Is science compatible with religious faith? Does science rule out the existence of a personal God? After Darwin, can anyone honestly believe in divine providence? Do miracles really happen? Was the universe created or did it “just happen”? Isn’t life reducible to chemistry? Is your mind anything more than your brain? Can’t science now explain morality, and can’t we be good without God? Are human beings special in the vast universe? Is there life after death? This book lays out three distinct ways in which people who have been exposed to science are now responding to the questions just listed. The first kind of response claims that scientific method and discoveries now make religious faith and theology obsolete. Representatives of this “Conflict” approach include the so-called New Atheists (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens) who claim that modern science makes the existence of God inconceivable for reasonable people. A second kind of response (“Contrast”) insists that science and faith are each concerned with completely different sets of questions, and so it makes no sense to place them in competition or conflict with each other. A third approach (“Convergence”) seeks a synthesis in which both science and faith keep their respective identities while still relating closely to each other in a shared pursuit of meaning and truth. This approach proposes that science and faith, as long as they are not confused with each other, can together contribute to a richer view of reality than either can achieve on its own. Highlights: • Provides a tidy and readable outline of the main questions raised by the natural sciences for many people today • Appeals to a wide audience including skeptics, agnostics, atheists and people of faith in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam • Written in a concise and readable style for students, scientists, educated lay people, teachers, scholars, book groups, evolutionary biology, and cosmology † John Haught has managed to create an imaginary, provocative dialogue where several spokespersons argue either for or against different positions about science and faith whether there exists conflict, contrast or convergence between them. His book represents a masterly summary of sophisticated debates in very accessible form. It opens one s eyes to the complex depths of reality and convincingly proves that there is still plenty of room for theology in an age of science. But it also shows that now, when we are faced with an immense evolutionary journey that is still going on and full of promise, theology requires fresh expression in the light of transformative scientific knowledge. Readers are invited to become participants in the ongoing dialogue and will enjoy the lively debates and critical reflections offered here. Full of strong arguments, helpful explanations and wise guidance, this inspiring book will be of enormous benefit to college students and anyone trying to work out their own answers to deeply troubling questions about science and faith in a fast changing world. --Ursula King, Institute for Advanced Studies University of Bristol, England During the last couple of centuries...we entered an explosion of knowledge unprecedented in two hundred thousand years of human existence, giving rise to questions regarding its larger significance, especially with respect to more traditional understanding, such as theology. This questioning will occupy all of the twenty-first century, and will include any number of mistaken hypotheses and disappointing dead ends, many of the argued with the extremes of passion always present when matters of ultimate concern are debated. In the midst of this fray, we have the work of John Haught. For anyone interested in entering this ongoing and vital conversation between science and theology, there is not better gateway than his Science and Faith: An New Introduction. --Brian Thomas Swimme, Professor of evolutionary cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies John Haught s new book is a marvelous introduction to the contemporary dialogue between science and religious faith. This engaging, stimulating, fresh, and profound book will be widely used in college courses and by ordinary Christians seeking answers to the important questions we face in the twenty-first century. --Denis Edwards, Flinders University, Australia John Haught is Senior Fellow, Science & Religion at Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University. He has authored eighteen books and numerous articles and reviews. He lectures internationally on issues related to science and religion. Science and Faith: A New Introduction