The conflict thesis is a historiographical approach in the history of science that originated in the 19th century with John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White. It maintains that there is an intrinsic intellectual conflict between religion and science, and that it inevitably leads to hostility.[1][2] The consensus among historians of science is that the thesis has long been discredited, which explains the rejection of the thesis by contemporary scholars.[3][4][5][6][7] Into the 21st century, historians of science widely accept a complexity thesis.[8]
Studies on scientists and the general public show that the conflict perspective is not prevalent.[9][10][11][12][13]
Draper
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).White
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).The series of myths that Draper and White spread about science and religion are known today in the literature as the conflict thesis. Thanks to the dedicated and committed research of a band of specialists operating since the 1980s at least, the conflict thesis has now been thoroughly debunked. One by one, the tales spun out in Conflict and Warfare have been shown to be either entirely false, horribly misunderstood, or deliberately misrepresented... There is a clear, evidence-based consensus among this group: the conflict thesis is utter bunk.
In the late Victorian period it was common to write about the 'warfare between science and religion' and to presume that the two bodies of culture must always have been in conflict. However, it is a very long time since these attitudes have been held by historians of science.
The conflict thesis, at least in its simple form, is now widely perceived as a wholly inadequate intellectual framework within which to construct a sensible and realistic historiography of Western science
In its traditional forms, the conflict thesis has been largely discredited.
... while [John] Brooke's view [of a complexity thesis rather than an historical conflict thesis] has gained widespread acceptance among professional historians of science, the traditional view remains strong elsewhere, not least in the popular mind
secularity sci
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).scientists religion
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).epistemic moral conflict
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).scheitle11
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).