Challenges to Christian Belief - Christianity & Science

Examples of scientific explanation

- Darwin's Theory of Evolution

- Big Bang Theory

Darwin's Theory of Evolution

- His voyage & observations made on the Galápagos Islands in 1831-1836 led to him developing the theory of natural selection

- Based on inductive reasoning

- Darwin's theory was highly controversial but made sense to many people

- The science of genetics has given further support to his ideas

Natural Selection

- Individuals better suited to their environment survive to adulthood and reproduce, passing on their characteristics to their offspring

- Enables survival of species in a certain environment, as seen in finches on the Galápagos Islands

- This ultimately leads to development of new species over time

- Termed by Darwin as "survival of the fittest"

Darwin Natural Selection quote

"The strongest live and the weakest die"

Darwin's book on evolution

On the Origin of Species

General Christian responses to evolution

Darwin's theory:

- Rejects idea of all living things being distinct creations

- Rejects idea of essential separateness of humanity from the animal world

- Suggests idea of evolution of species is due to random mutations, removing any idea of purpose

19th Century Christian responses to evolution

- Fundamentalist Christians dismissed the theory as human error since it conflicted with the word of God found to be in the Bible

- Most liberal Christians welcomed the theory, since they had long rejected any literalist interpretations of the Genesis creation stories

Current Christian responses to evolution

- Young Earth Creationists & SOME Old Earth Creationists

- OTHER Old Earth Creationists

- Michael Behe's Intelligent Design

- Rejection of creationist views of theory

Young Earth Creationists & SOME Old Earth Creationists

Completely reject Darwin's theory, as it is incompatible with the infallible Genesis creation stories.

OTHER Old Earth Creationists

- Accept evolution theory in a diluted form

- Explains development of simpler life forms, but humanity = result of special creation by God, they are not descended from apes

Michael Behe's Intelligent Design

- Rejects evolution on grounds of "irreducible complexity"

- At a court trial over teaching creationism, he argued that some complex things like the bacterial flagellum would be unable to work if one part were removed, which means they could not have evolved.

- Most scientists dismiss his theory as poor science & creationism in disguise

Rejection of creationist views of theory

- Most Christians see natural selection as the way in which God works - evolution works by laws of nature, created by God

- Catholics rejects creationism as harmful to both science & religion, and sees evolution & Christian beliefs as compatible

Big Bang theory

- Developed from observations of the universe as it is now

- About 13.8 billion years ago, there was a sudden burst of energy which marked the creation of time, space, matter & energy

- Supported by 1964 discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation & the abundance of helium and hydrogen in the universe

- Most widely-accepted version of the theory thinks of it as one event

- Other versions think of a "Big Bang" and subsequent "Big Crunch", or in terms of of multiverses

Christian responses to Big Bang theory

- Deism

- God of the Gaps approach

- Creationism

- Catholic Church

- Mainstream Christian responses

Deism

God "set off" the Big Bang, then left the universe to work according to his created natural laws without intervening any further

God of the Gaps approach

- Attributing anything that cannot be explained scientifically to God

- Science itself shows how flawed this is; as scientific understanding grows, God gets squeezed out of more and more gaps

- Many Christians view it as diminishing God

Creationism

- Young Earth Creationists reject ALL FORMS of Big Bang Theory as it is incompatible with Genesis 1 creation story

- Old Earth Creationists claim Genesis 1 is compatible with the theory, as they argue Hebrew word for "day" can mean "era" rather than just a period of 24 hours

Catholic Church

Fully accepts the Big Bang Theory

Catholicism Big Bang quote

"Does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it." - Pope Francis

Mainstream Christian Responses

- Evidence for Big Bang in most commonly accepted form = Very strong

- Suggests there was a beginning to the universe, but that demands explanation

- God is a more likely explanation than chance