The Routledge Companion to Religion and Science

摘要

Religion and science are often seen as adversaries, different and antagonist forms of knowledge and explanation, at times complementary but none the less alternatives. This conflict-based model of the relationship has rightly been given much attention in recent decades (and really long before that) as the debates and historiography of this recent reference work demonstrate. However, for all the points of sometimes irreconcilable difference (above all between fundamentalist materialists or atheists on the one side and literalistic theists or believers on the other), a subtler debate has arisen centred on the ways in which the various viewpoints can seek mutual understanding, and even find common ground on matter and manner. Manner certainly in the form of greater dialogue and openness of mind, and matter in the many debates about emergence, consciousness, fine-tuning, broader interpretations of spiritual experience and existential reality, and increased attention to cross-cultural and global trends in spirituality and inter-faith.