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Magisteria review: How science and religion have a tangled past

Some argue that science and religion have always been separate and at war, but an eye-opening new book from Nicholas Spencer reveals complex and intertwined histories

By Joshua Howgego

1 March 2023

Anti-evolution books for sale in Dayton, Tennessee, where Professor John T. Scopes is on trial for teaching the theory of evolution in public schools. (Photo by ?? Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Anti-evolution books on sale in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925

Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

Magisteria

Nicholas Spencer (Oneworld Publications)

SCIENCE and religion are in opposition from their foundations upwards, right? One is built on reason and evidence, the other on belief.

Well, I have a confession to make: I don’t buy it. I am an evangelical Christian and a New Scientist editor. Some might say I am the definition of a square peg in a round hole – but there it is.

I say all this by way of explaining why I was excited to get hold …

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