ABSTRACT
This chapter explores historical and contemporary relations between science and religion as well as some of the diverse treatments of the relations between these two important human endeavors. Absolutism insists on conformity, ideological unity, and respect or even reverence for authority. Absolutism in religion surfaces repeatedly in claims that all truth is bottled up or contained in relatively small sacred text or in one institution or in single authority or representative of an institution. As with science, absolutism in religion slips easily into totality and totality into religious and political totalitarianism. Absolutism has been difficult to curb in those religions that denigrate the values of freedom of expression, doubt, and curiosity. Absolutism in religion is manifested in the work of evangelical believers who display an unquenchable appetite for uncompromising social unity including thoroughgoing uniformity of thought, speech, and action.
