Dr Paul Allen

One of the most common ways of looking at the relationship between science and faith is the conflict thesis, which posits an inherent conflict between science and religion. The conflict thesis was popularized in the nineteenth century by John William Draper and by Andrew Dickson White . Despite the acknowledged poor scholarship underlying these works, the conflict thesis has persisted among both believers and unbelievers. Today, some scientists, including Peter Atkins , Daniel Dennett , and Richard Dawkins , are asserting that there should no longer be any conflict because science has shown us either that God does not exist or that God almost certainly does not exist. Not all scientists adhere to the conflict thesis. There are believing scientists such as Francis Collins and John Polkinghorne who argue that science and faith are complementary. Others, such as the atheist Steven Jay Gould , argue that science and faith may coexist because they deal with completely separate subject m...