Galileo Goes to Jail

This book is the outcome of a project supported by the John Templeton Foundation and arising out of a meeting in 2007. It is a provocative and stimulating collection designed to refute what the editor regards as the greatest myth of all, namely that science and religion have been in constant conflict, as was originally suggested by two of the most famous books written on the subject in the mid-19th century by A.D White and J.W. Draper. Interestingly, nearly half of the contributors are atheist or agnostic, while the rest range across Christianity and other faiths. Each of the 25 chapters is phrased as a proposition beginning with 'that' - for instance that the mediaeval Christian Church suppressed the growth of science, that Copernicanism demoted humans from in the centre of the cosmos, that Catholics did not contribute to the scientific revolution, that Newton's mechanistic cosmology eliminated the need for God, that Huxley defeated Wilberforce in their debate over evolution and religion, and that quantum physics demonstrated the doctrine of free will. Readers will find themselves reacting differently to the various propositions, but the contributions far extremely well-informed and address a good many contentious questions. There is an extensive bibliography at the back.