Magnets, magic, and other anomalies : in defense of methodological naturalism
Abstract
Recent critiques of methodological naturalism (MN) claim that it fails by conflicting with Christian belief and being insufficiently humble. We defend MN by tracing the real history of the debate, contending that the story as it is usually told is mythic. We show how MN works in practice, including among real scientists. The debate is a red herring. It only appears problematic because of confusion among its opponents about how scientists respond to experimental anomalies. We conclude by introducing our preferred approach, Science‐Engaged Theology.
Citation
Perry , J & Ritchie , S L 2018 , ' Magnets, magic, and other anomalies : in defense of methodological naturalism ' , Zygon , vol. 53 , no. 4 , pp. 1064-1093 . https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12473
Publication
Zygon
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0591-2385Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2018 by the Joint Publication Board of Zygon. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12473
Description
Funding for this research was provided by the John Templeton Foundation, grant number 59023Collections
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