When you take a skeptic and put him in with two believers, you can bet that sparks will fly. For this episode, we have one of the world's foremost skeptics, Michael Shermer, a Ph.D. in the history of science, President of the Skeptics Society, and publisher of Skeptics Magazine (it doesn't get more skeptical than that). Theologian Nancey Murphy. a leading authority on the relationship of science and religion, particularly cosmology and the soul, is ready to admit that science has made a pretty convincing case in recent times for closing off areas that used to be the province of religion, but she is still a believer. She admits that science is explaining how phenomena arise with greater speed and scope than ever before. But Murphy and chemist Muzaffar Iqbal, founder of The Center for Science & Islam, and a renowned expert on the relationship between science and Islam, see no advances in science in explaining why these phenomena arise in the first place -- the "why" question.
“Science can tell us how chemicals bond but only religion can answer the why questions, why do we have a universe like this at all?”
Nancey Murphy
Ph.D. Th.D.
Fuller Theological Seminary
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Science and Religion have long been considered adversaries on the battlefield of grand worldviews because at the most fundamental level they both claim to do much the same thing: provide deep insight into the nature of the world around us and give a profound sense of our place or purpose in the universe. Science is founded on empiricism and analysis; religion on revelation and faith -- and some say they exist in such different spheres that they neither contradict nor interact.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in the relationship between Science and Religion. Essentially, how does scientific knowledge alter our perception of religion? Is it possible for science to bring deeper meaning to religion, instead of undermining and eroding its basic tenets? Or ultimately, is "religious knowledge" a misnomer? Is it really only "religious belief"?
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Muzaffar Iqbal Ph.D.
President/Founder: Center for Islam & Science
Muzaffar Iqbal discusses why he went into science.
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Michael Shermer Ph.D.
President, The Skeptics Society, Author, Publisher
Michael Shermer talks about becoming a skeptic and the origins of morality.
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