Science and Religion: The War That Wasn’t

In tomorrow’s Washington Post, geologist Alan Cutler writes:

[T]he idea that conflict between science and religion is inevitable is deeply
entrenched in our popular culture. Many journalists, as well as scientists, who
write for the public take it as a given.  They depict the religious orthodoxy as
historically bent on squelching reason and scientific inquiry in a desperate
effort to protect bankrupt dogmas.  Partisans of religion have their own version,
in which science is the aggressor.

But the case for this "warfare thesis," as historians call it, was
discredited decades ago.  It had already largely crumbled when I was reading my
childhood science books.  "I do not know one historian who believes that there is
a history of warfare between science and Christianity," says William Ashworth,
historian of science at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.