Overview
In this lively and often surprising study, Dr Chapman examines popular misunderstandings about key events in the history of science-faith relations. He covers the major episodes such as Galileo's trial, the Wilberforce-Huxley debate and the Scopes trial of 1925, but also looks further back through the medieval period to the Classical age, revealing how these events have acquired mythical and misleading status. He exposes the facts that have been forgotten and the contemporary opinions that have been supplanted by modern propaganda.
Full Product Details
Author: Dr Allan Chapman
Publisher: SPCK Publishing
Imprint: Lion Books
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Width: 13.80cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.322kg
ISBN: 9780745955834
ISBN 10: 0745955835
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 15 February 2013
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order 
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Table of Contents
"Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6 1 MYTHS, MONOTHEISM, AND THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN SCIENCE 9 2 THE ORIGINS OF UNBELIEF Part 1: Ancients and Early Moderns 24 THE POPULAR MYTH THAT ATHEISM IS NEW 24 CLASSICAL AND MEDIEVAL UNBELIEF 26 THOMAS HOBBES, MATERIALISM, AND MAN THE MACHINE 31 ATHEISTS, DEISTS, AND UNBELIEVERS 37 3 THE ORIGINS OF UNBELIEF Part 2: Dreams of a Brave New World 43 ROMANTIC AND REVOLUTIONARY ATHEISM 43 ROBERT OWEN, GEORGE HOLYOAKE, AND THE VICTORIAN SECULAR ATHEISTS 50 THE MYTH THAT SIMPLE FAITH WAS DESTROYED BY DARWIN IN 1859 56 4 THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF ANTI-CHRISTIANITY Part 1: Two Persistent Myths 57 THE MYTH OF THE MEDIEVAL ""DARK AGE"" 57 THE MYTH OF THE ""ENLIGHTENMENT"" 65 5 THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF ANTI-CHRISTIANITY Part 2: Myths of Changing Circumstances 75 THE PROBLEM OF ETERNAL DAMNATION 75 BIBLICAL CRITICISM, ""MYTH"", AND EARLY BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 79 NATIONALISTIC CHRISTIANITY 89 THE GROWTH AND POWER OF SCIENCE 92 6 SOME POPULAR MYTHS ABOUT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 94 CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE IN ""CONFLICT"": TWO NINETEENTHCENTURY AMERICAN ""ATHEISTS"" 94 ALL CHRISTIANS ARE REALLY BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISTS 98 THE CHURCH HAS ALWAYS PERSECUTED SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS 100 RELIGION CAUSES THE WORLD’S TROUBLES: ONLY SECULARISM CAN BRING PEACE 107 7 MONKEYING AROUND WITH HISTORY: THE MYTH OF THE BIG 1860 ""OXFORD DEBATE"" ON EVOLUTION 113 8 THE MYTH OF THE YOUNG EARTH AND THE ORIGINS OF EVOLUTIONARY IDEAS 121 DATING THE CREATION 121 THE ORIGINS OF LIFE: PRE-DARWINIAN IDEAS OF ""EVOLUTION"" 130 9 CHARLES DARWIN: MONKEY, MAN, AND MYTH 136 10 COUNTERING THE ""BIG LIE"" 149 WHY IS NATURE CONGRUENT? 149 WHY DO HUMANS RESPOND SO POSITIVELY TO BEAUTY AND ELEGANCE? 151 SCIENCE DESCRIBES EFFECTS, RELIGION TALKS OF CAUSES AND PURPOSES 156 11 DOES SCIENCE CHALLENGE RELIGION? THE GREAT ATHEIST MYTH 160 LACK OF NEW SECULARIST IDEAS 160 WHY HAS RELIGION FAILED TO DIE AWAY? 166 ARE ATHEISM AND SECULARISM MORE SUPERSTITIOUS THAN CHRISTIANITY? 169 DOUBTING SCEPTICISM 173 SEDUCTION BY REDUCTION 176 12 THE AGE THAT LOST ITS NERVE: THE DILEMMA OF CHRISTENDOM IN THE MODERN WORLD Part 1: Myths and Mechanisms 180 THE MYTH OF A SECULAR SOCIETY 182 FORCED TO ACT: MECHANISM AND EVOLUTIONARY AND NEUROLOGICAL DETERMINISM 186 THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE EXPLANATIONS, AND THEIR EXPLOITATION BY SECULARIST MYTH-MAKERS 194 13 THE AGE THAT LOST ITS NERVE: THE DILEMMA OF CHRISTENDOM IN THE MODERN WORLD Part 2: The Myth of Secular Transcendence 204 THE MYTH OF HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY 205"
Reviews
