The divorce of science and theology in the West has been promoted, at least in part, by nonscientific factors.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://biologos.org/blogs/brad-kramer-the-evolving-evangelical/the-politics-of-the-fall-original-sin-and-modern-history
" I have suggested, however, that the divorce of science and theology in the West has been promoted, at least in part, by nonscientific factors."
Ain’t it the truth. While trying to stay away from contemporary politics, we commonly see political candidates endorse views, not because they believe in them, but because that is where the votes are. And advocates of a particular view endorse candidates not because of shared values, but to achieve their goals. All parties involved participate.
As regards science and theology, the same deal making goes on for faculty, where faculty members sign statements for financial and career reasons, and also in churches, where staff and members give support to one view or the other for reasons other than conviction. I am guilty at times of silence when issues of science and belief arise, telling myself it is for the sake of unity of the body, when perhaps it is just as much fear of being ostracized.
That is perhaps one of the hardest paths to negotiate, judging how far and how fast to push, doing so in love, and in the realization that the people you are talking with probably have a much smaller information base than someone who wastes hours daily on the internet (lame humor attempt.)
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The eclipse of the Fall in early modern political theory coincides with a new, unitary conception of nature. As we have seen, the Fall marks a division between two kinds of nature, the way we are and the way we are meant to be. - See more at: http://biologos.org/blogs/brad-kramer-the-evolving-evangelical/the-politics-of-the-fall-original-sin-and-modern-history#sthash.mAGigMxW.dpuf
My point is that there are philosophical reasons behind this change that must be addressed. If there is only one kind of nature, then there is no history because history is the movement from where we were to where we are now.
The Fall marks the fact that nature has a goal, a telos; there is nature as it is and nature as it will become, the latter of which is revealed by reflection on the original, prelapsarian condition in which God placed us, which in turn reveals God’s intention for us. Modern science rejects teleology, believing the nature of matter to include only the way things are, and not the way things ought to be. - See more at: http://biologos.org/blogs/brad-kramer-the-evolving-evangelical/the-politics-of-the-fall-original-sin-and-modern-history#sthash.HAyWaTns.dpuf
Evolution is unique in that it brings history to science, however it seems that scientists often deny the change that evolution depicts. Science wants to think that its laws are universal, the same everywhere all the time, but the laws of life are different according the environment. The rules of life are different in the Age of Trilobites from the Age of Dinosaurs and the Age of Humans.
Therefore Telos or meaning and purpose are important to science as well as theology. The Telos of living things is to adapt or bein right relationship to their environment. The Telos of human beings is to be in right relationship to their physical and organic environment and to other humans and God as well.
The Telos of Nature is relates to the nature of the universe as Cosmos as harmony or unity in diversity.