In the United States the perception that religion and science were opposing forces is largely a product of the late nineteenth century. Prior to that point almost all universities in the country had religious affiliations, and both theology and scientific research relied on similar philosophical premises. In 1874 scientist John William Draper wrote History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, which posited what is now called the “conflict thesis.” The conflict thesis is the idea that science and religion have always been opposing forces. The President of Cornell University, Andrew Dickson White, further popularized these ideas in 1894 when he published A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.

There were several developments during this period that caused the conflict thesis to seem plausible. The idea of evolution by means of natural selection and the development of historical critical approaches to the study of the Bible were a challenge to some traditional understandings of religion. While many Christians accepted these developments, some vocally fought them and tried to keep them out of religious universities and colleges. White used the conflict thesis as a cudgel to try to secure greater autonomy for universities and remove them from religious control. Finally, it should be noted that one of the reasons that Draper's arguments was popular was that it had a strong anti-Catholic dimension, essentially justifying prejudice against Catholic immigrants by seeing the Catholic church as an enemy of scientific progress.

A few historians still subscribe to the conflict thesis but the majority tend to see it as overly simplistic, if not misleading. Several books make the case that religion has served to further scientific advances. Both the Roman Catholic church and mainline Protestants ended up accepting the findings of evolution and historical criticism of the Bible -the two biggest “conflicts” of the nineteenth century- so most modern conflict would only be with fundamentalists.

There have been a number of modern popular works that touch on the topic of the conflict thesis. Atheist biologist Richard Dawkins God Delusion essentially repeats the conflict thesis. The late biologist Stephen J. Gould’s Rock of Ages argues against it, suggesting that religion and science tackle separate questions (he calls this “non-overlapping magisteria”). The public debate is probably more heated on this topic than the scholarly one.

Sources: George Marsden. The Soul of the American University (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)

God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science Edited by David L. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1986).

John C. Turner. Without God, Without Creed: The Origins of Unbelief in America (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1986).