Midterm Multiple Choice Flashcards
Six Basic Divine Action Categories
1) Personal Interventionism (dramatic)
2) Personal Providentialism (subtle)
3) Cosmological Interventionism in Origins (dramatic)
4) Cosmological Interventionism in Operations (dramatic)
5) Cosmological Providentialism in Origins (subtle)
6) Cosmological Providentialism in Operations (subtle)
Teleology
belief that the universe & life have an ultimate plan and ultimate purpose and that the world is moving toward an ultimate goal or final end
Dysteleology
belief that the universe & life have NO ultimate plan, NO ultimate purpose, NO ultimate goal, and NO ultimate final end
Phil 2:10-11 (Paraphrase)
“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, (1) in heaven and, (2) on earth and, (3) under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
o Under the earth = underworld
o Earth is flat in a 3-tier universe
Hermeneutical Gaps (Multiple Choice) (5)
o Historical – Egypt a world super power in 15000 BC/E
o Cultural – Jesus washing the feet of his disciples before dinner
o Linguistic – word óðåñìá in the context of human reproduction
o Philosophical – sin as an epistemological factor
o Scientific – shape of the earth in the Bible
3 Categories of Biblical Statements
- ) Spiritual Statements: God & spiritual reality
- ) Historical Statements: human activities in the past
- ) Scientific Statements: structure, origin & operation of the physical world
Biblical Statements: Date
archaeological evidence of Hebrews
1200 BC/E
Biblical Statements: Relationship 1
o The problem between Biblical Inerrancy & Biblical Scientific Statements
God does NOT lie, but statements about nature (scientific) in the Bible DO NOT align with physical reality
Biblical Statements: Relationship 2
o The Overlap Problem in human origins
Human origins deals with all 3 categories of biblical statements
Scientific Concordism
common assumption that the Bible aligns (or is supposed to align) with modern science
Karl Marx
• An eloquent “religion is a crutch or drug” theory
o “religion is the opium of the people”
13 Features of the Doctrine of Creation (multiple choice)
- ) Realism
- ) Transcendence
- ) Ordinance
- ) Creatio Ex Nihilo
- ) Temporality
- ) Dependence
- ) Sustenance
- ) Omnipresence
- ) Omnipotence
- ) Omniscience
- ) Revelatory Intelligibility
- ) Image Dei
- ) Goodness
Immanuel Kant
Religion = metaphysics
Everyone has metaphysics, meaning nearly everyone is religious = WIDE definition of religion
natural and moral revelation
o Theism: o Deism: o Idealist Pantheism: o Naturalist Pantheism: o Singular Pagan: o Dualist Pagan: o Dysteleological:
o Theism: Judaism, Christianity, or Islam o Deism: Darwin o Idealist Pantheism: Buddhism o Naturalist Pantheism: Einstein o Singular Pagan: Fate o Dualist Pagan: Chinese Yin & Yang o Dysteleological: Dawkins
Hermeneutical Principle 3: Accommodation
God descending to the level of humans in order to reveal himself revealing Spiritual Truths so that humans can understand them
Isaac Newton & his book Principia Mathematica (1687)
Newton accepted:
(1) a Creator
(2) intelligent design
(3) divine action in Origins & Operations
universe is like a clock that God could intervene and wind up
Oral Tradition
“Oral tradition … serves as the principle repository for the collective experience and general beliefs, attitudes, and values of the community … The primary function of oral tradition is the very practical one of explaining, and thereby justifying, the present state and structure of the community, supplying the community with a continuously evolving ‘social charter’ …
De Novo Creation
Creation that is:
o Quick
o Complete
Sir Francis Bacon
One of the founding fathers of modern science. In his book Novum Organum (New Instrument), he explains that the scientific method is based on:
o Induction- reasoning from particular facts to general principles empirical facts- laws of nature.
o Deduction- reasoning from general principles to particulars
Scientism Metaphysical Blind Spot
Most who accept scientism fail to recognize that they hold a metaphysical position they think that their view is purely scientific.
Bertrand Russell
Depicts the reign and attitude of scientism between 1900-1950
John Polkinghorne:
Was a physicist and then became a priest
Leading scholar in science and religion and developed Critical Realism
Critical Realism (11 features) MC
- ) Realism
- ) Intelligibility
- ) Explanatory Limitations
- ) Verisimilitude
- ) Historically Progressive
- ) Comprehensiveness & Interconnectedness
- ) Fruitfulness
- ) Counterintuitiveness
- ) Human Factor
- ) Primacy of Nature
- ) Practice of Day-to-Day Scientists
John Haught - Science and Religion Model
CONFLICT RELATIONSHIP
CONTRAST RELATIONSHIP
CONTACT RELATIONSHIP
CONFIRMATION RELATIONSHIP
o Rejects conflict
o Begins with Contrast as a “necessary 1st step away from conflation and conflict
o Accepts contact supplemented by confirmation
o Select and combine various categories and relationships
God-of-the-Gaps
Belief that God intervenes at different times in:
• Origins of the cosmos (and/or/both)
• Operations of the cosmos
Gaps are gaps in knowledge, not gaps in nature
Theology’s Hermeneutical Blind Spot
Most religious people are not aware they use science in their theology
People talk about creation using the science of their generation and this is conflating
Science & Religion Model of Ian Barbour
CONFLICT RELATIONSHIP
INDEPENDENCE RELATIONSHIP
DIALOGUE RELATIONSHIP
INTEGRATION RELATIONSHIP
o Rejects conflict
o Begins with independence as 1st step
o Integrates dialogue & parts from integration
o Therefore select and combine various categories
Natural revelation - intelligent design
Carl Sagan
- Astronomer & hosted popular science TV series in 1980s
* Promoted conflict relationship & idea that science = atheism
EO Wilson
- Harvard professor & father of sociobiology (evolutionary psychology)
- Religion is “nothing but” a survival behaviour of human species
- God “exists” only in the brain
Karl Barth
- Neo-orthodox Christian
- Religion is based on the Bible only
- It is impossible for science and religion to conflict
Rudolf Bultman
- Rejects divine action (miracles)
* Demythologization
Demythologization
o “competent” biblical interpretation rejects all the accounts of miracles
o Focus on personal/existential lessons in Scripture
Stephen Jay Gould
Leading evolutionary biologist at Harvard University and contributor to Science-Religion dialogue
science and religion share a border and bump up against each other
Strong Anthropic Principle
- Fine tuning is intentional & points to a Fine Tuner
* Held by those who believe in intelligent design and God
Weak Anthropic Principle
- Fine tuning is nothing but an accident
* Held by those who do not believe in intelligent design and God
Michael Behe
Biochemist who coined term “irreducible complexity”
Intelligent Design Theory
Panentheism
Belief that the world & God are inseparable realities, yet distinct realities therefore not pantheism
Hermeneutical Principle 9: Historical Criticism
Understanding the Bible within its historical setting
Argument from Design to Nature
• Begins with belief in God and design
• Looks at the creation through the eyes of Faith
o Belief in God, and therefore, a belief in God’s design
Argument from Nature to Design
• Begins with natural world and looks for physical evidence to argue for belief in design and God
Antony Flew
Famous atheist who became a deist because of intelligent design in biology
The Best Design Passages
1) Psalm 19
2) Romans 1
3) Wisdom of Solomon 13
Hermeneutical Principle 11 – The Baconian Hermeneutic
The use of science in biblical interpretation
