Thread by @AlisonBlunt

Religion and the New Science - re-listening to this fascinating audio series by David Cayley 💫

https://twitter.com/AlisonBlunt/status/1003030178270973953

davidcayley.com/podcasts/2017/…

A) Quoting from part 3, David Cayley, "God and nature were separate categories, the one the province of religion, the other the province of science. How this came to be is a story which goes back to the very origins of what we called modern science .." ..

B) DC, .."to the days of Galileo and Newton, when science was trying to get free of the authority of theology. The result was a kind of informal arrangement tht science would investigate the mechanism of nature, theology our relationship with God. This left humanity torn."

C) DC, "On the one hand, we were a part of nature. On the other, we had a divine destiny. The break was not absolute, but it was progressive. For as science kept increasing its ability to explain nature in purely mechanical terms, so Christianity was forced to retreat .." ..

D) DC, .."to the margins where it told a purely supernatural tale of our fall and redemption. This process can be traced out in the field of cosmology. Toda, we use the term to describe the study of the history of the physical universe, without reference to its meaning."

E) DC, "But once, cosmology meant the study of the universe from the standpoint of its meaning for humanity. Stephen Toulmin is the author of Return to Cosmology."

Stephen Toulin, "Cosmology is concerned not just with the history of workings of nature." ..

F) ST, "Cosmology from the beginning was concerned with the history and workings of nature as a place that human beings live in. It's not just a question of what the structure and history of the universe has been, it's a question of .." ..

G) ST, .."in what respects the structure and history of the universe can be perceived as being the appropriate structure and history for it to be the world into which God placed human beings. Now, traditionally - when I say traditionally, I mean before Descartes -.." ..

H) ST, .." there were a lot of different ways in which one could answer that question. From Descartes on, however, to the extent that natural philosophy became mechanical, there was a split made between nature and humanity, and it was very hard for human affairs.." ..

I) ST, .."to be perceived as part of the world of natural phenomena. And therefore cosmology came to be equated, so to say, with astronomical history, and the other side dropped out."

DC, "The point of tonight's program, as of Stephen Toulmin's book, .." ..

J) DC, .."is to try and demonstrate that today this other side is dropping back in again. This is the result of changes which are now beginning to be evident in branches of both science and Christian theology. In what follows, I'll examine them both, beginning with science."

K) DC, "To understand the changes in science today, it is necessary forst to go back to the 17th century, when Francis Bacon first used the term, 'the new science.' The old science was the science of Aristotle, and it is worth recalling for our purposes here .." ..

L) DC, .."what the fundamentals of this science were."

Quote from part 3, davidcayley.com/podcasts/2017/… first broadcast in 1985