Galileo in Rome: The Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius and Galileo’s Mistake: A New Look at the Epic Confrontation between Galileo and the Church
From the January 2004 Print EditionFor centuries the trial of Galileo (1564-1642) was the stuff of myth: Galileo tortured by the Inquisition; his defiant words after recanting (“ e pur se muove ,” “but it does move”); the infallible Church proclaiming the dogma that the Sun goes round the Earth. None of these . . . . Continue Reading »
We often hear of a conflict between religion and science. Is there one? Certainly, some religious beliefs are scientifically untenable: for example, that the world is six thousand years old. However, for Jews and Christians not committed to a narrowly literalistic interpretation of Scripture, that . . . . Continue Reading »
The Quantum Brain: The Search for Freedom and the Next Generation of Man
From the November 2001 Print EditionJeffrey Satinover has written an audacious book. He believes that he has found, in two great breakthrough ideas, the keys to understanding the human mind. He is not the originator of these ideas, which are the result of the work of many researchers in neuroscience, computer science, and physics; he . . . . Continue Reading »
How important is the human race in the scheme of things? According to the Epistle to Diognetus, a Christian work of the early second century, “God loved the race of men. It was for their sakes that He made the world.” The consensus of later Christian tradition does not go quite that far, . . . . Continue Reading »
On June 26, two teams of scientists announced jointly that they had virtually completed the task of mapping the human genome. The announcement was made at a White House ceremony featuring the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of England, and the heads of the two teams. The . . . . Continue Reading »
A person living in the year 1000 could scarcely have imagined how much we would now understand about the physical world. So forecasting the next millennium in science is certainly rather foolhardy. Looking a century ahead is less unreasonable. After all, some of the most revolutionary insights in . . . . Continue Reading »
Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder
From the August/September 1999 Print EditionIn reading Richard Dawkins I am reminded of an anecdote told by Werner Heisenberg. Heisenberg and several other great physicists were sitting around one evening talking about God and religion. The discussion ended up being dominated by Paul Dirac, who went into a long diatribe declaring religion to . . . . Continue Reading »
Sir John Maddox was for almost a quarter of a century, until 1995, the editor-in-chief of Nature , one of the world’s premier scientific journals. In this ambitious book he attempts nothing less than an overview of what has been discovered about the natural world in the last three centuries, . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s no denying that historically evolution has been harmful to religious faith. It has contributed to undermining confidence in Scripture and to promoting a naturalistic view of man. In our own age, such atheists as Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, and Carl Sagan have . . . . Continue Reading »
The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory by David Chalmers Oxford University Press, 414 pages, $29.95 Physics cannot explain why an apple looks red. This will surprise some people, but it is a fact that can hardly be disputed. Physics does indeed tell us why an apple reflects red light . . . . Continue Reading »
influential
journal of
religion and
public life
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
