Challenges from science Flashcards
In short, what do the McGraths say about religion and science?
Their Christian faith is compatible with science and science and religion need each other as there are questions that science simply cannot answer.
Quote from Dawkins about limits of understanding.
“I am thrilled to be alive at a time when humanity is pushing the limits of understanding.”
What did Dawkins say about William Paley’s design argument?
When faced with something that is incredibly complex, humans just tend to turn to a religious answer - the idea that an ‘eye or a wing’ could come about by chance seems impossible.
How does Dawkins use a contemporary example to show the ridiculousness of the design argument by Paley?
Consider a tornado in a scrap yard, it would be absurd to argue that it could randomly throw together a Boeing 747.
What is the God hypothesis?
We don’t understand so it must be God’s doing - God is an interventionist.
What did Dawkins say were the problems with the God hypothesis?
- We are not faced with a choice between chance and God. Natural selection explains how there can be the appearance of complex things.
- God must be at least as complex as the things he designed.
According to Dawkins, what can natural selection not explain?
Why there is life in the universe and how it came to be on Earth.
What should natural selection inspire us to do?
To find an explanation which makes sense of the improbable existence of life.
What is the Anthropic principle?
The universe must contain the properties that allow the observer to exist.
What would an atheist use to explain the anthropic principle?
Multiverse theory
What is multiverse principle?
There are an endless number of universes each with different variations, ours happens to be the one with the variation to support life.
According to Dawkins, religion is a by- product of which 2 qualities?
- The human tendency to obey orders
- The biologically programmed tendency to assign meaning to animals and objects.
What is a meme according to Dawkins?
An element of culture that is passed from on to another by imitation or non genetic means.
What does Dawkins say about scientists who are also Christians?
They aren’t really Christians - they are afraid of sharing their true beliefs or they are confusing Christianity with cultural values about beauty and goodness.
What does Dawkins accuse many scientists of doing?
Accepting awards from religiously based bodies by passing themselves off as religious believers.
According to Mcgrath’s, why can’t Dawkins accuse scientists of being ‘fake’ Christians?
A study in the 1900s showed that 40% of scientists were Christians, this would mean that Dawkins is claiming that half of the scientific community is mentally deficient.
Give a criticism of Dawkins by the Mcgraths.
If religion is really a ‘virus of the mind’ then surely there would be some scientific evidence - there is not.
What suggests to the Mcgraths that Dawkins book is polemic?
His lack of evidence
What does polemic mean?
An aggressive or verbal attack.
Quote by Mcgraths showing that Dawkins book is polemic.
“more designed to reassure atheists whose faith is faltering than to engage … with religious believers”
What does non overlapping magisteria (NOMA) mean?
science and religion are two different areas of enquiry by Stephen Jay Gould.
What does astrophysicist Martian Rees say?
There are ultimate questions that lie beyond science but there is not enough evidence to prove the answers to these questions.
According to Sir Peter Medawar, what three questions can science not answer?
- How did everything begin?
- What are we here for?
- What is the point of living?
What do the Mcgraths prefer to NOMA?
POMA - partially overlapping magisteria
