The relationship of the Unification Church and science has often been noted, by the news media and by scholars of religion. The Divine Principle, the main textbook of Unification Church beliefs which was written by church founder Sun Myung Moon and other church members, calls for the unification of science and religion: "Religion and science, each in their own spheres, have been the methods of searching for truth in order to conquer ignorance and attain knowledge. Eventually, the way of religion and the way of science should be integrated and their problems resolved in one united undertaking; the two aspects of truth, internal and external, should develop in full consonance."
In the 1970s and 1980s the Unification Church sponsored the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS), in order to promote the concept of the unity of science and religion. American news media have suggested that the conferences were also an attempt to improve the often controversial public image of the church. The first conference, held in 1972, had 20 participants; while the largest conference, in Seoul, South Korea in 1982, had 808 participants from over 100 countries. Participants in one or more of the conferences included Nobel laureates John Eccles (Physiology or Medicine 1963, who chaired the 1976 conference) and Eugene Wigner (Physics 1963).
The relationship of the Unification Church and science again came to public attention in 2002 with the publication of Icons of Evolution, a popular book critical of the teaching of evolution written by church member Jonathan Wells. Wells is a graduate of the Unification Theological Seminary and has been active with the Discovery Institute as an advocate for Intelligent design.