ABSTRACT
By the end of this chapter, we hope that you will:
know about, and have thought about the implications of, the complex historical origins of contemporary debates about ‘religion and science’
know about some examples of the interaction of scientific and religious thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
A major focus of this chapter is the work of Charles Darwin, and its implications for the relationship between religion and science. Before you begin, we suggest that you make sure you have a basic knowledge of what Darwin argued in his major works On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, and of what is meant by ‘evolutionary theory’. There are useful sources of basic information about Darwin and evolutionary theory at < https://www.aboutdarwin.com" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.aboutdarwin.com > and < https://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/evolution" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/evolution >. Darwin’s works themselves are extremely readable and available in several good modern editions.