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Content: Perhaps partsof science are like that. The size
and shape of the earth and its distance from the sun, the periodic
table of the elements, the proof of the Pythagorean Theorem--these
are all in a reasonable sense religiously neutral. But many other
areas of science are very different. They are obviously and deeply
involved in a clash between opposed religious world views. There
is no neat recipe for telling which parts of science are neutral
with respect to this contest and which are not; what we have is
a continuum rather than a simple distinction. But here is a rough
rule of thumb: the relevance of a bit of science to this contest
depends upon how closely that bit is involved in the attempt to
come to understand ourselves as human beings. Perhaps there is
another variable: how "theoretical" the bit in question
is, in the sense of being directed at understanding, as opposed
to control.