Two Opposing Powers

I recently read two articles concerning the topics of science and religion. Chet Raymo, author of Miracles and Explanations, offers insight on how science and religion are closely related while David Ludden, author of “Teaching Evolution at a Christian College”, declares that science and religion are too contradicting from one another and that people are unwilling to open their minds to new ideas once they have established their beliefs (Raymo & Ludden, 2011). This is a topic that has had controversy surrounding it for an innumerable amount of years dating back to ancient times when the Catholic Church ruled Europe to present times where we have to decide if we want our children learning about Darwin’s theory of evolution because it might contradict our religious beliefs. John William Draper, author of History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, wrote on the power struggle between science and religion, and in the preface he summarizes the conflict thesis, “The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising from traditionary faith and human interests on the other” (Draper, 1874). It is clear that this is a significant, controversial issue, and after examining both writings I have concluded that Mr. Raymo provides stronger evidence and reasoning to support his claim of science and religion being closely interconnected.

Chet Raymo, a professor of physics and astronomy, writes on the similarities between science and religion in his book Miracles and Explanations, published in 1998 by New York: Walker & Co. Mr. Raymo argues that science and religion are two subjec...

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...iefs then they wouldn’t be tolerant of anything that could be potentially contradicting to their views (p. 704)

While Mr. Ludden offers a good Classical style of arguing, in my opinion he becomes repetitive in his argument and fails to change to a different approach other than attempting to discredit his opposition. Mr. Raymo on the other hand provided several different approaches to support his argument, and therefore I believe he made the stronger case. Mr. Raymo implemented the correct style in his writing by using the Rogerian method of arguing. This allowed him to build up confidence with both sides of the dispute and eventually entice the reader by using a mixture of strong evidence and appeals. I believe Mr. Raymo thoroughly provides the best argument for his position, and he does a fantastic job of analyzing the topic in a both scientific and religious way.