The Relationship between Science and Religion in Plantinga s Initial View

The relationship between science and religion is one of the crucial issues in the contemporary intellectual environment. Alvin Plantinga has raised some important issues in this regard. He adopts two views and in these views, he believes that in some cases, the relationship between science and religion are in conflict with one another due to the principle of methodological naturalism in science. In his first view, which is based on a metaphor introduced by Augustine, he holds that today science consists in the city of man against the city of God; some scientific findings are contradictory to religious beliefs, this conflict is real and serious. Science and religion contradict one another and this contradiction has roots in methodological naturalism. However, he considers that the role which methodological naturalism has in some parts of science is justifiable. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this paper presents Planinga's viewpoint and criticizes it.