Seduced by Science: How American Religion Has Lost Its Way [Hardcover]

Steven Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 081473104X | ISBN-13: 978-0814731048 | Publication Date: December 1, 1998

American religion, Steven Goldberg claims, has fallen into a trap. Just at the moment when it has amassed the political strength and won the legal right to participate effectively in public debate, it has lost its distinctive voice. Instead of speaking of human values, goals, and limits, it speaks in the language of science.

In the United States, science has extraordinary influence and respect. American religious leaders seeking prestige for their point of view regularly couch their responses to technological developments, or defend their faith, in scientific terms. They claim, for instance, that medical studies demonstrate the power of prayer, that science validates the Bible, including its account of creation, and that patenting the genetic code is dangerous because genes are the essence of who we are.

But when ministers, priests, and rabbis expound on double-blind studies and the genetic causes of behavior, they do not elevate religion, Goldberg maintains, they trivialize it. Seduced by Science examines how, by allowing scientific discourse to set the terms of the debate, American religious leaders facilitate religion's move away from its more appropriate and important concerns of values, morality, and humility. Science can tell us a lot about what is but precious little about what ought to be and our religious leaders often miss the chance to add an important voice from a faith-based perspective to the public debate that follows scientific advances.

Discussing the most recent and pressing collisions between science and religion-such as the medicinal benefits of prayer, the human genome project, and cloning-Goldberg raises the timely question of what the appropriate role of religion might be in public life today. Tackling the legal aspects of religious debate, Goldberg suggests ways that religious leaders might confront new scientific developments in a more meaningful fashion.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Despite its title, the bulk of Goldberg's book is a careful review of judicial decisions bearing on the establishment and free exercise of religion in the U.S. Readers struggling to navigate the often turbulent waters of First Amendment discussion will find the review lucid and accessible. It was motivated by Goldberg's fear that the seductive language of science has "swallowed" religious discourse. Armed with evidence that the public square in the U.S. is hospitable to both scientific and religious languages, he argues for a separation of the two that recognizes the distinctive contributions of each. In the end, he sees religion as a brake on unbridled materialism. We are free, he says, "to make spiritual values temper material progress. The question is whether we will choose to do so." By itself, that judgment would be disappointingly reactive. It is, however, accompanied by appreciations of science, spirituality, and constitutional law that commend it to a fairly large audience. Steven Schroeder

From Kirkus Reviews

An original, forthright argument that American religion has sold its soul to science. A spate of recent books have complained that religion has not paid enough attention to science and should adapt itself to ``dialogue'' with scientists. Legal guru Goldberg (Law/Georgetown Univ.; Culture Clash: Law and Science in America, not reviewed) offers precisely the opposite, argument, that religion should maintain its ``distinctive voice'' and stop trying to prove itself using science's methodologies and truth claims. Goldberg notes the irony that just when American religion has established itself as a powerful political force, its leaders seem to have nothing valuable or unique to contribute to national debates. He examines three key issuescloning, ``creation science,'' and the healing power of prayerwhich religious leaders have failed to address in a religious manner. Concerning prayer, for example, ministers have seized upon medical studies demonstrating that prayer does help in healing chronically or terminally ill patients. By their insistence that these studies prove the power of prayer, Goldberg says, ministers and other leaders trivialize prayer as ``just another therapy.'' The book's second half explores religion's role in public and political life, maintaining that religion has embraced science so thoroughly in order to gain a long-sought legitimacy in the public eye. Goldberg notes that the Constitution is designed to protect religion from being trivialized, even (especially?) by its most ardent and vocal advocates. (Prayer in school, for instance, would make religion a rote matter, like the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance, and government-sanctioned holidays like Christmas are almost wholly secularized) These sections lose the book's ostensible focus on religion and science, though they are valuable in themselves. One problem throughout is Goldberg's heavy bias toward Christian examples; the book is less about American religion in general than one religion in particular. Overall, a well-reasoned counterweight to recent science-worshipping titles. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081473104X
• ISBN-13: 978-0814731048
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,625,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important book on religion-science debate, April 26, 2000

By 

S. A. Felton (southern OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seduced by Science: How American Religion Has Lost Its Way (Hardcover)

"Seduced by Science" is an important contribution to the science vs. relgion debate. The author states and re-states his position many times with good effect, which is that we are better served by keeping religion and science separate. Science is effective because it is narrow; its methods give excellent results when they can be empirically validated. Religion, Godlberg argues, needs to stress its core message: humility, faith, and values.

The author takes on scientific hubris very directly and challenges some of the leading physicists of our time, who claim that they can understand the "mind of God" if only enough money is spent on multi-billion dollar projects such as the supercollider. He also argues with clarity and simplicity that there are limits to the claims that we are nothing more than our physical components, our genes, DNA, etc.

