Spectrum

Religion & Science are Bound Together by Public Policy and Political Authority

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Synopsis

A new study will examine how the relationship between science and religion impacts political power, social authority and culture, according to Dr. Myrna Perez Sheldon, assistant professor of Gender and American Religion at Ohio University and editor of “Cosmologics,” a magazine that is the project of the Science, Religion, and Culture Program at Harvard Divinity School. Dr. Perez Sheldon believes that too often we become fixated on whether science and religion are polar opposites of one another and whether if one believes in one it precludes any belief in the other. She feels that concentration purely on science versus religion begs many more important questions. Instead, Dr. Perez Sheldon thinks we should dig deeper and examine the relationship of religion and science and the impact of both on our political debates and cultural decision-making. She cites that in modern times that both “scientific knowledge and religious institutions are involved in debates over contentious topics such as reproductive techno