'Science and The Good,' with Dr. Paul Nedelisky - Mere Fidelity: a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy

Can science tell us how we should live or why we should be good and not evil? Paul Nedelisky joins Matt, Derek, and Alastair to explore these questions and discuss his latest book (co-written with James Davidson Hunter), Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality.

Resources mentioned:

Article: BLOODLESS MORALISM by Helen Andrews (First Things)

Timestamps

0:00

Intro + historical overview of science as a reason for morality

9:10

The naturalistic fallacy, and moral norms and the sciences and how these two consisted of modernity

16:30

How science as the basis for morality affects politics and social institutions/demographics

22:40

Is the rise of evolutionary psychology and its input in social discussions (e.g., gender, masculinity) a form of natural theology/ethics?

33:40

Nature has influenced Christians and evolutionary psychologists in different ways, increasingly there is resistance to natural accounts of reality. Are upcoming trends moving towards naturalism or away?

39:07

How evolutionary and natural moralism is being received at popular levels and on college campuses

42:29

The “Positive Psychology Movement”

45:15

The insufficiency of science to answer the need of grace

Follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Caleb Wait for keeping us organized. Special thanks to Tim Motte for sound editing. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.

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