List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Fooling the World
Chapter 2: Lone Voices?
Chapter 3: Flat Wrong
Chapter 4: Walnuts for Brains
Chapter 5: Tales from the Gap
Chapter 6: Myths, Myths, Everywhere
Chapter 7: Bridges Badly Built
Chapter 8: Old Dogma, New Tricks
Chapter 9: Agloe and How to Get Rid of It
Bibliography
Index
David Hutchings is Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a physics
teacher at Pocklington School in England. He is the author of Let
There Be Science (2017) and God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse
(2020). Hutchings is a regular speaker on the philosophy, history,
and theology of science across the United Kingdom.
James C. Ungureanu is Fellow of the Historical Society in London
and Upper School Humanities Teacher at The Stony Brook School. He
is an intellectual historian primarily focused on the history of
religious thought who teaches everything from biblical studies to
the history of science and religion. Ungureanu is the author of
Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the
Origins of Conflict (2019).
The book is an important contribution to the study of the warfare
thesis. This book is a comprehensive story, and not discrete
chapters. As a result, its content will likely be utilized in many
different contexts and read for many years to come.
*Brent Purkaple, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith*
In Of Popes and Unicorns David Hutching and James Ungureanu give us
brief biographies of Draper and White before diving into their
books to test their assertions. They do a thorough, readable, and
at times very witty, job of dismantling the conflict thesis,
showing that many of Draper and White's historical arguments are
not just muddle headed or over-simplifications but rather are based
on falsehoods and evidence that simply isn't there. The 'conflict
thesis' has long been discarded as inadequate scholarship. In some
historical instances it is just plain false, in others it does not
do justice to the complexity of the history involved. This is all
well known among academic historians of science, but David
Hutchings and James Ungureanu have done a very good job of making
the facts page-turningly-accessible to a wider audience.
*Mark McCartney, Solas*
The book's engaging tone and adept use of anecdote and metaphor
recommends it for a popular audience.
*Victoria Lorrimar, Trinity College Queensland, Australian College
of Theology, Brisbane, Australia, Metascience*
The real strength of this book is in its accessibility. It's a fun
read and written in a fairly light-hearted and even conversational
style, punctuated by quirky historical episodes and interesting
analogies. I had never heard of the fictional (and then, oddly,
non-fictional) hamlet of Agloe, New York, but the authors tell the
strange story of an invented town that then came - to - be, before
putting it to use to illustrate a point. There are also enough
topical references and jokes to make what could be a dull
exposition on historiography a lively tour of science through
history.
*Tim O'Neill, History for Atheists, Goodreads*
Enjoyable and light-hearted ... an extremely useful jumping-off
point for further reading.
*Paul Dicken, The American Conservative*
Extremely informative and highly entertaining. The authors have not
only dispelled the myths that support the conflict thesis, theyve
also explained where those myths came from and how they became so
pervasive.
*James Hannam, author of The Genesis of Science*
Our understanding of history and what it passes down to us, at
least from our frame of reference, is vested in our cultural
context and the voices of those who reinforce it. The book sets to
challenge this—or perhaps, one might say, to set the record
straight. As its authors lift the lid on the historical narrative
of the relationship between science and the church, they tell a
story of those who have influenced this and laid out a conflict
between the two—a conflict which Hutchings and Ungureanu argue is
false. Science and faith, they show, can sit more comfortably
together in our collective search for truth than one might first
think, and we are much worse off when they do not. Itâs important
that we look back and reflect from time to time; Of Popes and
Unicorns helps us do this in a thought-provoking way. But, above
all, it's simply a good, enjoyable read.
*Paul Hardaker FInstP, FRMetS, Cmet, CEO of the Institute of
Physics and Chair of the Board for Sense About Science*
In this robust critique, Hutchings and Ungureanu provide many
fascinating insights into the historical roots of the idea that
there is some intrinsic conflict between science and religion. What
is truly startling is the way that this false narrative continues
to permeate popular culture. In an engaging style, the book
demonstrates that fake news is nothing new and shows how the
creative conspiracy theories of the 19th century continue to exert
their long tentacles into present-day thinking.
*Denis Alexander, Emeritus Director of the Faraday Institute for
Science and Religion and Emeritus Fellow, University of
Cambridge*
This is a gripping, powerful, and vital story of the most
successful and damaging conspiracy theory ever conceived. The
sleuthing of Hutchings and Ungureanu is as engaging as the best
detective writing and as meticulously researched. This is a book
that every teacher, scientist, historian, and pastor needs to read.
And, students: I wish I had this given to me when I was 14. Read it
now. It really matters.
*Tom McLeish, FRS, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of
York*
In this highly entertaining account of one of the greatest
intellectual deceptions ever inflicted upon the public, Hutchings
and Ungureanu describe the main characters (with all their
attendant eccentricities) who created and/or promulgated the
conflict thesis. Despite the best efforts of historians of science
to overturn it, this conflict remains stubbornly embedded in our
collective consciousness, harming both religion and science. I can
only hope that this book is widely read and that it plays its part
in undoing that damage.
*Ard A. Louis, Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of
Oxford*
The book's engaging tone and adept use of anecdote and metaphor
recommends it for a popular audience. It contains the appropriate
level of detail- Draper and White are presented in a nuanced way
without defaulting to the strawman argumentation with which these
figures have so often been charged....ideally this book would be
read by scientists or general readers who have accepted the
conflict thesis as a matter of fact.
*Victoria Lorrimar, Metascience*
The book's engaging tone and adept use of anecdote and metaphor
recommends it for a popular audience.
*Victoria Lorrimar, Metascience*
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