FINOCCHIARO 2012 the Copernican Revolution and the Galileo Affair
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THE BLACKWELL COMPANION TO SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY Edited by J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication This edition fi rst published 2012 © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientifi c, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Offi ce John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offi ces 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offi ces, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett to be identifi ed as the authors of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Blackwell companion to science and Christianity / edited by J.B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4443-3571-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Religion and science. I. Stump, J. B. II. Padgett, Alan G., 1955– III. Title: Companion to science and Christianity. BL240.3.B62 2012 261.5'5--dc23 2011050474 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10 on 12 pt Dante by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited 1 2012 Contents Acknowledgments ix Notes on Contributors x Introduction xviii J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett Part I Historical Episodes 1 1 Early Christian Belief in Creation and the Beliefs Sustaining the Modern Scientifi c Endeavor 3 Christopher B. Kaiser 2 The Copernican Revolution and the Galileo Affair 14 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 3 Women, Mechanical Science, and God in the Early Modern Period 26 Jacqueline Broad 4 Christian Responses to Darwinism in the Late Nineteenth Century 37 Peter J. Bowler 5 Science Falsely So Called: Fundamentalism and Science 48 Edward B. Davis Part II Methodology 61 6 How to Relate Christian Faith and Science 63 Mikael Stenmark 7 Authority 74 Nicholas Rescher 8 Feminist Philosophies of Science: Towards a Prophetic Epistemology 82 Lisa L. Stenmark 9 Practical Objectivity: Keeping Natural Science Natural 93 Alan G. Padgett 10 The Evolutionary Argument against Naturalism 103 Alvin Plantinga vi CONTENTS Part III Natural Theology 117 11 Arguments to God from the Observable Universe 119 Richard Swinburne 12 “God of the Gaps” Arguments 130 Gregory E. Ganssle 13 Natural Theology after Modernism 140 J. B. Stump 14 Religious Epistemology Personifi ed: God without Natural Theology 151 Paul K. Moser 15 Problems for Christian Natural Theology 162 Alexander R. Pruss and Richard M. Gale Part IV Cosmology and Physics 173 16 Modern Cosmology and Christian Theology 175 Stephen M. Barr 17 Does the Universe Need God? 185 Sean Carroll 18 Does God Love the Multiverse? 198 Don N. Page 19 The Fine-Tuning of the Cosmos: A Fresh Look at Its Implications 207 Robin Collins 20 Quantum Theory and Theology 220 Rodney D. Holder Part V Evolution 231 21 Creation and Evolution 233 Denis R. Alexander 22 Darwinism and Atheism: A Marriage Made in Heaven? 246 Michael Ruse 23 Creation and Evolutionary Convergence 258 Simon Conway Morris 24 Signature in the Cell: Intelligent Design and the DNA Enigma 270 Stephen C. Meyer 25 Darwin and Intelligent Design 283 Francisco J. Ayala 26 Christianity and Human Evolution 295 John F. Haught 27 Christian Theism and Life on Earth 306 Paul Draper Part VI The Human Sciences 317 28 Toward a Cognitive Science of Christianity 319 Justin L. Barrett CONTENTS vii 29 The Third Wound: Has Psychology Banished the Ghost from the Machine? 335 Dylan Evans 30 Sociology and Christianity 344 John H. Evans and Michael S. Evans 31 Economics and Christian Faith 356 Robin J. Klay Part VII Christian Bioethics 369 32 Shaping Human Life at the Molecular Level 371 James C. Peterson 33 An Inclusive Framework for Stem Cell Research 381 John F. Kilner 34 The Problem of Transhumanism in the Light of Philosophy and Theology 393 Philippe Gagnon 35 Ecology and the Environment 406 Lisa H. Sideris Part VIII Metaphysical Implications 419 36 Free Will and Rational Choice 421 E. J. Lowe 37 Science, Religion, and Infi nity 430 Graham Oppy 38 God and Abstract Objects 441 William Lane Craig 39 Laws of Nature 453 Lydia Jaeger Part IX The Mind 465 40 Christianity, Neuroscience, and Dualism 467 J. P. Moreland 41 The Emergence of Persons 480 William Hasker 42 Christianity and the Extended-Mind Thesis 491 Lynne Rudder Baker 43 In Whose Image? Artifi cial Intelligence and the Imago Dei 500 Noreen Herzfeld 44 How Science Lost Its Soul, and Religion Handed It Back 510 Julian Baggini Part X Theology 521 45 The Trinity and Scientifi c Reality 523 John Polkinghorne viii CONTENTS 46 God and Miracle in an Age of Science 533 Alan G. Padgett 47 Eschatology in Science and Theology 543 Robert John Russell 48 The Quest for Transcendence in Theology and Cosmology 554 Alexei V. Nesteruk Part XI Signifi cant Figures of the Twentieth Century in Science and Christianity 565 49 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 567 James F. Salmon 50 Thomas F. Torrance 578 Tapio Luoma 51 Arthur Peacocke 589 Taede A. Smedes 52 Ian G. Barbour 600 Nathan J. Hallanger 53 Wolfhart Pannenberg 611 Hans Schwarz 54 John Polkinghorne 622 Christopher C. Knight Index 632 2 The Copernican Revolution and the Galileo Affair MAURICE A. FINOCCHIARO The condemnation of Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) by the Inquisition in 1633 is perhaps the most signifi cant episode in the long history of the interaction between science and Christian- ity. One reason is that the trial ’ s key intellectual issue (whether the earth is a planet revolving around the sun) was identical to the key issue of what is clearly the most important episode in the history of science – the Copernican Revolution. Another reason is that the victim hap- pened to make numerous and epoch - making contributions to physics and astronomy, so much so that he is often called the father of modern science. A third reason is that the 1633 condemnation was a cause c é l è bre that continues to be a defi ning moment of modern Western culture. Thus, to understand this signifi cance we need to delve into the Copernican Revolu- tion, the Inquisition trial proceedings, and the key points of the subsequent affair. The Copernican Controversy In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) published his epoch - making On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Copernicus 1992 ). In it, he updated an idea originally advanced by the Pythagoreans and Aristarchus in ancient Greece, but almost universally rejected: the earth moves by rotating on its own axis daily and revolving around the sun once a year. This con- tradicted the traditional belief that the earth was standing still at the center of the universe, with all heavenly bodies revolving around it. In its essentials, this geokinetic idea turned out to be true, as we know today beyond any reasonable doubt, after fi ve centuries of accumulat- ing evidence. At the time, however, the situation was different (Kuhn 1957 ; Finocchiaro 2010 , 21 – 36). Copernicus ’ s accomplishment was a new argument supporting an old idea: he demon- strated in quantitative detail that the known facts about the motions of the heavenly bodies could be explained more simply and coherently if the sun rather than the earth is assumed to be motionless at the center, and the earth is taken to be the third planet circling the sun. For example, from the viewpoint of simplicity, there are thousands fewer moving parts in the The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity, First Edition. Edited by J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION AND THE GALILEO AFFAIR 15 Copernican system than in the geostatic system, since the apparent daily westward motion of all heavenly bodies around the earth is explained by the earth ’ s daily eastward axial rota- tion, and thus there is only one body rotating daily, not thousands. Regarding explanatory coherence, this concept means the ability to explain many details of the observed phenomena by means of one ’ s basic principles, without adding ad hoc assumptions.