On 9 November 2013, the present author presented a talk “Science vs. Religion: Can This Marriage Be Saved?” at a symposium on science and religion held in Provo, Utah. The full paper version of Bailey’s talk is available here and is slated to appear in an upcoming publication of the Interpreter Foundation. A synopsis of this talk is given in the previous blog on this site.
At the request of the meeting organizers, Bailey has written an additional paper, Twenty Questions about Science and Religion. It is also slated to appear in an upcoming publication of the Interpreter Foundation. This paper is targeted to an LDS audience, although the majority of the material in the paper deals with issues universal to all Judeo-Christian denominations.
This paper addresses these specific questions:
- Does modern science refute religion? Does science have all the answers?
- Does modern science repudiate miracles?
- How old is the Earth? How old are the geologic ages?
- How reliable are these geologic dates?
- Since there are potential difficulties with radiocarbon dating, doesn’t this draw into question scientists’ dating of geologic eras?
- How can we reconcile geologic dates with scripture?
- Isn’t evolution just a “theory”?
- Does the Second Law of Thermodynamics contradict the theory of evolution?
- Aren’t there gaps in the fossil record that disprove evolution?
- What does DNA evidence say about evolution?
- Doesn’t probability refute evolution?
- Does “irreducible complexity” pose a serious challenge to evolutionary theory?
- Can evolution generate truly novel biological features?
- Is there evidence that species (including humans) have been individually designed?
- Did God employ evolution for the physical creation?
- What have religious leaders said about evolution?
- What is the evidence for the big bang cosmology?
- What are the “cosmic coincidences”?
- Is the fine-tuning of the universe evidence for God?
- Is science the best approach to religious faith?
The full paper is available here.