{"id":4381,"date":"2014-04-17T08:48:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T07:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/?p=4381"},"modified":"2014-05-08T17:38:16","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T16:38:16","slug":"the-unhealthy-synergy-between-methodological-naturalism-and-accommodationism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/the-unhealthy-synergy-between-methodological-naturalism-and-accommodationism\/","title":{"rendered":"The unhealthy synergy between methodological naturalism and accommodationism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many critics of Intelligent Design and creationism are methodological naturalists \u2013 that is, they believe that supernatural topics are off-limits to science, and that science is inherently unable to pass judgment on religious claims.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Many of these same critics are also accommodationists, meaning they believe that there is no real conflict between science and religion, and that believers should not feel threatened by evolution or any other area of modern science.<\/p>\n<p>Methodological naturalism and accommodationism reinforce each other.\u00a0 By separating science and religion into \u201cnon-overlapping magisteria\u201d, to borrow Stephen Jay Gould\u2019s phrase, each side is reassured that its own \u201cturf\u201d is protected from the other.\u00a0 Science classes are off-limits to religious ideas, and the faithful can rest assured that science will not overturn their cherished beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>I think that methodological naturalism and accommodationism are both untenable.\u00a0 Religious claims, such as those regarding young-earth creationism and the efficacy of prayer, can easily be investigated (and falsified) using the methods of science, provided that they make testable predictions.<\/p>\n<p>The magisteria are not separate.\u00a0 They overlap considerably, and in the areas of overlap, science has the formidable advantage of being both rational and empirical, and not faith-based.<\/p>\n<p>Religion is fighting a losing battle. It is giving up ground as science advances.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many critics of Intelligent Design and creationism are methodological naturalists \u2013 that is, they believe that supernatural topics are off-limits to science, and that science is inherently unable to pass judgment on religious claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,12,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy","category-philosophy-of-science","category-theism-and-atheism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}