Where the Conflict Really Lies : Science, Religion, and Naturalism

604 Pages·2012·2.38 MB·English

by  Plantinga, Alvin

WHERE THE CONFLICT REALLY LIES
WHERE THE CONFLICT
REALLY LIES

Science, Religion, and Naturalism

Alvin Plantinga
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data Plantinga, Alvin.
Where the conflict really lies : science, religion, and
naturalism / Alvin Plantinga.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-19-981209-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Religion and science. 2. Evolution (Biology)—
Religious aspects—Christianity. 3. Naturalism—
Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.
BL240.3.P53 2011
231.7′65—dc22
2011002532
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS

Preface

PART I
ALLEGED CONFLICT

1 Evolution and Christian Belief (1)
I Preliminaries
II Dawkins
2 Evolution and Christian Belief (2)
I Dennett’s Argument
II Draper’s Argument
III Why Do People Doubt Evolution?
IV Kitcher’s “Enlightenment Case”
3 Divine Action in the World: The Old
Picture
I The Problem
II The Old Picture
4 The New Picture
I Quantum Mechanics
II What is the Problem with
“Intervention”?
III What is Intervention?
IV Intervention and Divine Action at the
Quantum Level
V A Couple of Other Alleged Conflicts
PART II
SUPERFICIAL CONFLICT

5 Evolutionary Psychology and
Scripture Scholarship
I Evolutionary Psychology
II Evolutionary Psychology and
Religion
III Historical Biblical Criticism
6 Defeaters?
I Defeaters and Their Nature
II Evidence Base
III Methodological Naturalism
IV Is Simonian Science a Defeater for
Christian Belief?
V Faith and Reason
VI Can Religious Beliefs be Defeated?
VII The Reduction Test
PART III
CONCORD

7 Fine-Tuning
I Fine-Tuning
II Objections
8 Design Discourse
I Michael Behe and Biological
Arguments
II Perceiving Design?
III Design Argument vs. Design
Discourse
IV The Difference it Makes
9 Deep Concord: Christian Theism and
the Deep Roots of Science
I Science and the Divine Image
II Reliability and Regularity
III Law
IV Mathematics
V Induction and Learning from
Experience
VI Simplicity and Other Theoretical
Virtues
VII Contingency and Science as
Empirical
PART IV