Where Science and Religion Disagree

“By now, nearly everyone with a passing interest in science or religion is familiar with Stephen Jay Gould’s description of the two disciplines as ‘non-overlapping magisteria’ with separate domains—science in the physical universe and religion in the moral realm. … I know both scientists and religious believers for whom the idea of non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA) has become an unexamined fiction designed to skirt the culture wars. It is clear, however, that NOMA (a term Gould adapted from Catholic theology; the “Magisterium” is the Church’s term for its teaching authority) is not only a fiction but a useless fiction—from the standpoint of both religion and science.”