- Ian G. Barbour, Issues in Science and Religion (Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1966), 138. - Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy
of Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). See also J. P.
Moreland, Christianity and the Nature of Science (Grand Rapids, IL: Baker
Books, 1989). - Moreland and Craig list fi ve core tenets of scientifi c realism and summarize
it like this: “Science involves some form of the correspondence theory of
truth: A theory is true if and only if what it says about the world is in fact
the way the world is” (J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical
Foundations for a Christian Worldview , [Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity
Press, 2003], 328). Later they go on to say that “the defense or rebuttal of
scientifi c realism illustrates the fact that the philosophy of science is presup-
positional to science itself. That is, the question of how we should under-
stand the existence claims of a given scientifi c theory will be answered, in
part, by one’s attitude toward scientifi c realism, and one’s attitude about
this will, in turn, be justifi ed largely in philosophical terms” (Ibid., 332). - Introduced by geologist Charles Lyell in the mid-1800s, the principle of
Uniformitarianism posits that the physical processes that occurred in the
past are still in action today and are occurring at the same rates. This idea
directly opposes the principle of Catastrophism championed in the early
1800s by paleontologist Georges Cuvier, a view still advocated by some
young earth creationists. Mainstream scientifi c conclusions about historical
science depend on uniformitarianism assumptions. In attempting to relate
science and theology, some theologians like Amos Yong (Amos Yong,
Spirit and Creation: Modern Science and Divine Action in the Pentecostal-
Charismatic Imagination [Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2011],
127 ff) and scientists like Robert John Russell (Robert John Russell,
Willam R. Stoeger, S.J. and Francisco J. Ayala, eds. Evolutionary and
Molecular Biology: Scientifi c Perspectives on Divine Action [Vatican City
State: Vatican Observatory Publications; Berkeley, CA: Center for
Theology and Natural Sciences, 1998], 151–162) posit modifi cations to
uniformitarianism that allow for the emergence of novel natural laws and
complexity. - Craig E. Nelson, “On the Persistence of Unicorns: The Tradeoff Between
Content and Critical Thinking Revisited,” in The Social Worlds of Higher
Education: Handbook For Teaching in a New Century , ed. Bernice
Pescosolido and Ronald Aminzade (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge
Press, 1999). - Nancy R. Pearcey and Charles B. Thaxton, The Soul of Science: Christian
Faith and Natural Philosophy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994).
292 M. TENNESON ET AL.