Life - Origins Flashcards
What is the religious theory to how life was created?
- Genesis 2
What is the first part of the story of Genesis 2?
- God created Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him.
Where did God put Adam, and what was he in charge of?
- Garden of Eden, in charge of the rest of creation by naming all of the animals.
Did Adam bond with any of the animals?
- No, none were a suitable companion for him.
What did God do for Adam after learning he had nobody?
- God put Adam in a deep sleep and took one of his ribs and formed Eve, a human like him but a woman.
What is the Literal Understanding of Genesis 2?
- Every word in the account is true and infallible.
- If it’s not taken literally, we question God’s existence and the Bible’s authority and accuracy.
- The universe was created with the purpose of supporting human life, and if we don’t take the story literally, we’d have no purpose, we are just another animal.
What is the Metaphorical Understanding of Genesis 2?
- Creation of Adam & Eve should be understood as a metaphor, with the evidence for evolution, how can all creatures be created on the 6th day?
- If read as symbolic, leaves idea of God since they’re not rejected along with a non-scientific view that humans are special as they are different to every other animal.
What are the Strengths of Genesis 2?
- Based on ‘evidence’ from creator himself.
- Simple and understandable account of the origins of life.
- Gives us meaning + purpose as we are created/to look after God’s creation
- Suggests existence of a creator who cares about us.
What are the weaknesses of Genesis 2?
- Based on belief only with not scientific support top back up the account.
- Modern day scientific advances contradict the Genesis 2 story.
- the Bible is open to many interpretations - no definitive answer, making it less useful.
- May have been a good answer in the period it was written - not in today’s society
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Would reject as:
- there is a lack of evidence to support the existence of a creator
- regarded as a myth from a specific time + place
- evidence we do have contradicts genesis 2, e.g. age of earth, a worldwide flood.
- religious scriptures show a confusing + contradictory God (shouldn’t have he already seen the betrayal of Adam & Eve?)
What is the scientific belief on how life was formed on Earth?
- Theory of Evolution
What is the Theory of Evolution?
- All kinds of living things that exist today were developed from earlier types.
- Simplistic forms of life formed 3.5 billion years ago.
What is the first two steps of the process of Evolution?
- Variation: individuals in a species have many of these, some are unique + inherited.
- Genes: inheritors variation come from the parent + found in genes.
What is the third step in the process of Evolution?
- Adaptation: individuals that are most able to adapt to the environment are most likely to survive and breed and pass their traits onto their offspring.
What are the final two steps of Evolution?
- Extinction: individuals that are poorly adapted are less likely to survive and breed and will eventually die out.
- Mutation: tiny changes build up over billions of years and often lead to the development of a new species altogether.
