In an interview that can be found at: http://blog.beliefnet.com/scienceandthesacred/2009/09/alister-mcgrath-on-science-and-religion.html, Alister McGrath says:
"For me, science is very, very good at answering lots of questions but ... not all questions. If you say to me let's talk about how the universe came into existence, we can talk about that scientifically. If we start talking about another question like 'What's the point of life?' or 'Why are we here?' that's a different kind of question. I don't think science answers that but I think there are answers we can find."
In this, McGrath stakes a position similar to many on the provinces of religion and science. Science helps explain processes in the natural world. Yet, science does not help us answer questions of meaning.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Alister McGrath on Limits of Science
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This was also echoed in an interview with the director of the NIH on npr
"I do think that we, as human beings, have an opportunity, when we are stepping outside of the details of daily life, to think about the big questions, and I do think it's a mistake for science to imagine that it is the only way to try to answer some of those really large questions, like why am I here anyway? What's life all about? Does God exist?
But those are not scientific questions. As the director of the NIH, it seems to me it would be utterly inappropriate for me to spend my time exploring those, or spending government resources in the scientific community addressing those kinds of issues."
The entire transcript can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112752237
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