Stephen M. Barr

Catholic theology has never really had a quarrel with the idea that the present species of plants and animals are the result of a long process of evolution”or with the idea that this process has unfolded according to natural laws. As the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia put it, these ideas seem to . . . . Continue Reading »

Science and the Trinity: the Christian Encounter with Reality by John Polkinghorne Yale University Press. 208 pp. $24. The story of science and religion since the Middle Ages has been one of estrangement rather than conflict. When the Aristotelian synthesis shattered, science and theology drifted . . . . Continue Reading »

A Devil’s Chaplain is a collection of essays book reviews, forwards, eulogies, and assorted “tirades and reflections” selected by Richard Dawkins from his work of the past twenty-five years. It is a miscellany that touches on postmodernism, the jury system, New Age superstitions, the late . . . . Continue Reading »

Galileo in Rome:  The Rise and Fall of the Troublesome Geniusby William R. Shea and Marliano Artigas.Oxford University Press. 211 pp. $20 Galileo's Mistake: A New Look at the Epic Confrontation Between Galileo and the Churchby Wade  Rowland.Arcade. 298 pp. $26.95 For centuries the . . . . 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 »

Jeffrey 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 »

It is of course the case that only God knows what will happen in the next century and the next millennium. But we human beings are created with an irrepressible disposition toward the future, as well as a capacity to recall the past. In the last year we published a “millennium series” of . . . . Continue Reading »

Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder.By Richard Dawkins.Houghton Mifflin.  337 pp. $26.In 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 . . . . Continue Reading »