bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Anthropology and Religion
Authors: Lambek Michael 
Published: October 2009

AbstractOnce people accept the historical emergence and spread of science as a unique discursive formation, it becomes nonsense to talk about the relationship between religion and science, or religion as a kind of science in societies that have not yet encountered or internalized this development. Religion and science cannot be judged or compared along a single axis of measurement, and therefore they will continue to irritate or complement each other. The de facto identification of science with abstract reason and religion with engaged performance, the incommensurability of science and religion in the modern world, the destabilization of the transcendent or foundational claims of each, and the ultimate uncertainty that their conjunction or opposition imposes, all beg for triangulation with a third construct: namely, ethics.
Contributions from the History of Science and Religion
Authors: Brooke John Hedley 
Published: October 2009

AbstractIt is sometimes assumed that a simple story can be told about the historical relationship between science and religion. On one overview, ‘science’ and ‘religion’ existed in harmony for centuries, conflicting only in the modern period. By contrast, the converse is often assumed: ‘science’ and ‘religion’ have existed in more or less perpetual warfare, until recently, when the potential for peace has supervened. This second view is attractive to those who believe that twentieth-century physics, in particular, has given unprecedented access to the mind of God. For Aubrey Moore, a creative process of evolution was consonant with a theology of Incarnation in which divine immanence was restored. In this respect, historical scholarship both informs and supports the claim that more sophisticated taxonomies are required for capturing the multifaceted relations between science and religion.
Contributions from the Social Sciences
Authors: Segal Robert A. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
There has long been tension, not between social scientists and practitioners of religion, but between social scientists and scholars of religious studies, referred to here as ‘religionists’. Religionists have conventionally assumed that the social sciences are guilty of multiple sins, none of them forgivable: ignoring the proverbial believer's point of view; denying the irreducibly religious nature of religion; analysing religion exclusively functionally, reductively, and explanatorily; analysing religion exclusively materially and behaviourally; and denying the truth of religion. This article maintains that the social sciences – anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics – are guilty of none of these charges, which rest on their misconstrual. Ironically, those religionists who contend that contemporary social scientists have come round to accepting the religionist approach likewise misconstrue the social sciences.
Contributions from the Philosophy of Science
Authors: Collins Robin 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article provides an alternative to reductionism, and briefly indicates its potential for providing a powerful ontological, epistemological, and methodological framework for the science and religion dialogue. This alternative grows out of considering quantum mechanics – the extraordinarily paradoxical theory that is widely either misunderstood or ignored. This alternative is called the non-reductive intelligibility view. Although the discussion critiques emergent complexity, it holds that all alternatives to reductionism should continue to be rigorously developed. The article begins by explicating a common form of reductionism, ‘compositional reductionism’, and examines why quantum mechanics presents serious difficulties for it.
Contributions from Philosophical Theology and Metaphysics
Authors: Bracken, SJ Joseph A. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
While Pierre Teilhard de Chardin may have been overly optimistic in his estimate of how soon the synthesis of religion and science might take place, his deep faith in the achievability of the project remains an important motivational factor in the contemporary religion and science discussion. This article first reviews briefly how the conflict of interests between proponents of religion and science in the modern era arose historically. Second, it indicates how various contemporary writers in the field of religion and science have tried to ease this tension. Third, the article presents a vision for the reconciliation of religion and science, based largely upon the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, but suitably revised so as to affirm key Christian beliefs.
Contributions from Systematic Theology
Authors: Pannenberg Wolfhart 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article discusses important issues for a Christian doctrine of creation that is concerned with its relationship to natural science. The issues deal with the core presuppositions that are required for theological use of concepts derived from the natural sciences – just as the biblical account of the creative act of God in Genesis made comparable use of the knowledge about the world of nature that was available at that time. One can consider the production of such creatures to be the intrinsic aim that was implicit in the act of creation. The Christian doctrine of creation strongly affirms the relative independence of creatures – not only with regard to one another, but also with regard to God himself – as essential in the act of creation itself. The personal difference and self-distinction of the Son in relation to the Father is the model for such independent existence of creatures.
