Science and Religion 257Harris, who had contended in 1852 that study of the natural world was
“interlinked at every point with the study of the Creator,” had come to
believe by 1883 that “empirical science no more takes cognizance of God
than a mechanic investigating a watch takes cognizance of the man who
made it.”^8
As more and more people conceived of religion and science as different
conceptual entities, the phrase “science and religion”—or variants such as
“science and the Bible” and “science and theology”—came into common
use. Some books and articles assessing the relationship suggested that
“angry confl ict” characterized those relationships. One of the most well-
known expressions of that view appeared in John William Draper’s History
of the Confl ict between Religion and Science (1874). Draper, a physician and
professor of chemistry at New York University whose scholarly interests
had shifted to history in the latter stages of his career, was commissioned
to write the book as a contribution to The International Scientifi c Series
published by Appleton and Company. It proved to be enormously popu-
lar, selling more copies than any other title in the series.^9
Although Draper reifi ed both religion and science, he devoted little
attention to defi ning either term. Possibly because he himself believed
that God presided over a universe pervaded by natural law, he made no
effort to claim that all varieties of religion had been in confl ict with sci-
ence. He praised the Islamic instigators of the “Southern Reformation” for
promoting the development of science and described modern science and
the Protestant Reformation as “twin- sisters.” While concerned that some
Protestants appeared bent on severing the family ties, he expressed the
hope that such “misunderstandings” could be resolved and that a “cordial
union” between Protestantism and science could be restored.^10
Draper’s organizing principle was “the confl ict of two contending
powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the
compression arising from traditionary faith and human interests on the
other.” In illuminating the nature of that confl ict, Draper revealed that
the primary object of his hostility was actually religious authoritarianism.
Although he denounced such despotism when it took the form of bibli-
cism just as vehemently as when it appeared within ecclesiastical struc-
tures, he regarded Roman Catholicism as the primary culprit—“partly
because its adherents compose the majority of Christendom, partly be-
cause its demands are the most pretentious, and partly because it has
commonly sought to enforce those demands by the civil power.” Draper
upbraided the Roman hierarchy for claiming “that blind faith is superior
to reason; that mysteries are of more importance than facts.” His distaste
for Catholicism, born in his Protestant background and nurtured by the