Historical Perspective & Naturalism & Bioethics Flashcards
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
- Studying the world from a scientific perspective vs. a biblical perspective
- Roots of modern science can be traced back to the period of the Renaissance
- New emphasis on the physical world as a source of our understanding about God
- During the middle ages, it was accepted that the evidence of the senses was correct and the heavens moved around the earth
- As soon as scientific explanation could be found to fill the gap in our understanding, the place of God was again diminished.
- View started emerging that pushed God out of His own creation
- Science unveils the handiwork of God
Historical Perspective: Paradox in the new science
-Deep conviction that the universe was the creation of a faithful God, and that it contains patterns of order and regularity which can be discerned through observation and committed thought
Historical Perspective: Rene Descartes said everything in nature could be explained by what could be measured:
Extension, motion, force
This led to a rigid distinction between body and soul; the body is like a machine and the mind exists within it
Naturalism & Bioethics
- If we want to know how to lead our lives and relate to our fellow creatures, the place to begin is with the knowledge about how & why we came into existence
- the confusion over bioethical issues, is part of the reason it is so difficult to examine the real evidence of evolutionism
- Generally agreed on that Christian theism and metaphysical naturalism are contradictory
- Evolution has occurred under God’s governance but this has no effect on how they arrive at scientific conclusions
Terms; EVOLUTION
- Used to refer to processes that have little or nothing in common.
- process that produced biological life and the human mind.
Terms; Microevolution
- Process whereby species change or adapt to their environment
- May include variations within ‘kinds’ of organisms, such as the variety we see in the cat or dog families.
terms; Macroevoltion
- Process that accounts for what evolutionists call common descent.
- Most creationists would agree with microevolution
- Some creationists agree that man has evolved from the primordial soup of the beginning of time but that God has directed that evolution
Johnson belief
- Theistic Realist position
- All of creation was brought into being for a purpose by God
Creation-science
Life was not merely created but that it was accomplished in six days, no more than 10,000 years ago.
Saltationism
- Sudden leaps occur by which a new type of organism appears in a single generation
- Darwin strongly rejected this kind of ‘evolution’ saying that it was equivalent to a miracle
Francis Crick: Directed pan-spermia
Speculates that life evolved on another planet and primitive life forms were sent to the earth in space ships.
Naturalistic Paradigm
Views ethics in the same way as it views religion. It is mere fantasy because reality can only be known through the empirical method. Thus philosophy and religion lie outside the bonds of empiricism and reality.
Three consequences of discovering new world
- Practical men who knew how to use axes, tillers and swords were the ones to advance our knowledge of the world
- Old understandings of nature were proven false
- The new world was more subtle
6 evidences to confirm the creative power of natural selection
- Bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics and plants can become resistant to pesticides
because of the survival of mutant forms that have advantage of resistance - Survival of bigger sparrows in severe storm
- Smaller finches dying due to no access to bigger seeds
- Natural selection insures that the resistance to anaemia is not bred out of the population
- Some mice populations become extinct when a gene spreads
- Darker-colored moths population increase close to city