Contributions from Practical Theology and Ethics
Authors: Peters Ted 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article identifies some areas of the new dialogue between science and theology that could definitely enhance the effectiveness of preaching and teaching, which includes counselling and pastoral care. First, it discusses pastoral hermeneutics, which includes the prophetic and constructive tasks of biblical preaching. Second, the article reviews eight different models of understanding the relationship between science and faith, half that draw upon the image of warfare and half which advocate peaceful co-operation. It pays special attention to the controversy surrounding Darwinian evolution. Third, the article turns to the frontier of genetic research and the ethical issues surrounding the phrase ‘playing God’, recommending that the pastor demythologize science while appropriating it to a theological understanding of the world in which people live.
Contributions from Spirituality: Simplicity— Complexity— Simplicity
Authors: Rudd Pauline M. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article aims to demonstrate to non-specialists that science itself can provide a profound basis for meditation, using a series of short vignettes that address questions relevant to people's lives. Meditation often begins by focusing on something beautiful such as a flower or a shell. With a little information, it is possible to use a mathematical concept or a molecular interaction to lead people into deep reflection and even contemplation. The article also aims to show that the results of spiritual insight can be directly relevant to the practice of science. Insights from religious experience and praxis, such as enlightenment or the dark night of the soul, have their parallels in the scientific enterprise. Scientific insights do not threaten religious practice, but instead provide a means by which people can re-examine beliefs and mature in comprehension of the Almighty.
Varieties of Naturalism
Authors: Flanagan Owen 
Published: October 2009

AbstractAfter giving different meanings for naturalism, this article discusses Wittgenstein and Bouwsma; the scope of naturalism; the ontology of imperialistic and non-imperialistic naturalism; naturalized epistemology and the problem of normativity; naturalized ethics; naturalizing normativity; and some thoughts on relativism. The discussion closes with Dewey's insight that ‘Moral science is not something with a separate province. It is physical, biological, and historic knowledge placed in a humane context where it will illuminate and guide the activities of men’.
Interpreting Science from the Standpoint of Whiteheadian Process Philosophy
Authors: Griffin David Ray 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
The task of harmonizing scientific and religious thought is at the heart of the version of process philosophy developed by Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). Philosophy ‘attains its chief importance’, Whitehead said, by fusing science and religion ‘into one rational scheme of thought’. The basic method for overcoming the apparent conflicts, he held, is to show that science and religion can be harmonized within a philosophical cosmology that exemplifies the standard philosophical criteria of excellence: adequacy and self-consistency. As this article indicates, a theory of evolution based on naturalism would provide a middle way between the extremes of neo-Darwinism and creationism.
Trinitarian Faith Seeking Transformative Understanding
Authors: Shults F. LeRon 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article argues that integrative developments in late modern philosophy of science and the broader return to the hermeneutical significance of the category of relationality have opened up conceptual space for the renewal of a trinitarian faith that seeks transformative understanding as it engages in the discourse among the fields of contemporary science. First, it shows the connection between two disintegrating tendencies in the early modern period: the separation of the doctrine of the Trinity from ‘scientific’ discourse, and the compartmentalization of faith and reason. Second, the article explores some of the integrative developments in late modern epistemology that contribute to overcoming these dichotomies. Third, it re-examines the intuitions behind the call for ‘faith seeking understanding’ as it developed in the stream of the Western tradition that flowed through Augustine and Anselm.
Religious Experience, Cognitive Science, and the Future of Religion
Authors: Wiebe Phillip H. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
Beliefs in invisible beings capable of displaying their much-vaunted powers in the visible world and interacting with humans have been present among all the world's peoples, according to written records, folklore, and archaeological remains. In Western culture, during the medieval era, transcendent realities were set in a Ptolemaic world of hollow and transparent globes. In directing attention to the significance and nature of religious experience, this article recalls the vital link that was once in place between the human soul and religion, and comments on the significance of the contemporary study of mind – now known as cognitive science – for the study of religion, including religion's future in the academy.
Quantum Physics and the Theology of Non‐Interventionist Objective Divine Action
Authors: Russell Robert John 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
Since the rise of modern science in the seventeenth century, Christians have hungered for an intellectually and spiritually satisfying view of non-interventionist objective divine action (NIODA) that can support a theology of special providence located between general providence, on the one hand, and miracle, on the other. This article evaluates a specific proposal for NIODA based on an indeterministic interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM). It provides working definitions of the terms involved and the assumptions brought to the conversation. The article then stipulates the criteria that any potential candidate for NIODA must satisfy. Finally, before specifically turning to QM-NIODA, the discussion responds briefly to six frequent misconceptions (FAQs) regarding NIODA that tend to obscure the conversation and delay progress in assessing serious candidates for NIODA.
