The Big Questions in Science and Religion - Softcover

Ward, Keith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1599471353 ISBN 13: 9781599471358

Publisher: Templeton Press, 2008

Synopsis

Can religious beliefs survive in the scientific age? Are they resoundingly outdated? Or is there something in them of great importance, even if the way they are expressed will have to change in the new scientific context? These questions are among those at the core of the science-religion dialogue. In The Big Questions in Science and Religion, Keith Ward, an Anglican minister who was once an atheist, offers compelling insights into the often contentious relationship between diverse religious views and new scientific knowledge. He identifies ten basic questions about the nature of the universe and human life. Among these are: Does the universe have a goal or purpose? Do the laws of nature exclude miracles? Can science provide a wholly naturalistic explanation for moral and religious beliefs? Has science made belief in God obsolete? Are there any good science-based arguments for God? With his expertise in the study of world religions, Ward considers concepts from Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity, while featuring the speculations of cosmologists, physicians, mathematicians, and philosophers. In addition, Ward examines the implications of ancient laws and modern theories and evaluates the role of religious experience as evidence of a nonphysical reality. Writing with enthusiasm, passion and clarity, Keith Ward conveys the depth, difficulty, intellectual excitement and importance of the greatest intellectual and existential questions of the modern scientific age. The diversity of views provides the general reader as well as opinion leaders with unbiased information in the science-religion field.

About this title

About the Author:

Keith Ward is a fellow of the British Academy, the Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus at the University of Oxford, an ordained priest of the Church of England, and a member of the Council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. He holds doctorates of divinity from Cambridge and Oxford. He has been a university lecturer at the Universities of Glasgow, St. Andrews, Cambridge, and London, where he was professor or history and philosophy of religion. The author of more than twenty highly acclaimed books, Ward is particularly interested in comparative theology and the interplay between science and religion. Keith Ward lives in Oxford, England.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. Ward, an Oxford theologian specializing in the history and philosophy of religion, presents an impressively insightful and well-balanced survey of major questions for science-and-religion dialogue. Ward takes on a wide range of topics, reasoning that if God is the ultimate cause of absolutely everything—we might think that the existence of God must make some difference to how things are. The beginning and end of the universe, the origins and nature of consciousness, and human religious experience all become contact points for discussion between scientific and religious perspectives. Writing as a scholar of world religions, Ward discusses multiple traditions at a level of depth and detail that exceeds the normal standards of the science and religion literature. Atheist and agnostic perspectives also receive a fair hearing, recognized as parties to the conversation rather than merely as rhetorical foils. Throughout, Ward shows a keen ability to recognize variations and distinctions within traditions, while still drawing helpful generalizations such as his conclusion that to believe in God is primarily to believe in the objectivity of value and purpose. (June)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Templeton Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1599471353
• ISBN 13: 9781599471358
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272