Beyond Reason : Knowledge, Religion and Science in The West

by David Hopson

If ‘God is dead’ and the uncertainty principle lies at the heart of science, on what grounds can we know anything for sure? This sweeping history of Western thought, from the Greeks to the geeks, reveals that knowledge in the West has always been a double-act in which science describes how the world works and religion gives meaning to that description.

David Hopson shows how this intellectual partnership has broken down as developments in science have invalidated many traditional religious understandings of the universe, and the place of life and humanity within it. This breakdown has created a vacuum of meaning at the heart of our culture which is all too easily filled by religious and scientific fundamentalists who express their passionate certainties in vitriolic argument and violence. David argues that it is essential to develop a new understanding of the meaning of science if we are to restore broad-based, democratic confidence in both the practical and spiritual value of Western knowledge.

This illuminating essay will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the interplay of religion and science in the development of Western thinking. 3,000 years of thought from Aristotle through Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Kant, Darwin, Einstein, and many others, are put into context by this highly readable text. Those who are studying philosophy, science or religion will welcome the everyday language in which key philosophical, scientific, and religious ideas are presented here.

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 30, 2012