A War between Science and Religion?

Professor Bernard Lightman traces the connection between John Tyndall, British physicist, and John William Draper, American chemist and historian. In the past, both have been seen as adherents of the idea that an inevitable and irreconcilable conflict exists between science and religion. Lightman's examination of works by these two intellectuals in the context of their friendship will shed light on the significance of the “conflict thesis” in the second half of the nineteenth century.