---
title: "Non-overlapping magisteria"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-overlapping_magisteria"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:32:03.424947+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Humani generis ==
Gould wrote that he was inspired to consider non-overlapping magisteria after being driven to examine the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, in which Pope Pius XII permits Catholics to entertain the hypothesis of evolution for the human body so long as they accept the divine infusion of the soul. Gould cited the following paragraph:

The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.

== Reception ==
Richard Dawkins has criticized Gould's position on the grounds that religion is not divorced from scientific matters or the material world. He writes, "it is completely unrealistic to claim, as Gould and many others do, that religion keeps itself away from science's turf, restricting itself to morals and values. A universe with a supernatural presence would be a fundamentally and qualitatively different kind of universe from one without. The difference is, inescapably, a scientific difference. Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims."
Dawkins also argues that a religion free of divine intervention would be far different from any existing ones, and certainly different from the Abrahamic religions. Moreover, he claims that religions would be only too happy to accept scientific claims that supported their views. For example, if DNA evidence proved that Jesus had no earthly father, Dawkins claims that the argument of non-overlapping magisteria would be quickly dropped.
The theologian Friedrich Wilhelm Graf has been sympathetic to the approach, but claims it for the theological side—Graf assumes that e.g. creationism may be interpreted as a reaction of religious communities on the Verweltanschaulichung (i.e. interpretation as a worldview) of (natural) science in social Darwinism. That said, attempts to compete with religion by natural science may generate a backlash that is detrimental to both sides.
Ciarán Benson, a secular humanist, defends the spiritual as a category against both. He assumes that while Gould claims for NOMA (non-overlapping magisteria of science, morality and religion), and Richard Dawkins  for, verbally, "a brand of SM (bondage  of the others by the scientific magisterium)", Benson preferred OM (overlapping magisteria), especially in the case of art and religion.
Francis Collins criticized what he saw as the limits of NOMA, arguing that science, religion, and other spheres have "partially overlapped" while agreeing with Gould that morals, spirituality and ethics cannot be determined from naturalistic interpretation. This exceeds the greatest interconnection allowed by Gould in his original 1997 essay "Nonoverlapping Magisteria" in which he writes:

Each ... subject has a legitimate magisterium, or domain of teaching authority ... This resolution might remain all neat and clean if the nonoverlapping magisteria (NOMA) of science and religion were separated by an extensive no man's land. But, in fact, the two magisteria bump right up against each other, interdigitating in wondrously complex ways along their joint border. Many of our deepest questions call upon aspects of both for different parts of a full answer—and the sorting of legitimate domains can become quite complex and difficult.
Matt Ridley notes that religion does more than talk about ultimate meanings and morals, and science is not proscribed from talking about the above either. After all, morals involve human behavior, an observable phenomenon, and science is the study of observable phenomena. Ridley notes that there is substantial scientific evidence on evolutionary origins of ethics and morality.
Sam Harris has heavily criticized this concept in his book The Moral Landscape. Harris notes that "Meaning, values, morality and the good life must relate to facts about the well-being of conscious creatures – and, in our case, must lawfully depend upon events in the world and upon states of the human brain."

== See also ==

Fact–value distinction
God of the gaps
New atheism § Views on non-overlapping magisteria
Relationship between science and religion
Sphere sovereignty

== References ==

== External links ==

Nonoverlapping Magisteria – by Stephen Jay Gould (MP3)
Nonmoral Nature – by Stephen Jay Gould
Gould on God – by H. Allen Orr, Boston Review.
Review of Rocks of Ages – by Michael Ruse, Metanexus Institute.
A Separate Peace – by Michael Ruse, Science & Spirit.
The Holes in Gould's Semipermeable Membrane Between Science and Religion – by Ursula Goodenough
Gould's Separate "Magisteria" – by Mark Durm, Massimo Pigliucci, Skeptical Inquirer
The religious views of Stephen Gould and Charles Darwin – by Martin Gardner, Skeptical Inquirer
Rocks of Ages Book review – by Jim Walker