The Lost World: Science and Religion

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

"No... I will no have none of your materialism, for I, at least, am too great a thing to end in mere physical constituents, a packet of salts and three bucketfuls of water. Here- here"-and he beat his great head with his huge, hairy fist- "there is something which uses matter, but is not of it- something which might destroy death, but which Death can never destroy."

Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt.

The subject of religion pops up periodicaly in the Challenger adventures. Once at least in The Lost World when the Professor tells the tale of an arguement with a backwater priest over how science is destroying Christianity, and again throughout The Poison Belt, which is essentially a great rumination on death. Therefore, it behooved me to create a set of links on the subject of science and religion. Of course, being a Christian, the links here will tend towards that perspective.

BeliefNet, the popular multi-faith website/news service, has an excellent page on science and religion, with new articles about every month, message boards, and more. Visit it here. Faith and Reason is a PBS website devoted to their series on the growing synthesis of scientific and religious thought.

A great site about how a scientist can be a Christian and still keep all their brain cells is Science and Christianity. Even the Catholic Church is in on the act, with their Faith and Science: Catholic Perspectives. The American Scientific Affiliation is a society for practicing Christians and scientists, who's webpage has a great deal of information on a variety of topics. Science and Faith has some more info and articles on the subject.

Of course, there are negative voices on the horizon. One, which was vaguely negative, was the Skepical Inquirer's special issue on science and religion.

An unfortunate sideways jaunt of Christianity - taken full advantage of in the BBC mini-series - has been Creationism, and there are several pages out there dealing with the issue from a scientific perspective. The Talk.Origins Archive is the most comprehensive rebuttal of Creationism on the web. Their excellent Talk.Origins FAQ answers many of the standard Creationist claims. Creation "Science" Debunked is another site of answers to Creationist claims, as well as discussing the politics behind the pseudo-science. DWISE1'S Creation / Evolution Page discusses the matter of Creationism (or as he prefers to draw the line, "Creation Science") as an attempt to weaken faith in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence. Oh, in case you were wondering, yes, Evolution Happens!.