religion and science

"Questions of meaning and justice cannot be removed from the human agenda"- John Polkinghorne
1. "They're not meant to be literally true... the people who wrote genesis were not stupid"- Keith Ward
Key issues of religion and science; Is it possible to accept the findings of modern science? Do the findings of scientists undermine the case for belief in God?
1. Science= How Religion= Why
Creationism
1. the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation, rather than by natural processes such as evolution
  1. Associated with christian fundamentalist movements insisting on literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative, opposed human evolution.
    1. 1960s creationists promoted the teaching of 'scientific creationism'- 'creation science'.
2. Term first used by Darwin in 1856
Challenges posed by science to religious believers
1. contradicts with literal interpretation of bible
2. image of God not apes
3. religion has a lack of evidence- unreliable
4. Dawkins- an excuse not to investigate rationally, Genesis is a 'fairytale'
5. Irenaeus- said the world was originally created imperfect
Genesis to evolution relationship
1. evolution decentres humanity as the most important part of creation
  1. Genesis humans are the pinnacle of God's creation (imago dei, stewardship etc)
2. evolution says life forms adapt over time
  1. Genesis- it occurs all at once in 6 days
  2. Nature keeps process going through natural selection
Why is interpretation of the Bible so important?
1. fundamentalists
  1. word of God- Henry Morris says dangerous to interpret the bible
2. purpose to creation in the Bible
3. Liberalists
  1. Can fill in the gaps science can't
Message from Genesis
1. Imago dei
2. Broader picture, Genesis and evolution seeking different truths
3. Literal interpretation really what was intended?
4. "What man of sense could have been a first and a second and a third day of creation, each with a morning and an evening, before the sun had been created?" - St Gregory of Nyssa, 4th century church father doubting illogical concepts in genesis
5. Tells us of God's nature but isn't literally true
6. Stephen Hawking- "What place for a creator?"
  1. M theory- multiple universes, explanation for something rather than nothing
    1. Creationists would say an intelligence is needed to create laws of nature in the first place
7. Creation theologians- "nothing comes from nothing" (link to cosmological arg and prime mover)
8. Tillich- God is the ground of all being
Charles Darwin
1. everything supposed to have unique place in God's creation- indoctrinated belief
2. Darwin noticed particular marked effect on islands, due to separation of animals- pattern of relationships
3. Fossils- physical evidence
  1. Challenged the foundations of religious orthodoxy
  2. Ancient copies of what he saw around him
4. Charles Lyell
  1. theory of slow action of vast forces leading to gradual change
5. Everything was related to one another
  1. a vastly evolving family tree
    1. Simple cells to huge complex beings
      1. Human history only occupied tiny minority of time
6. Brutal reality of nature
  1. Race for survival and the finishing line is reproduction
    1. Unstoppable force of natural selection
7. Gap in Darwin's theory
  1. never solved how improvements of natural selection were preserved; genes don't blend in reproduction, copying process sometimes causing mutations. DNA code of four chemicals
    1. Craig Venter- first to map the human geno, solving the theory gap
Intelligent design
1. defend religious faith against challenges of secular science
  1. Believes the cosmological and teleological arg have strength
  2. 1991 Phillip Johnson
    1. specific parts having functions it is difficult to see how they could have evolved, since their final form is required for whole complex body to work
2. universe and its features are best explained if intelligent being is accepted
3. 1996 Michael Behe
  1. some aspects of life are irreducible complexity
    1. E.g. of a household mouse trap.
      1. e.g. of the eye, even Darwin admitted this was a problem.
        e.g. clotting of the blood, has to clot just enough to heal the cut and allow the other organs to function
    2. if you took away any part it would not work at all, system as a whole had to function
      1. what would be the evolutionary advantage of just having parts of the processes? Doesn't fit with Darwin's natural selection
4. 'God of the gaps mentality'
  1. 'invisible pink unicorn'
  2. ID postulates un-falsifiable cause

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