The Big Questions in Science and Religion
How Did the Universe Begin? Two Ancient Stories of the Origin of All ThingsThe Biblical Story As the Origin of the Scientific OutlookThree Problems with the Biblical StoryCan God Be an Ultimate Explanation?Indian Religious Stories of the Origin of All ThingsThe Possibility of Religious Explanations of the UniverseThe Spectrum of Religious Claims about the Origin of the UniverseThe Scientific Search for a Final TheoryThe Idea of NecessityThe Primacy of ConsciousnessFrom Consciousness to a Physical UniverseAre Quests for Ultimate Explanation Properly Scientific?The God HypothesisReligious and Scientific CosmologiesConclusion: The Question of Spiritual RealityHow Will the Universe End?Religious Attitudes about the End of the UniverseUltimate Pessimism and Ultimate Optimism in Scientific CosmologyEvolution and TranshumanismPossible Religious Goals of an Evolutionary UniverseReligious Views That Place the Goal of Life beyond the UniverseThe Self-Unfolding Nature of an Evolutionary CosmosThe Goal of the Far-Future UniverseThe Theistic Hope for a New CreationThree Scientific Views of the End of the UniverseModern Religious Views about the End of the UniverseThe Relation of Religious and Scientific Claims about the End of the UniverseIs Evolution Compatible with Creation?Degeneration or Progress in History?The German Idealist Roots of Evolutionary ThoughtThe Mechanisms of EvolutionSuffering and Randomness in EvolutionCreation and CreationismIntelligent DesignThe "Indifference" of Evolutionary LawsTheistic EvolutionWhat Can an Omnipotent Being Do?God, Necessity, and the Problem of EvilOriginal Sin and EvolutionDo the Laws of Nature Exclude Miracles?Miracles in the World ReligionsThe Discovery of the Laws of NatureAre Miracles Transgressions of the Laws of Nature?Miracles as Extraordinary Manifestations of Spiritual PowerHume's Argument That Miracles Are Absolutely ImpossibleIs There a Firm and Unalterable Experience That Establishes Absolute Laws of Nature?Quantum Theory and the Laws of NatureCan We Ever Trust Testimony to the Occurrence of a Miracle?Why Improbable Events Probably OccurThe Resurrection of Jesus as a Paradigmatic MiracleMiracles in Different Religious ContextsConclusion: Miracles and Scientific LawWhat Is the Nature of Space and Time?Space and Time in Traditional Religious ThoughtThe Development of Philosophical Views of Space and TimeThe Classical View of God as Spaceless and TimelessNegative and Positive Views of TimeFlowing Time and Block TimeGod and the Possibility of Multiple Space/TimesIs Time an Illusion?Mathematical Models and What Reality Is LikeTemporal Flow and FreedomProcess Philosophy and the Creative Temporality of GodReality and AppearanceIs It Still Possible to Speak of the Soul?Buddhism and the Human PersonOther Eastern Analyses of the Human PersonSemitic Ideas of the SoulThe Spectrum of Religious Views of the Human PersonReductionism and the Reaction against DescartesThe Double-Aspect Theory of Brain and ConsciousnessA More Subtle Form of Duality in NeuropsychologyComputers and Artificial IntelligenceThe Causal Efficacy of Conscious StatesTop-Down CausalityReligious and Scientific Views of the PersonIs Science the Only Sure Path to Truth?Religious Experience in the Semitic TraditionsReligious Experience in Indian TraditionsThe Importance of Experience in ReligionDiffering Interpretations of ExperienceMust All Facts Be Publicly Observable?The Worlds of Science and of Common SenseIs Science Value-Free?Value, Faith, and ScienceSome Facts That Are Not Scientific— The Case of HistoryFacts about Human Motives and GoalsTruth in ArtScience and the Humanities and Social SciencesReligion between the Sciences and the Humanities and Social SciencesBasic PerspectivesCan Science Provide a Wholly Naturalistic Explanation for Moral and Religious Beliefs?Religion and Morality in the Semitic TraditionsReligion and Morality in Eastern TraditionsMorality and SociobiologyPersonal ExplanationExplaining Altruism GeneticallyThe Difference Religious Belief Makes to MoralityPsychology and Religious ExperienceEmpirical Surveys of Religious ExperienceMoral and Religious ExperienceHas Science Made Belief in God Obsolete?The "Three-Age" View of Human Intellectual HistoryThe Origins of Religion and Spiritual SensibilityThe Development of Theism in Hebrew ThoughtTheism, Idealism, and Arguments for GodNontheistic Developments in ReligionPost-Enlightenment ReligionGod and the MultiverseSome Problems with the MultiverseFine-tuning ArgumentsScience and Arguments for GodDoes Science Allow for Revelation and Divine Action?The Possibility of Particular Divine Acts in the WorldRevelation As a Form of Divine ActionProvidence and HistoryProcess PhilosophyIndian Religious Traditions and Spiritual CausalityScience and the End of ReductionismWhole—Part CausationAre There Causes outside the Domain of Science?The End of the Closed Causal Web?Quantum Physics and ConsciousnessScience and Religious Belief An Inconclusive Conclusion
