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Science Versus Religion

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Tad Clements is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at SUNY at Brockport. He is also the author of Science and Man: The Philosophy of Scientific Humanism.

He states in the Preface to this 1990 book, "This book seeks to demonstrate, through an interconnected series of comparisons, that none of the reasons offered to deny incompatibility between science and religion is successful.... In addition, it is argued that their subject matters---the questions they address---overlap, and that therefore their epistemic differences create real intellectual and practical conflicts. So, if we hope to satisfy our human yearning to find meaning and purpose in existence, which provides a basis for our ethical precepts and practices, we should make a choice between prescientific frameworks and scientific secular humanism. This work tries unequivocally to show why the latter is the preferred choice."

He nevertheless admits, "Even scientists, who are usually quite rational and critical in their own specialized areas, have often failed to realize the deep-seated incompatibilities between their religious pretensions and their scientific cognitive ones. Scientists have usually remained religiously conservative." (pg. 27)

Some of his assertions are quite unconvincing. For example, he calls Hugh J. Schonfield (author of The Passover Plot: Special 40th Anniversary Edition) a "very prominent authority on the New Testament," whose book presents "a rather plausible case." (pg. 102) He calls Alan Watts (author of books such as Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion and Beyond Theology) "a leading Protestant theologian with highly respected scholarly credentials." (pg. 197)

He is surprisingly pessimistic about scientists: "scientists are not likely to take on the formidable task of shaping the future of the world and, even if they do, the chances of success are far from assured." (pg. 258)