Coinciding nicely with a discussion
about evolution and intelligent design between Jerry and Theomoroph, here are
two interesting stories.
Evolutionism
and the Limits of Science
Interview With Professor Mariano Artigas (Zenit)
Science marks a key achievement in human history, says a philosopher who nevertheless warns of an “imperialism” that tries to judge everything through the sciences. Mariano Artigas, a member of Brussels’ International Academy of the Philosophy of Sciences and of the Vatican’s St. Thomas Pontifical Academy, has just published a book on evolutionism and its relationship with philosophy and religion. Entitled “The Frontiers of Evolutionism” and published by Eunsa, the book states that there are questions that science cannot resolve. Artigas, a professor of philosophy of nature and of sciences at the University of Navarre, spoke with ZENIT.
Engineering
God in a Petri Dish
By Kari Lynn Dean
On a steep, narrow street above Chinatown works Jonathon Keats, a tweed-suited, bow-tied 32-year-old who, with assistance from a phalanx of scientists, is genetically engineering God in his apartment. Advisers to Keats’ organization, the International Association for Divine Taxonomy, include biochemists, biophysicists, ecologists, geneticists and zoologists from the University of California at Berkeley, the Smithsonian and other institutions of scientific repute. The mission: to determine where on the phylogenetic map — the scientific tree of life — to put God.
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Can’t say I agree with Artigas or Gould when they claim that science doesn’t overlap with religion. Both ask the same questions: Why are we here? Why do we behave the way we do? How can we attain greater control over ourselves and our environment?
The difference is in how they answer the questions.
They don’t really separate until they reach the realm of the truly unknowable, at which point science says, “It’s unknowable,” while religion says, “Ah, now is my chance to make up a good story!” They’re still trying to answer the same questions, though.
Science’s proper function is to ask and answer “what”. Religion’s proper function is to ask and answer “why”.