Is science relevant to theology?

pp. 399-407

in: Herbert Feigl, Inquiries and provocations, Berlin, Springer, 1981

Abstract

The following remarks intend to outline what I consider the major points at issue. It seems to me that most of the previous contributions to this topic published in Zygon have dealt with the implications of current science for theology and religion mainly by way of rather gingerly, halfhearted allusions. The straightforward spirit of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment (e.g., Hume, Kant) needs reviving and "updating." Surely, no one can claim to "know all the answers", and — in all humility (I trust this is still regarded as a virtue!) — I wish to set out what strike me as, at least, some of the pertinent questions. And I shall also attempt to give some tentative answers. Since I have been asked to do this in very brief compass, the harsh tone and terse style of my presentation will make my contentions appear more dogmatic and intransigent than I should wish them to be.