Rocks of Ages, by Stephen Jay Gould

Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life.
By Stephen Jay Gould. Ballantine, 222 pp. 

We could avoid all sorts of nasty fights, Stephen Jay Gould argues, if we would stop expecting science to provide validating evidence for religious dogmas or biblical events. Nor ought we to turn to religion to resolve questions of a properly scientific nature. He wants no more natural theology, no more "anthropic principle," no more attempts to find scientific confirmation for religious beliefs, and no more fundamentalist "creation science." In short, "science gets the age of rocks, and religion the rock of ages; science studies how the heavens go, religion how to go to heaven."

Gould's thesis is that, at their best, science and religion occupy separate intellectual spheres and have usually pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence summarized in the acronym "NOMA," or "Non-Overlapping Magisteria." (By "magisterium" he means only something like a distinctive zone of reflection, discussion and debate.) His position flows from an apparently straightforward claim: that science concerns itself with empirical realities, whereas religion addresses matters of meaning, ultimacy and moral values. Gould argues that conflict between science and religion has more often than not been the result of a misdirected desire to resolve anxiety about our place in the universe, and that this conflict is psychologically, ethically, scientifically and religiously unnecessary.