CHRISTIANITY (y13) - Christianity and Science

Define empiricism

• Knowledge that is gained through sensory experience

• Seen in works of Hume, Dawkins, Hick and Aristotle

Define rationalism

• Logical and reason helping us access knowledge

• Seen in works of Anselm, Plato and Descartes

What two things does the scientific method incorporate? Define them.

• Deductive reasoning - If premise is correct then conclusion is necessarily correct, works on assumption of theory to a specific truth

• Inductive reasoning - Even if premises are correct, conclusion is not certain just probable

Which does science tend to use more of?

• Scientific theories may not always be certain, they can only give a high probability of certainty

• Therefore is more inductive

How has science influenced religion?

• Evidence and reason shown in the Design argument and Cosmological argument

• McGrath - science led him to faith

• Paley was influenced by Newton’s laws which suggested a lawmaker

What did God create on day 1 according to Genesis?

• Created light and dark = differentiated between night and day

• Claims that God created it ex nihilo showing God’s power

What did God create on day 2?

• The sky

• Believed there was water above and below so God separates it to make sea and sky

What did God create on day 3?

• Land, vegetation, plants

• Created many dif types of species “of their own kind”

What did God create on day 4?

Moon, sun and the stars

What did God create on day 5?

• Animals of sea and sky - birds and fish

• Doesn’t say that God created water, it just exists?

What did God create on day 6?

• Land animals and humans!

• These are also made according to their species/ kinds

• Humans made imago dei to rule and reproduce

What happened on day 7?

God rested

What scientific issues is there with the order of days?

• Plants can’t grow without sun but plants came before the sun?

• Light is created before the sun, where does light come from?

What are the problems with the descriptions of what was created?

• Water is above??

• Moon is described as a light but moon doesn’t provide light

• Things made “according to their kinds” but this doesn’t agree with evolution

Summarise briefly what is meant by evolution

• Can be linked back to Darwin

• The idea that over millions of years organisms have adapted depending on their environments

• This process = natural selection where the best genes suited to specific living conditions are passed on when organisms reproduce

• Those best suited will survive and be able to continue process of reproduction - this is called survival of the fittest

How is evolution a challenge to Christianity?

• Evolution is based on science = no need for God

• Challenges the days of creation in Genesis as evolution happens over millions of years not days

• Evolution fills in gaps that God was filling previously

• Evolution suggests we’re equal to animals and not made imago dei

• Competing species doesn’t fit with a benevolent God

• The purpose of the world is not God given/ designed

What is the first Christian response to evolution in 19th cent?

Dismissing it as ridiculous

• Education was poor, this was a new idea

• Religion still had great power and influence

• Was misunderstood to mean humans came from monkeys

What is the Christian second response to evolution?

Natural selection is not necessary

• Makes more sense that God created things perfectly

• Disease and natural disasters caused extinction = change

• Species are too different to come from each other

What is the third Christian response to evolution?

Agreeing with evolution but maintaining faith

• God was the author of evolution

• Purpose of it is to lead us closer to God - Hick

• Order of creation in Genesis is similar to evolution so it’s a metaphorical story - the days are just time periods

What is the fourth and final Christian response to evolution?

People lost faith

• Evolution is evidence, religion is not

When do people believe the Big Bang happened?

13.8 billion years ago

What happened at the Big Bang?

• The universe, all time and space came from it

• This came from one single point which is known as singularity

• Before this there was NOTHING

What is the evidence we have for the Big Bang?

• The universe is expanding and we’ve seen this through telescopes

• Galaxies are getting further apart, red shift etc

• The Big Bang came from a point of extreme heat and now the Earth is cooling

Who was Georges Lemaitre?

• Belgian Catholic priest

• Was the first to argue that the recession of the galaxies is evidence of an expanding universe

• This was what is now understood as the Big Bang Theory

How does the Big Bang Theory challenge Christianity?

• Removes a need for God as creator

• Disagrees with Genesis about creator + the days as Big Bang suggests humans were created millions of years later

• There's more evidence for this than for God

• Could suggest there were many Big Bangs leading to many universes?

