Enlightening Science

Science and Religion

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• Professor Rob Iliffe, Newton, Science and Religion Rob Iliffe discusses Newton's own standpoint in the debate, his personal theology, and how his scientific discoveries were viewed in the eighteenth century.[ 640x360 mp4 (12.1 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (50.4 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, The Historian's Perspective How seventeenth and eighteenth century 'scientists' were fundamentally religious.[ 680x360 mp4 (2.8 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (7.1 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, The Conflict Thesis How the idea that science and religion were at loggerheads is largely a nineteenth century invention.[ 680x360 mp4 (3.6 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Two Traditions within Christianity The tension between Augustinian and Thomist thinking, or faith and scripture in tension with man's rational faculties.[ 680x360 mp4 (5.5 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (13.9 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Aristotle The re-discovery of Aristotelian learning through the Islamic tradition of translation and commentary.[ 680x360 mp4 (4.5 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (12 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Aristotle and Christianity How the pagan thought of Aristotle was assimilated by christianity.[ 680x360 mp4 (6.2 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (16.7 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Aristotle's Authority Undermined How observation of the heavens, and the discovery of comets and supernovae compromised the aristotelian cosmological model.[ 680x360 mp4 (7.4 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (19.3 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, The Church Responds to Copernicus How Galileo and others adopted the idea of mosaic accommodation to explain the geocentric passages in scripture.[ 680x360 mp4 (8.7 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (23.5 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, What Galileo did next How Galileo reacted to the Church's rejection of heliocentrism, and the story of his two trials.[ 680x360 mp4 (10.8 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (28.1 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, The Aftermath of Galileo's Trial How Galileo's imprisonment sent shockwaves through the European scientific community.[ 680x360 mp4 (3.3 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (8.6 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Descartes and the Mechanists How Cartesian ideas cast the world as a machine, suggesting that there was no need for God.[ 680x360 mp4 (8.6 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (21.8 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, The Rise of Natural Theology How religious activity galvanised scientific activity.[ 680x360 mp4 (6.6 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (5.5 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, What is Natural Theology? How natural philosophers read the existence of God into the nature of the world, its order and beauty.[ 680x360 mp4 (5.9 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (18.3 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Natural Theology and the Anglican Church How faith was valued above reason, while championing those 'scientists' they saw as good anglicans.[ 680x360 mp4 (6.8 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Biblical Authority Challenged How new observations of nature lead to the Bible being seen primarily as a moral text.[ 680x360 mp4 (8.7 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (4.5 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, Three Challenging Texts The story of three texts which complicated the christian view of the natural world.[ 680x360 mp4 (13.6 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (35.9 Mb)]
• Professor Rob Iliffe, In Defence of the Status Quo The reaction against the texts criticising natural theology.[ 680x360 mp4 (6.6 Mb)] [ 1280x720 mp4 (16.9 Mb)]
• William Paley, Natural Theology, pp. 9-13 [  pdf (247.4 K)]