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University of California Press
Open Access

Morals Not Knowledge

Recasting the Contemporary U.S. Conflict between Religion and Science

by John H. Evans (Author)
Price: $12.99 / £10.99
Publication Date: Feb 2018
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 238
ISBN: 9780520969780
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 4 tables and 1 color image

About the Book

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

In a time when conservative politicians challenge the irrefutability of scientific findings such as climate change, it is more important than ever to understand the conflict at the heart of the “religion vs. science” debates unfolding in the public sphere. In this groundbreaking work, John H. Evans reveals that, with a few limited exceptions, even the most conservative religious Americans accept science’s ability to make factual claims about the world. However, many religious people take issue with the morality implicitly promoted by some forms of science. Using clear and engaging scholarship, Evans upends the prevailing notion that there is a fundamental conflict over the way that scientists and religious people make claims about nature and argues that only by properly understanding moral conflict between contemporary religion and science will we be able to contribute to a more productive interaction between these two great institutions.

About the Author

John H. Evans is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction
2. The Religion and Science Advocates in the Academic Debate
3. The Academic Analysts of the Relationship Between Religion and Science
4. The Recent Transformation of Elite Academic and Public Debates
5. Existing Research on the Public
6. Empirical Tests of Knowledge and Belief Conflict for the Religious Public
7. Empirical Tests of Moral Conflict for the Religious Public
8. Conclusion

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Reviews

"John H. Evans has written a well-researched, multi-disciplinary text that speaks to our current historical moment. Using the sociology of religion; the history of sociology, science, and science's relationship with religion; and data sets from surveys and in-depth interviews, Evans explores and troubles the alleged 'foundational knowledge conflict' between religion and science."
Metapsychology Online Reviews
"Morals Not Knowledge provides a roadmap for a more constructive dialogue, if not full reconciliation, between the two camps. . . . offers an engaging and intriguing reconceptualization of science, religion, and the nature of conflict between them. It is a must-read for social scientists whose work focuses on the interface between science and religion, and it will also be of interest to historians, scientists, theologians, and philosophers who study these issues. Evans makes a significant advance with this book, and it is likely to spur exciting new research in coming years to test and refine its claims."
American Journal of Sociology
"John H. Evans successfully relocates religious concerns about science from the realm of knowledge to that of moral value. He is by far the best (i.e., the most sophisticated) of the sociologists."—Ronald L. Numbers, Hilldale Professor Emeritus of the History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison

"This is just the kind of volume that academics, journalists, and policymakers who are concerned about the future of science need. Evans argues that contemporary debate around religion and science in the U.S. public sphere assumes that religious people lack knowledge of science. In reality, most everyday Americans (even conservative Protestants) accept and uphold science. The kind of synthetic field-building work that Evans does is needed in this burgeoning area."—Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Rice University