As well Professor Goldberg argues effectively that religious leaders should not jump on the scientific bandwagon to prove that the Bible is a scientific text, or that the Big Bang proves some point in the Creation story. He simply repeats that religion and religious leaders should stick to religions' core values, which I stated above.

My only real disaagreement with the author is that it is somewhat simplistic to say that religions must stress their core teachings. There are so many religions, and so many sub-groups within religions, that religion is not a unity. The various religions send mixed signals about their core teachings, often promote fear of God, and God Itself is so difficult to define, especially as defined by organized religions. Science has capitalized on these disagreements by putting on a united front, where at times scientists claim that they can explain everything, even to the point of meaning in life. In fact, there are wide disagreements among scientists on many issues, such as interpretations of quantum mechanics.

What I liked most about this book are the excellent references in the footnotes. I have learned about many fine books on the science vs. religion debate, such as "Pythagoras' Trousers," "Higher Superstition," and several John Polkinghorne's most recent books.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goldberg is one of the few who understands the problem facing religion in the 21st Century., April 3, 2006

By 

Bruce Bain "Romans 9:33/Remember Jackie Robinson" (Englewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seduced by Science: How American Religion Has Lost Its Way (Hardcover)

"Seduced by Science" is authored by Steven Goldverg, Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, so he is well-versed in the depths of legal implications when science and religion come into conflict in the court system.

I claim boldly that Goldberg is unique, owing to the fact that in the realm of social activity where people make a claim the moral values, the religious realm, they often end up merely "cheerleading" and often for the wrong reasons. Such reasons often subvert faith, rather than reinforce it; but relgious people are slow to realize this, and when the logic comes full circle, BOOM!!!... they have undermined their own philosophical and rational foundation.


In my experience, there are two great conflicts being fought today. The first is Abortion, the second is that regarding Evolutionary Theory. Goldberg expands the list further, including Bio-Genetic research as another point of conflict.

"Seduced by Science" is Goldberg's account of the legal conflicts encountered in genetic research, in public schools, and how religion fails when it endorses the Bible as a kind of "science textbook", a very foolhardy and self-destructive approach to promoting spiritual and moral values in our society.
Religion is not finished, but it is undergoing critical transformation. Key to the problem, Goldberg tells us, is that FAITH, in religion, is being replaced by science.

It seems that religious people are often ignorant of the fundamental philosophical distinctions between TRUTH and SCIENTIFIC LAW (and scientific theory). Indeed, if religion is supported by scientific PROOF, then FAITH, by its Pauline definition, and truly, by other religious understandings of the meaning of FAITH, is lost. If the Holy Bible is merely a science text, the scientific community is going to eat it for lunch. Moreover, if we are truly going to consider religious views in depth, vis a vis Science, we must go beyond blind assumptions that CHRISTIANITY is the only religious voice. There is a Muslim voice, a Hindu voice, a Buddhist voice. All of these religious voices must be considered, when Religion and Science are in conflict. Goldberg tells us, and I am quite in agreement with him, that "efforts at empirical validation (scientific proof/evidence) do not elevate religion, ..." (but) "rather, trivializes it."

The problem is the trend in science toward Metaphysical Materialism, the idea that only physical matter is real. In this scenario, only empirical and measureable evidence is valid. When religion starts playing up to science, claiming "scientific credentials" it is denying and giving up its own fundamental, and subjective core tenet, that of Spirit, of Faith, of the primary assumption that God IS.

Of course you cannot "prove" the existence of GOD empirically, objectively. It can only be "proven" subjectively, individually, through direct perception as an entirely personal experience. To claim otherwise is sheer folly. You cannot prove God, scientifically. How could you possibly "measure" something of the order of an INFINITY? If the attribute is LOVE, how is that measureable, scientifically?

Goldberg gives clarity to this battle, and I believe him to be a guiding light for our future duty. I'm speaking of course, of our duty as those who uphold the democratic principles of religious freedoms, inclusive of the 1st Amendment.

1 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Irrelevant and misleading, August 8, 2004

By 

N. Ravitch (Savannah, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seduced by Science: How American Religion Has Lost Its Way (Paperback)

Goldberg attempts a slight of hand; he attempts to save religion from the contempt and scorn it deserves by trying to save a place for it apart from science. He urges religious people not to be seduced by wanting to show that their beliefs are scientifically supportable. But the problem is that religion has a place only as long as science has not come up with an explanation of a particular phenomenon. It is true that science will never answer all questions, since it only asks questions which have an answer -- at least ultimately and theoretically. But the questions which have no answer, questions about meaning and purpose, which we all care about will not be answer by science. BUT, BUT, BUT -- neither will they be answered by the fairy tales from the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud, or the Hindu Scriptures.