SSFT Midterm Exam 2023

What is science?

A branch of study which is concerned either with a connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts systematically classified and more or less colligated (joined together) by being brought under general laws, and which includes trustworthy methods for the discovery of the new truth within its own domain

What is the Scientific Method?

Hypothesis, observation, theory, and law

How do you tell if a theory is good?

It is accurate, consistent, has wide scope, is simple, and is fruitful.

What is Empiricism

A method of science that states that knowledge can be found by the senses and derived from experience

What is the Bottom-up view?

You get laws and theories by experimental data

What are the limits to empiricism

To some, empiricism is the summa of societal evolution (positivism), and to others, science is a societal construct based on worldviews (idealism)

Pierre Duhem

(1861-1916) An Idealist who believes that science is a societal construct

Frances Yates

(1899-1981) An Idealist who believes that Science is a societal construct

What is Pseudoscience

A method of science that lacks evidence and has a test for wrongness (e.g. ufology, astrology, and dowsing)

Ian Barbour

(1923-2013) A physicist and theologian who drafted the Conflict (Warfare Model)

What set the stage for the Warfare Model?

Historical Positivism

Auguste Comte

(1798-1857) The pioneer of the Warfare Model

What are the three theological phases

Fetishism, polytheism, monotheism

What are the three stages/phases of the Warfare Model

Theological Phase, Metaphysical Stage, and the Positive (scientific stage)

What ushered in the second phase of empirical science?

The Enlightenment

What does NOMA stand for?

Non-Overlapping Magisteria

What does NOMA discuss?

The net of science covers the empirical universe: what is it made of (fact) and why does it work this way (theory). The net of religion extends over questions of moral meaning and value. These two magisterial do not overlap, nor do they encompass all inquiry (consider, for starters, the magisterium of art and the meaning of beauty).

Stephen Jay Gould

(1941-2002) Evolutionary Biologist who coined the phrase NOMA

True or False: Gould thinks that religion is important but had no real devotion to it

True

True or False: Gould does not believe that either faith or science may suffer

False

Does Gould assume that science is neutral and independent from God?

Yes

What does NOMA get right?

Religion and science are not identical sets of knowledge, and Science is not the sum of all knowledge

What are the 4 models of interaction of faith and science?

Conflict (Warfare) model, Independence (NOMA), Dialogue, and Integration (Harmonization)

What does the Dialogue model state?

Religion and science are important enough that people should talk to understand each other better

What is the downside to the Dialogue model?

It is hard to do (it requires expertise) and it assumes and equivalency between faith and science that is not believed to exist.

What does the Harmonization model say?

Science has philosophical and religious foundations (uniformity)

What were the two Books written by God?

The book of Law and the book of Nature

What are the four descriptions of scripture’s primacy?

Authority, Trustworthy, Perspicuous, and Sufficient

What is the Special Revelation

The Bible, Soteriological Revelation, and the Book of Law

Why do we need scriptural revelation?

Creator/creature distinction, and the problem of human sin since the Fall

What is General Revelation

The book of Nature (Reveals the nature of God)

What is Natural Theology

Derived from General Revelation, it states that a knowledge of God can be derived from studying the Book of nature, or natural phenomena, and the existence of God can be proved from the natural world.

What are the strengths of Natural Theology

It shows that we need God, we aren’t God, and there must be a First Cause

If you read systematic theologies, they usually start in one of these places

Doctrine of God, and Scripture

What are Incommunicable Attributes?

Things that are divine and transcendent, and things that God did not communicate at creation.

What are communicable attributes?

Things that God bestowed on us at creation, attributes that humans are designed to share

Does Natural law take God out of the picture?

No

Does God interact with his Creation

Yes

Are God and Science two Manichean entities in opposition

No

What does the Imago Dei mean?

Man reflects God by his relationship to the created order

Has the Fall eroded the Imago Dei?

Yes

How do we restore our Imago Dei

Being predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.

What does the Creation Mandate order?

Taking dominion over the rest of the created order is a command from God and is proper and right

What are Calvin DeWitt’s four principles regarding creational mandates?

The Earth-Keeping Principle, the Sabbath Principle, the Fruitfulness Principle, and the Fulfillment and Limits Principle

What does the Earth-Keeping principle state?

The Creator sustains us, so we should sustain the creation

What does the Sabbath Principle state?

Creation must be allowed to recover from use

What does the fruitfulness principle state?

Don’t destroy the creation’s ability to produce

What does the Fulfillment and limits principle state?

God doesn’t want us to do anything we can to Creation

How did the Scientific Revolution start?

A few Greeks began asking questions about nature and then sought natural law explanations for natural phenomena

Who was Thales?

(624-546 BC) An Ionian, the 1st of the “7 wisest Greeks.” He said that the Universe was made of water.

