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Many people assume ceaseless conflict between natural science and Christianity, but the real conflict has been between scientism and Christianity. Scientism is the view that only the sciences (especially not theology) generate knowledge or rational belief. I show how Christianity generated rational beliefs that contributed to the rise of science. This science-fostering rational belief included rationales for when to practice methodological naturalism, and when to study nature without that restriction. Both practices cultivated science, though in different ways. This historical difference is of enduring value for recent debates about metaphysical naturalism (atheism), creationism, theistic evolution, and intelligent design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), a leading world evangelist at the turn of the twentieth century, played a prominent role in the emergence of fundamentalism, which aimed to defend Christianity against liberalism. The writers of The Fundamentals (1910-1915), including Torrey, proposed harmony between science and Christianity by accepting the standard geological ages and by offering some criticisms of Darwinism. Torrey advanced the work of The Fundamentals beyond 1915 through the monthly periodical of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, The King's Business (1910-1970). Although Torrey offered occasional criticism of Darwinism in The King's Business and his other publications, he urged evangelicals and fundamentalists to focus on biblical inerrancy and a repudiation of naturalism more broadly. There is much to be emulated from early fundamentalism before it flung itself into the humiliation of the 1925 Scopes trial--a disastrous move that Torrey did not support. R. A. Torrey is worth remembering in 2010, the centennial year of The Fundamentals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people assume that there has been ceaseless conflict between science and Christianity. I argue that the real conflict has been between scientism and religion. Scientism is the view that only the sciences generate knowledge or rational belief. Scientism, as typically articulated, entails the opinion that reliable belief about divinity (theological realism) is impossible. I debunk four historic science–Christianity conflict myths and show how they have promoted scientism. These four science–religion myths function as part of a larger warfare narrative about science and Christianity. This misleading warfare thesis often comes packaged with an alternative anti-theistic "myth" in the anthropological sense—in this case, a worldview-shaping narrative that awakens the imagination to interpret the world in scientistic and non-theistic ways. I call this the scientistic warfare myth and explore its major flaws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]