Religion, Science, & Unfalsifiability

Recently an interlocutor of mine claimed that religious beliefs, unlike scientific beliefs, are unfalsifiable. But beliefs of these two sorts don’t differ in this way. There is evidence for and evidence against both types of beliefs. So both kinds are at least theoretically verifiable and falsifiable. Moreover, when believers persist in maintaining beliefs in either category in the face of counterevidence, they often do so because they have adequate grounds for those beliefs and insufficient reason to think the contrary evidence is decisive. In these cases, though the beliefs are practically unfalsified, it doesn’t follow that they are theoretically unfalsifiable. 

Can Theology Still be the Queen?

In “The Idea of a University,” Newman argues that since universities profess to teach universal knowledge and theology is a branch of knowledge, universities should teach theology as knowledge. Unsurprisingly, those responsible for the curricula of secular universities today deny the conclusion of this syllogism (and so also reject at least one of its premises). What is surprising is that though Christian colleges and universities should be able to affirm both the premises and conclusion of Newman's argument, many of them do not teach theology as a source of knowledge, but rather as a basis for mere faith or belief.