The dragons of the title are the myths, half-truths and downright untruths that have ... distorted strongly the Science-Religion debate. The author attacks these dragons with the passion of a latter-day St George and in a book that is forthright, clear, readable, convincing and sometimes humorous, he sets the record straight. -- John Bryant, Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter. A very enjoyable and instructive read. -- Keith Ward, Fellow of the British Academy and Professional Research Fellow at Heythrop College, London. From an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject matter, Dr Allan Chapman systematically exposes the multiple myths and flagrant falsehoods propagated by the so-called `New Atheists'. -- The Revd Dr Rodney D. Holder, The Faraday Institute, Cambridge Allan Chapman offers a robust and highly readable response to the 'not-so-New' Atheism. -- Edmund Newell, Christ Church, Oxford This is a fascinating, timely and highly accessible study ... after reading this book, no-one can doubt that the supposed clash of science and religion has been greatly distorted. -- John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford An excellent section on popular myths on science and religion. -- Bookshelf * War Cry * Chapman is a committed Christian and a first-class historian of science.This book will appeal to Christians and Athiests alike. The Christians will nod sagaciously, time and again in agreement. The Atheists, new and old, will at least realise some of the huge problems they are up against -- David W Hughes * The Observatory Magazine * `After an absorbing analysis of popular myths about science and religion, Chapman confronts the lie that science and Christianity are inherently in conflict.' -- Paul Valler * Christianity *
The dragons of the title are the myths, half-truths and downright untruths that have ... distorted strongly the Science-Religion debate. The author attacks these dragons with the passion of a latter-day St George and in a book that is forthright, clear, readable, convincing and sometimes humorous, he sets the record straight. -- John Bryant, Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter. A very enjoyable and instructive read. -- Keith Ward, Fellow of the British Academy and Professional Research Fellow at Heythrop College, London. From an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject matter, Dr Allan Chapman systematically exposes the multiple myths and flagrant falsehoods propagated by the so-called 'New Atheists'. -- The Revd Dr Rodney D. Holder, The Faraday Institute, Cambridge Allan Chapman offers a robust and highly readable response to the 'not-so-New' Atheism. -- Edmund Newell, Christ Church, Oxford This is a fascinating, timely and highly accessible study ... after reading this book, no-one can doubt that the supposed clash of science and religion has been greatly distorted. -- John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford
Author Information
Dr Allan Chapman is a historian of science at Oxford University, with special interests in the history of astronomy and of medicine and the relationship between science and Christianity. As well as University teaching, he lectures widely, has written a dozen books and numerous academic articles, and written and presented two TV series, Gods in the Sky and Great Scientists, besides taking part in many other history of science TVdocumentaries and in The Sky at Night with Sir Patrick Moore. He has received honorary doctorates and awards from the Universities of Central Lancashire, Salford, and Lancaster, and in 2015 was presented with the Jackson-Gwilt Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. Among his books are Slaying the Dragons. Destroying Myths in the History of Science and Faith (Lion Hudson, 2013), Stargazers: Copernicus, Galileo, the Telescope,and the Church. The Astronomical Renaissance, 1500-1700 (Lion, 2014), and Physicians, Plagues, and Progress. The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics (Lion, 2016). He is also the author of thescientific biographies England's Leonardo. Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution (Institute of Physics, 2005), Mary Somerville and the World of Science (Canopus, 2004; Springer, 2015), and The Victorian Amateur Astronomer. Independent Astronomical Research in Britain, 1820-1920 (Wiley-Praxis, 1998; revised edn. Gracewing, 2017).
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