Who was Pythagoras?

(582-497 BC) He started the school of mystical and mathematical philosophy, and studied acoustics among other things.

Who influenced Pythagoras?

Thales

Who greatly developed philosophy

The Greeks

What allowed the Greeks to develop philosophy?

Their strong use of logic and confidence in rational thought

were natural philosophers primarily monotheists or polytheists

Monotheists

True or False: There was not an intellectual community in the Greek empire.

False

How did Greek culture inhibit science

Rationality was favored over experiment and empirical knowledge, their monotheism was impersonal, strong mind-body duality, poor work ethic, and poor family culture.

What were the three schools of philosophy?

Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle

What was Pythagoras’ school of philosophy?

A school that taught mathematical mysticism

What group did Pythagoras’ school draw in?

Mathematicians and Physicists

What school of philosophy did Kepler find himself relating to?

Pythagoras

What was Plato’s school of philosophy?

Shadowy realities that point to transcendent forms, which point to transcendent reality

What group did Plato’s school of philosophy draw in?

Mathematicians

What was Aristotle’s school of philosophy?

It was more rooted in experience and reality, and it emphasized structure-function relationships

What group did Aristotle’s school of philosophy draw in?

Biologists and medicinal scientists

Who was Aristotle?

(384-332 BC) A philosopher who emphasized his theory of Change.

What were the 4 causes in Aristotle’s theory of change?

Formal, Material, Efficient, and Final.

What was formal cause?

The form received by the thing.

What was material cause?

The matter underlying the form

What was efficient cause?

The agency bringing about the change

What was final cause?

The purpose served by the change (structure and function relationships)

Who were the romans?

A militarist and bloodthirsty group that cared about good governance

Who was Pliny the Elder?

(23/24-79 AD) A roman synthesizer who focused on natural history

When did the Ancient Greco-Roman science have its peak?

During the Time of Archimedes

When did the Ancient Greco-Roman science have its decline

By the time of Christ

True or False: The romans had substantial progress in Ancient Greco-Roman science.

False

True or False: Science prospers when most aspects of culture are prospering

True

What were the three theses that described scientific progress in Islam?

Marginality, Appropriation, and Islamist

What was the Marginality Thesis?

Mere assimilators that are limited to small enclaved and never accepted in the larger culture. Mainly delve into foreign sciences

What was the Appropriation Thesis?

Despite opposition, Islam cultivated sciences and used it for cultural renewal

What was the Islamist thesis?

Islamic culture gave birth to the beginnings of modern science

When was the Age of Translation?

750-1000 AD

When were real advances made during the Age of Translation

800-1300 AD

Who was Ibn Al-Haytham “Alhazen”

(965-1039) He assisted in developing the scientific method and the book of optics

Who was Ibn Sina “Avicenna”

(980-1037) He assisted in writing the Book of Healing, was an Aristotelian, and focused on Pharmacology and physiology

Who was Ibn Rushd “Averroes”

(1126-1198) He assisted in popularizing Aristotle, focused on Astronomy, approved of dissection and advanced physiology, especially in optics.

Who was Ulugh Beg?

(1394-1449) He built an observatory in 1420, discovered the earth’s tilt, and then was murdered by his son.

What was Al-Ghazali’s influence?

(1058-1111) Occasionalism and Greek philosophy never recovered after his critiques of Islamic science and theology

Who was John Philoponus

(490-570 AD) Byzantine Natural Philosopher and Christian who was highly critical of Aristotelian thought, understood friction, believed that earth and celestial bodies are made of the same matter, discovered that there is a vacuum between objects in space.

When were the Middle Ages?

500-1500 AD

What were the Middle Ages?

An attempt to create a homogenous society from the influx of many tribes along with an attempt to harmonize faith and reason

What were some forms of technology that were developed during the Medieval ages?

Waterpower, Clocks, Horse Collars, and Military Technology

What were the 2 renaissances that occurred in Medieval Europe

The Carolingian and 12th century.

Which philosopher was rediscovered during the 12th century Renaissance?

Aristotle

Who was Augustine?

(354-430 AD) A theologist who believe that pagan knowledge should be used to understand theology, he also heavily influenced Medieval inquiry

What was the Augustinian Heritage?

A model that discussed that reason should be coupled with an authority of scripture. it also states that thinking leads to knowledge and understanding leads to wisdom.

When did Western Europe re-discover Aristotle?

The 12th century

Who was the Christian interpreter of Aristotle?

Thomas Aquinas

What was the result of the Condemnation of 1277

There was a pushback against Aristotelian doctrine

What did Aristotle get right?

Good observer, goodness of creation, rationality and logic, basic monotheism, structure function relationships and teleology in nature