Theologies of Divine Action
Authors: Tracy Thomas F. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
One familiar and contentious response to the growth of scientific knowledge insists that long-established ways of thinking about God and God's relation to the world can no longer be sustained if we take seriously emerging new understandings of the world. This article presents several ways of thinking about divine action available to contemporary theologians: God to act as creator in every event as its absolute ontological ground; God to act indirectly through the order of created causes (natural law); God to act indirectly through the actions of free agents; God to act to determine some or all of what is left underdetermined in the order of created causes (special action); and God to act within the world's history to bring about effects that modify or exceed the causal powers of creatures (interventionist).
Problems in Panentheism
Authors: Thomas Owen C. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
There are some serious problems in the understanding and interpretation of panentheism in what has become a fairly widespread movement that has gathered under this banner. These problems arise from the fact that panentheism is not one particular view of the relationship of the divine to the world, but rather, a large and diverse family of views involving quite different interpretations of the key metaphorical assertion that the world is in God. The panentheism movement as a whole does not present a coherent view. There is one major exception to this vagueness in the concept of panentheism, and that is the interpretation found in the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. The discussion also considers divine immanence, classical theism, soul–body metaphor, soteriological and eschatological panentheism, the problem of evil, divine action, theology and science, and the influence of the current romantic movement.
Evolution, Religion, and Science
Authors: Provine William B. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
Understanding evolution does not undermine many beliefs in god: deism, gods that work through natural phenomena, gods invented from tortured arguments by theologians or academics, and many others. Understanding evolution is, nevertheless, the most efficient engine of atheism ever discovered by humans. It challenges the primary, worldwide, observable reason for belief in a deity: the feeling of intelligent design in biological organisms, including humans. The first section of this article documents the widespread, worldwide sympathy with the feeling of intelligent design in animals and plants. The second section explains why and how the understanding of evolution in nature undermines and destroys the feeling of intelligent design and promotes atheism. Creationists and believers in almost any religion are right that evolutionary biology should be feared and rejected. It is the great engine of atheism.
In Defence of Intelligent Design
Authors: Dembski William A. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
Intelligent design is the field of study that investigates signs of intelligence. It identifies those features of objects that reliably signal the action of an intelligent cause. Proponents of intelligent design, known as design theorists, purport to study such signs formally, rigorously, and scientifically. In particular, they claim that a type of information, known as specified complexity, is a key sign of intelligence. To sum up, many special sciences already employ specified complexity as a sign of intelligence – notably forensic science, cryptography, random number generation, archaeology, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Design theorists take these methods and apply them to naturally occurring systems. In any event, it is very much a live possibility that design in cosmology and biology is scientifically detectable, thus placing intelligent design squarely within the realm of science.
Emergence and Complexity
Authors: Gregersen Niels Henrik 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
The first section of this article begins by locating the idea of emergence in a historical context. The second section presents a short philosophical primer consisting of four types of emergence theory, two epistemological and two ontological. Only the ontological versions of emergence theory are committed to speaking of top-down causation. The final section discusses what opportunities the idea of emergence may offer for religious reflection. Certainly, no religious strings are attached to the idea of emergence. Theological reflection, however, may be propelled to rethink religious traditions, and to redescribe the world of creation in new terms, in the light of the sciences of complexity and emergence theory.
The Hidden Battles over Emergence
Authors: Gillett Carl 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article illuminates the practical necessity of a metaphysics of science in the first section by highlighting the scientific findings that are replete with ontological concepts and by providing a ‘minimal framework’ in the metaphysics of science to articulate these concepts. The second section examines how writers on ‘emergence’ in science-and-religion, as well as in other areas, have all been reacting to the challenge of ontological reductionism by offering competing accounts in the metaphysics of sciences. The third section shows that the reductionist's metaphysical argument is actually invalid, and that the third type of emergence is possible after all. The article also notes the resources that recent accounts of ‘emergence’ provide for theologically important topics such as the nature of persons or divine action.
