By NEW ZEALAND RELIGIOUS SCIENTISTS
Added: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:00:00 UTC

We note Professor Richard Dawkins is speaking as part of the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week. We write as professional scientists and others who hold positions in academic fields relevant to the content of this statement. We are grateful to Richard Dawkins for contributing to the ongoing public dialogue about the truth claims of religious faith as they interact with those of contemporary science.

Richard Dawkins’ views enjoy popularity. However, they are significantly flawed, both with regard to his dismissal of religion and with regard to his exclusive insistence that science is competent to adjudicate on all matters. These views do disservice to both science and religion. The public damage is great, encouraging unwarranted scepticism about science and its perceived agenda as it does of religion.

Scientific knowledge is only provisional. To claim science can address the ultimate questions of existence is just as much a faith stance as that of religion. Yet, Richard Dawkins maintains that religion is an old and dangerous obscurantism and that science properly requires atheism. However, many able scientists trust in the methodologies and corrigible findings of science, as well as in the reasoned insights provided by religious faith. Many scientists see each sphere as mutually informing the other. One-time atheist, Dr Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is but one example of many.

It is our assertion that faith is critically informed by fact. Many of the claims of religion are underpinned by various scientific disciplines – the central claim that all things known and unknown in our Universe originate from the purposive actions of a Creator is, we believe, totally consistent with what we know about the Universe. Modern science has revealed a physical and biological universe which is profoundly complex and unexpectedly improbable. The fact that it is structured and fecund where one might expect chaos serves only to confirm and strengthen the faith position adopted by so many.
It is well-accepted that science, like religion, entails profound personal commitments. Commitments, in both science and religion, are open to refinement and must be treated critically. However, this attitude implies that the insights of religious commitment cannot and should not be ruled out a priori.

Indeed, Richard Dawkins evidences strong personal commitment. That is his prerogative. However, he has no scientific justification for the assumption that his atheism is unquestionably correct and that his is the only intelligent, enlightened view of the matter.
We affirm our commitment to both scientific and religious knowledge and contend, against Professor Dawkins' scientism, that both scientific and religious knowledge are intelligible, mutually informing, life-promoting, and of great public benefit.

Endorsed by:
Neil D. Broom FRSNZ BE Met (Melbourne) PhD (Auckland) biomaterials scientist

Sean Devine MSc (Canterbury) PhD (Canterbury) physicist

Graeme Finlay BTh MSc PhD cell biologist, scientific pathologist

Jonathan Gauntlett PhD (Otago) molecular microbiologist

Grant Gillett FRAC MA MB ChB (Auckland) D Phil (Oxford) philosopher, neurosurgeon

Dennis P. Gordon FLS BSc MSc Hons (Auckland) PhD (Dalhousie, Canada) zoologist

Myk Habets BMin, MTh (Merit) Grad Dip Tert Tchg PhD (Otago) theologian

Nicola Hoggard Creegan BA Hons (Victoria) MATS (Gordon Conwell; Massachusetts) MPhil and PhD (Drew; New Jersey) theologian, mathematician

Carolyn King D.Phil (Oxford, Zoology), PhD (Waikato, Philosophy), biologist and theologian

Associate Professor Peter Lineham BA and MA Hons (Canterbury) BD (Otago) D Phil (Sussex) historian

Associate Professor Andrew Shelling BPhEd BSc (Hons) PhD human geneticist

Richard Storey B.Sc. and M.Sc. (Auckland) PhD (Toronto), freshwater biologist

Jeff Tallon CNZM FRSNZ PhD DSc (Victoria) physicist; winner of the Rutherford Medal 2002

Michael Uddstrom PhD (Canterbury) physicist, meteorologist

TAGGED: IRRATIONALITY, RELIGION, SCIENCE