Is a dialogue between science and religion possible ”” or even necessary?
The American Association for the Advancement of Science recently welcomed NASA astrophysicist Jennifer Wiseman as the new director of its Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion. The task ahead: encourage communication between scientific and religious communities. What could be wrong with that?
On the face of it, such an effort seems sensible and admirable. Who doesn’t want civil dialogue rather than hot-headed diatribe?
Yet some critics argue that these kinds of efforts run the risk of co-mingling science and religion which, in the most benign sense, are two very different ways of looking at the world. In the most dangerous sense, scientists getting involved in “dialogue” with religious people, they say, could bias and taint scientific work.