Dr Shoaib Ahmed Malik recently interviewed Professor Peter Harrison for his Academic Access series of live online interviews. The interview, “Evolution, Providence, and Chance”, streamed on 20 July. It can also be found on the Fatima Elizabeth Institute of Islam Science and Philosophy channel.
The interview starts with Peter Harrison explaining how his academic journey started in the biological sciences then moved through religious studies, philosophy, and history, culminating in his current research interests in how the realms of science and religion came to be.
Using this personal progression as a launching pad, the interview ranges through a chain of topics including: science and naturalism; the conflict theory of science and religion; the place of natural selection in various theories of creationism and evolutionary theory; the dominant assumptions of the Victorian period in the West; Christian clerics’ (and Darwin’s own) struggles with the implications of evolutionary theory for the Christian tradition, including the problems of suffering, morality, and evil; and more recent theorisations in both religion and science that take account of forms of knowledge and reasoning not available in Darwin’s time.