Going Public: Feminist Epistemologies, Hannah Arendt, and the Science‐ and‐ Religion Discourse
Authors: Stenmark Lisa L. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article proposes a model of the science-and-religion discourse (SRD) as a ‘public’ discourse, a model that incorporates the insights of feminist epistemologies. Feminists have rejected objectivism, and have instead proposed an understanding of knowledge as a relationship between the knower and that which is known – a relational epistemology – and between the knower and society: a ‘situated knower’. The second part discusses the implications of this perspective for the SRD. It argues that, to the extent that people seek agreement between science and religion, the objectivist notions of knowledge in the SRD may actually impede discourse, for these concepts are embedded in a world-view in which either science or religion must be subordinated to the other. It concludes by offering a model of discourse based on the thought of Hannah Arendt.
Feminist Perspectives in Medicine and Bioethics
Authors: Pederson Ann 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
For the last forty years or so, the dialogue between religion and science has wrestled with questions of meaning and purpose about human life. We wonder: Who are we? Where are we going? And why are we here? This article emphasizes ethical concerns and feminist insights. Everyone is embedded in multiple stories: familial, cultural, social, political, economic, and religious. People tell stories that are evolutionary and religious in their epic scale. Much of Christian theology has also reinforced this anthropocentric view that the natural world is valued only as a backdrop for humans on centre stage. The science-and-religion dialogue does not exist apart from the embodiment of its participants. In the end, the dialogue will make a difference only when and if it begins from the experiences of those on the margins and edges.
Environmental Ethics and Religion/Science
Authors: Rolston Holmes 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
Earth is proving to be a remarkable planet, and humans have deep roots in and entwined destinies with this wonderland Earth. Simultaneously, however, humans are remarkable on this remarkable planet, a wonder on wonderland Earth. But the foreboding challenge is that these spectacular humans, the sole moral agents on Earth, now jeopardize both themselves and their planet. Science and religion are equally needed, and strained, to bring salvation, to keep life on Earth sustainable. In the midst of its struggles, life has been ever ‘conserved’, as biologists find; life has been perpetually ‘redeemed’, as theologians find. This article holds that science and religion join to celebrate this saga of life, perennially generated and regenerated on this planet.
Relations Between Homo Sapiens and Other Animals: Scientific and Religious Arguments
Authors: Howell Nancy R. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract
This article contends that science and theology in dialogue recommend a nuanced understanding of both similarity and difference in the relationship of Homo sapiens to other animals. It begins by identifying anthropomorphism, the projection of human traits onto animals, as a pivotal issue around which scientists debate human uniqueness and the relationship of humans to other animals. Similarly, the article reviews the historical anthropocentric focus of Christian theology, Finally, it concludes with concrete proposals to shift the anthropocentric focus of theology by adopting updated science to inform Christian thought and emphasizing some existing theological options.
Disturbance indicators and population decline of logged species in Mt. Elgon Forest, Kenya
Authors: Hitimana Joseph , Kiyiapi James , Njunge Joseph , Bargerei Rosemary 
Published: October 2009

AbstractMount (Mt) Elgon forest in western Kenya is important for biodiversity, environmental protection and socio‐economic development. Characterizing forest conditions is essential for evaluation of sustainable management and conservation activities. This paper covers findings of a study which determined and analysed indicators useful in monitoring disturbance levels in the Mt Elgon Forest. A systematic survey was carried out and covered 305 plots of 0.02 ha and 250 smaller nested regeneration plots along 10 belt transects that were distributed in five blocks within the moist lower montane forest type. Collected and analysed data include types of disturbance, tree species composition, abundance and logged species. Correlation breakdown among disturbance types revealed that, paths were indicators of the number of tree harvesting sites (rs =1.00, P < 0.01) and of de‐vegetated areas through grass harvesting (rs = 0.90, P = 0.04). Solanum mauritianum Scop. was an indicator of old‐charcoal production sites. Logging targeted 13 tree species and harvested trees with diameter at breast height above 20 cm. The most exploited species were Olea capensis L. and Deinbolia kilimandscharica Taub. All exploited species had low regeneration but tree regeneration was not an effective indicator of logging.