For a new episode of ID the Future, I spoke with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her latest online course “Science & Christianity: An Historical Exploration.” The live six-week course to be offered this spring gives a small cohort of students the opportunity to explore the historical relationship between science and Christianity and the skill to address the distorted historical narratives that persist in the contemporary conversation.

In this conversation, Dr. Travis gives a sneak peak of the content covered in the course, which ranges from ancient cosmologies and early Christian attitudes towards natural philosophy to the impact of the scientific revolution, the pre-Darwin heyday of natural theology, the rise of Darwinism in America, and the 20th-century physics revolution. 

Travis explains why her course gives special attention to the “warfare thesis,” a late-19th-century idea championed by materialists that claims science and Christianity are mortal enemies and have always been at odds. A closer look at the history reveals a very different picture. Judeo-Christian assumptions about the world actually fueled the rise of modern science, and many of the most notable figures of the scientific revolution were inspired because of their religious beliefs, not in spite of them. Download the podcast or listen to it here.

Dig Deeper

• You’re invited: sign up for Dr. Travis’s course today!