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is spreading COVID-19 misinformation and why: Many different groups and individuals spread false information.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relation between media consumption and misinformation at the outset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the US\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, finally, on the non-coronavirus-related topic of perceiving language:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren\u2019s brains hear language differently: Research suggests this also helps them recover from neural injury.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c3 recent discoveries have upended scientists\u2019 understanding of how dogs age, navigate, and perceive human speech\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It seems that dogs may process human speech in the same way that we ourselves do, and \u2014 get this \u2014 that they may use Earth\u2019s magnetic field to navigate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 Here\u2019s a passage from Alister McGrath, The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind\u00a0(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010).\u00a0 McGrath is a former atheist, now an Anglican priest, who holds three Oxford doctorates \u2014 in molecular biophysics, theology, and intellectual history.\u00a0 In this passage, he cites the very prominent British […]<\/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":[10124,9221,3592,813,9264,8031,13514,9108,5421,16172,3940,11924,1525,9101,174,2652,3397,16176,9224,16174,9104,743,8669,1056,243,10447,810,8471],"class_list":["post-87989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alister","tag-alister-mcgrath","tag-children","tag-christopher-hitchens","tag-contagion","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-disease","tag-dog","tag-dogs","tag-eagleton","tag-earth","tag-epidemic","tag-explanation","tag-hitchens","tag-language","tag-magnetic-field","tag-mcgrath","tag-navigation","tag-pandemic","tag-religion","tag-religious","tag-salvation","tag-science","tag-scientific","tag-terry-eagleton","tag-virus"],"yoast_head":"\nIs religion a failed attempt at scientific explanation?<\/title>\n<meta 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