Give some contemporary responses to the Big Bang from Christianity

• God created the Big Bang or caused it, could be supported by Aquinas’ cosmological arg

• God created light on day 1 and some say this could have been the Big Bang

• It agrees with belief that there was a start to the universe as at the time some believed in the Steady State Theory arguing that the universe had always existed - this challenges Christianity as no start means no creator

• Fits with idea of design - universe is finely tuned, Anthropic Principle 1974

What is the Catholic stance on the Big Bang?

Agrees formally with it since 1951

Which scientific issue is contested more amongst Christians?

Evolution contested more than the Big Bang

What is the first Christian response to the Big Bang?

Young Earth Creationism

• Believe Earth created 8000 years ago

• Reads Genesis literally

• All humans descend from Adam and Eve

• View held by many esp in USA taught in Protestant Evangelical churches

• NO scientific evidence for this view

What is the second Christian response to the Big Bang?

Progressive Creationism

• Accepts that universe created 13.8 billion years ago

• Rejects Darwin’s ideas of evolution, God created us as we are

• Adam was the first man to be given an eternal soul

• Believe the flood of Noah’s Ark was local and not world wide

• No more evidence for this than for young earth creationism, is another unsuccessful attempt to get meaning from a literal meaning of Genesis

What is the third Christian response to the Big Bang?

• Argues certain things in universe better explained by intelligent design than undirected process like natural selection

• Generally doesn’t identify the designer but some equate him with the Christian God

• Michael Behe (scientist) claims biology is so complex so challenges Darwin’s ideas of evolution as this kind of complexity can’t simply come from progressive changes to organisms

• Is a modern attempt to make creationism acceptable but most scientists reject it

• It’s main ideas can’t be tested and science works on this basis

What is the theory God of the Gaps?

We use God to fill in gaps in our knowledge

How have we used God to explain things in the past?

• Thought God was behind:

• the weather

• good/ bad events

• Planetary movements

• We can now explain all this scientifically

How is science shrinking those gaps?

• Use of observation, evidence and testing it’s clear that these things aren’t down to God

• We have other explanations that can be tested

• As science explains more, we need God less to fill in those gaps

How does the shrinking of God of the Gaps link to the Parable of the Gardener?

Tells us God may not exist or need to explain why things are the way they are

Give the first religious response to the shrinking God of the Gaps?

We misunderstand God (Paul Tillich), God is “being itself” not a thing that exists alongside other things

Give the second response to the shrinking God of the Gaps?

There are no gaps as God works at a level we cannot easily understand

Give the third response to the shrinking God of the Gaps

• God only acts in creation (Wiles)

• All things came from this one act so he is ultimately if not explicitly involved in everything

Give the fourth response to the shrinking God of the Gaps?

It assumes science is “better” than God - God is not limited to gaps

Who was John Polkinghorne?

• Prof of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge

• Born 1930

• Left cambs to be a priest in CoE

• Is a scientist who attempts to reconcile religion and science

What is Polkinghorne’s first argument?

The world is intelligible

• We can understand the world suggesting God’s plan

• Links to Natural Theology - studying the world helps us understand God

• Science, revelation and reasoning give us holistic view of the world

• Universe is finely tuned for his to happen (Anthropic Principle)

• Rationality of the universe reflects rationality of God

• Multiverse theories are just speculation

How can we challenge his first point?

• Young Earth Creationists reject his acceptance of science

• Multiverse theory is just speculation then so is God, many scientists agree with it

What is Polkinghorne’s 2nd argument?

God’s interaction with the world

• Providence - God chooses to provide and care for humanity

• He is a personal God, meets our individual needs

• He influences things undetectably at a Quantum level - He doesn’t just jump in and out but is in the universe constantly, built into the system

How can we challenge his 2nd point?

• How do miracles work?

• Why do some people have better lives than others - God is not omnibenevolent

• Problem with determinism is it challenges free will

• We don’t know that God works at a Quantum level - THIS is just speculation

What is Polkinghorne’s 3rd point?

• Christianity and science are two ways of understanding the same reality

• Religious experiences must be taken seriously as evidence, people experience similar things giving them credibility (Swinburne!)

• Jesus’ life in Bible can be examined rationally - we should treat scripture like a science and trust it reasonably (liberal theology)

How can we challenge his 3rd point?

• Can’t really accept his views

• Observational science shows instances of repeated data but essence of Jesus is he is a unique revelation from God

• Thus can science and religion truly align here

• Belief in Jesus is just belief, not a scientific hypoethesis