christianity and science Flashcards
Give the results of the 2021 census
- in 2011, 59.3% of England and Wales identified as christian - this fell to 46.2% in 2021
- there was a rise to 37.2% identifying as having no religion
what is empiricism
- knowledge starts from sense and experience
what is rationalism
- knowledge starts with the processes of human thought
Explain an inductive proof
- a set of premises that move towards a conclusion which is not logically necessary but only Probable
- it is A posteriori, because the premises and the conclusion are dependent on external evidence or experience and require verification
- the conclusion is not contained within the proof - synthetic
explain a deductive proof
- a set of premises that move towards a logically necessary conclusion
- a priori, because the conclusion is not dependent on external evidence/experience, and no verification is necessary
- it doesn’t conclude anything which isn’t included in the original premises therefore it is analytic
strengths of deductive proofs
- doesn’t depend on variable or misunderstood experience
- accepts that words and definitions have fixed and agreed meanings
- no alternative conclusions
strengths of inductive proofs
- relies on experience that may be universal, or at least testable
- it is flexible - there is more than one possible conclusion
- doesn’t demand that we accept definitions as fixed
weaknesses of deductive proofs
- leads to apparently necessary conclusions
- depends on the acceptance of the premises being analytically true
weaknesses of inductive proofs
- depends on our acceptance on the nature of the evidence
- demands overwhelmingly good reasons for accepting that the conclusion is the most probable
- alternative conclusion Amy be just as likely
What is scientism?
- the view that science alone can give us true knowledge of reality, and that it alone can determine what is meaningful and eventually it will explain everything
- such an approach tends to ignore the contribution of the arts, psychology and emotions
- scientism is naturalistic, dealing with the world as it is experienced
describe the idea of the god of the gaps
- a term used to describe a geological perspective where God’s existence is used to describe phenomena that science is not abel to understand
- for example, in the past, when people couldn’t;t explain certain scientific phenomena through natural understanding, they might attribute it to the existence of god
- as science progresses and provides natural explanations for these phenomena, the ‘gap’ where god was placed diminishes
what are the two christian responses to science
Deism, and existentialism
describe Deism
1) An ordered universe must have been created by an intelligent designer. Deism is therefore the belief in an intelligent, but impersonal creator, one who creates the universe then leaves it free to its own devices
give the advantages of deism
- offers a religious way of explaining the predictable nature of the universe
- cannot be easily challenged by science , as once god has set the mechanism working he leaves it to its own devices
give the disadvantages of deism
- the christian idea of god is personal, not impersonal
- an impersonal idea of god is just an intellectual idea according to John Polkinghorne
Describe christian existentialism
- humans create their own personal reality through the choices they make
- the world can be shaped through individual commitments and values
- it enables key questions to be asked about the meaning and purpose of life
give the advantages of christian existentialism
- faith as a matter of personal commitment and not related to scientific fact, religion offers a set of beliefs and symbols that provide meaning and purpose in life. Christianity is concerned with existentialist questions rather than scientific questions
What is evolution?
- the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations
- evolutionary processes give rise to biodiversity including the levels of species and individual organisms
why was Darwin’s on the origin of the species controversial
for the first time, it suggested that a simple natural mechanism could create the appearance of design and therefore make the idea of a designer god unnecessary
- natural selection is the idea that organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring
what are the problems posed by evolution to religious faith
- natural selection challenges the notion of purpose in creation
- it posits that species flourish/decline depending on how they adapt to their environment
- there is no external purpose in their survival, which contradicts the idea of god creating the world for a purpose
Give Karl Rahner’s response to the problem of evolution to christianity
- human beings are wholly made by evolution
- human beings are wholly made by god
- god and evolution are compatible explanations for human origins
- evolution works by the processes of biology, chemistry, and physics, and these laws are the design principles by which the universe works the way that it does
- it is reasonable for chirsitans to understand god as the ‘author’ of the laws and evolution
what is the interventionist response by christians to the problem of evolution
- this is the creationist christian approach
- natural selection isn’t needed
- ## god can intervene directly whenever he wants to as he is omnipotent and omniscient
what did Charles Darwin say about god’s creation
’ I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and all-powerful god would have designedly created the (parasitic wasp) with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars’
this therefore represents a significant challenge ge to the existence of god
Give Richard Dawkins’ views on the theory of evolution
- Dawkins is an atheist and a humanist
- argues that evolution is more logical and makes more sense than a god creating all life on earth
- states that natural selection has ‘no purpose in mind’ and there is no creator god guiding the process
- Dawkins argues that organisms do not evolve and rather the genes within them do
- genes that are good and beneficial to the human survive, bad and flawed genes become extinct
- over time, the organism becomes better suited to survival
- natural selection has driven the existence of humans without the need for a creator god
give the liberal anglican response to evolution
- they argue that god initiated the evolution of the species by natural selection with the aim of producing beings such as humans
- this links with Hick/Irenaen theodicy - god created the process of humans so humans could develop themselves at an epistemic distance from god
pope Francis and evolution
‘evolution in nature is not opposed to the notion of creation’
give the response of young earth creationists to evoluion
- reject it
- it is incompatible with a literal understanding of the Genesis creation stories, which young earth creationists see as the inerrant and infallible word of god
- ‘man was formed from the dust of the earth’
explain the Big Bang
- first theorised by George lemaitre, a scientist and catholic priest
- universe continues to expand, universes move further away from each other and the further apart they are the faster they move
- the speed of their movement allows us to figure out the age of the universe and we can conclude that 13.8 mullion years ago
