Jeune Street

One scientist locates a new fault line in debate over science and religion:

Unlike the old science-religion war, this battle is going to be fought not in the courts but in the arena of public opinion. The new war pits those who argue that science and "moderate" forms of religion are compatible worldviews against those who think they are not.

I find it interesting that this 'war' is framed as one of worldviews. I didn't realize that science was a worldview. Naturalism is a worldview. So is empiricism. But science? Science is an enterprise of investigation. It is universal, and can be rigorously advanced by people of many different worldviews. What the author is doing is making explicit what has been at the heart of the 'science v religion' debate for some time -- that the debate is not actually about science and religion, but about whether a totalizing rational philosophical worldview is necessary to do good science.

Anyway, I agree with these observations about scientific progress and of critique of religious positions:

Evolution, and science in general, will ultimately flourish or die on its scientific merits, not because of any political strategy. Good science is an invaluable tool in humanity's progress and survival, and it cannot be ignored or suppressed for long. The public may turn against this or that theory in the short run but will eventually have to accept evolution, just as it had to accept the Copernican heliocentric system.

It is strange that the phrase "respect for religion" has come to mean that religious beliefs should be exempt from the close scrutiny that other beliefs are subjected to. Such an attitude infantilizes religious believers, suggesting that their views cannot be defended and can be preserved only by silencing those who disagree.

Religion cannot be defended only by appeal to divine sanction. There must be reasonable arguments to defend religious belief, otherwise it is superstition. Sorting out reasonable religious belief from the superstitious kind is an essential task for serious thinkers.