Startseite Philosophie Scientists Who Believe: From Louis Agassiz to Katharine Hayhoe
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Scientists Who Believe: From Louis Agassiz to Katharine Hayhoe

  • Christoph Irmscher
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Religion in the Secular Age
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Religion in the Secular Age

Abstract

Arguing with fellow evolutionist Asa Gray in 1860, Charles Darwin explained that there was “too much misery in the world” for him to believe that the world had been created by a benevolent God. Against the background of Darwin’s challenge to religion, this essay reviews three scientists who found ways of reconciling science with religion, inspired in different ways by Gray’s theistic optimism. Examples range from Darwin’s main antagonist Louis Agassiz, who felt that God’s plan for the world was fully legible and that it was the scientist’s duty to teach the public how to read it properly, to the geneticist Francis Collins, the past director of the National Institutes of Health, who contends that belief in God is a rational choice, to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy, for whom the Bible contains practical advice for ecologically responsible living. What never occurred to Agassiz or Darwin and what Collins never considers-namely that the world as we know it might end-has become real possibility for Hayhoe.

Abstract

Arguing with fellow evolutionist Asa Gray in 1860, Charles Darwin explained that there was “too much misery in the world” for him to believe that the world had been created by a benevolent God. Against the background of Darwin’s challenge to religion, this essay reviews three scientists who found ways of reconciling science with religion, inspired in different ways by Gray’s theistic optimism. Examples range from Darwin’s main antagonist Louis Agassiz, who felt that God’s plan for the world was fully legible and that it was the scientist’s duty to teach the public how to read it properly, to the geneticist Francis Collins, the past director of the National Institutes of Health, who contends that belief in God is a rational choice, to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy, for whom the Bible contains practical advice for ecologically responsible living. What never occurred to Agassiz or Darwin and what Collins never considers-namely that the world as we know it might end-has become real possibility for Hayhoe.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Acknowledgements IX
  4. Introduction: Religion in the Secular Age 1
  5. Part I Post-Kantian Approaches to Religion
  6. God as the Infinite: Martin Buber’s Interpretation of Kant’s Concept of Religion 21
  7. (Secular) Theodicy, Antitheodicy, and the Critique of Meaning: Pragmatist Reflections 35
  8. Beyond Dogmatic Scientism: Hilary Putnam on Religious Faith 53
  9. Angles and Angels: Charles Taylor and Steven Pinker on Moral Progress in History 69
  10. Part II Religion in Critical Theory and Deconstruction
  11. Benjamin’s Time of Healing: The Messianic as Remembrance, Happiness, and Justice 89
  12. Re-considering the Distinction between Atheists and Believers, or: Max Horkheimer’s Reading of Kant 109
  13. Defining What is “Extraterritorial”: Religion and Utopia in Habermas and Ricoeur 123
  14. Secularizing Both Religion and Reason: Upending the Secular/Religious Distinction 141
  15. This Incredible Need to Believe: Julia Kristeva’s Reinvention of Secular Humanism at the Crossroad of Religion, Psychoanalysis, and Politics 151
  16. Part III Religion in U.S. Literature and Politics in a Global Context
  17. Critical Perspectives on Self-Sufficing Humanism in Southern Fiction 165
  18. The Southern Civil Religion: The Intermingling of the Sacred and the Secular in the American South 179
  19. Catholicism in Defense? Roman Catholic Answers to the Quest for Modernity 193
  20. Competing Quests for a Hidden God in John Updike’s Roger’s Version 223
  21. Science and Religion in U.S.-American Pandemic Literature 237
  22. Part IV Re-Framing Theological Issues and Individual Convictions
  23. Philosophical Pluralism and Religious Faith in a Secular Age 257
  24. Religious Convictions and Public Reason: On the Way to a Two-Stage Epistemology of Religion 279
  25. Scientists Who Believe: From Louis Agassiz to Katharine Hayhoe 297
  26. Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan: Two Canadian Christian Thinkers 307
  27. Part V Religion in Poetry, Music and Visual Media
  28. Religious Aspects of Ukrainian Poetry – The Case of Vasyl′ Stus 321
  29. Gustav Mahler’s Symphonic Transcendence and Its Counterparts 337
  30. Serial Baroque in the TV Show American Gods 349
  31. List of Contributors 361
  32. Index of Authors 367
  33. Index of Subjects 371
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111247878-019

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Acknowledgements IX
  4. Introduction: Religion in the Secular Age 1
  5. Part I Post-Kantian Approaches to Religion
  6. God as the Infinite: Martin Buber’s Interpretation of Kant’s Concept of Religion 21
  7. (Secular) Theodicy, Antitheodicy, and the Critique of Meaning: Pragmatist Reflections 35
  8. Beyond Dogmatic Scientism: Hilary Putnam on Religious Faith 53
  9. Angles and Angels: Charles Taylor and Steven Pinker on Moral Progress in History 69
  10. Part II Religion in Critical Theory and Deconstruction
  11. Benjamin’s Time of Healing: The Messianic as Remembrance, Happiness, and Justice 89
  12. Re-considering the Distinction between Atheists and Believers, or: Max Horkheimer’s Reading of Kant 109
  13. Defining What is “Extraterritorial”: Religion and Utopia in Habermas and Ricoeur 123
  14. Secularizing Both Religion and Reason: Upending the Secular/Religious Distinction 141
  15. This Incredible Need to Believe: Julia Kristeva’s Reinvention of Secular Humanism at the Crossroad of Religion, Psychoanalysis, and Politics 151
  16. Part III Religion in U.S. Literature and Politics in a Global Context
  17. Critical Perspectives on Self-Sufficing Humanism in Southern Fiction 165
  18. The Southern Civil Religion: The Intermingling of the Sacred and the Secular in the American South 179
  19. Catholicism in Defense? Roman Catholic Answers to the Quest for Modernity 193
  20. Competing Quests for a Hidden God in John Updike’s Roger’s Version 223
  21. Science and Religion in U.S.-American Pandemic Literature 237
  22. Part IV Re-Framing Theological Issues and Individual Convictions
  23. Philosophical Pluralism and Religious Faith in a Secular Age 257
  24. Religious Convictions and Public Reason: On the Way to a Two-Stage Epistemology of Religion 279
  25. Scientists Who Believe: From Louis Agassiz to Katharine Hayhoe 297
  26. Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan: Two Canadian Christian Thinkers 307
  27. Part V Religion in Poetry, Music and Visual Media
  28. Religious Aspects of Ukrainian Poetry – The Case of Vasyl′ Stus 321
  29. Gustav Mahler’s Symphonic Transcendence and Its Counterparts 337
  30. Serial Baroque in the TV Show American Gods 349
  31. List of Contributors 361
  32. Index of Authors 367
  33. Index of Subjects 371
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Heruntergeladen am 5.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111247878-019/html?lang=de
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