Religion and science Flashcards
1
Q
Define darwinism
A
- Developed by Charles Darwin
- States that all species arise and develop through the natural selection of inherited differences that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.
2
Q
Define Heliocentric Theory
A
- Argues that the sun is the central body of the universe.
3
Q
Define geocentric theory
A
- Argues that Earth is the center of the universe.
4
Q
Define Intelligent Design
A
- A scientific theory that acknowledges the existence of God in the creation of the universe.
5
Q
Discuss the Account of creation in Christianity
A
- Christianity believes that God has three aspects: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.
- God roamed the universe and the waters and created light and darkness.
- On the second day, God created Heaven and separated the water from the Earth.
- On the third day, he raised the dry land and created plants.
- On the fourth day, God made the light, ‘day’ and lesser light, ‘night’.
- On the fifth day, he created the creatures of the sea and air.
- On the sixth day, God created all kinds of living creatures on the Earth.
- On the seventh day or Sabbath, God rested.
- The first humans that He created were Adam and Eve, who lived in Heaven, in the Garden of Eden.
- They were forbidden from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge – of good and evil.
- But a serpent tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, which she did and also successfully persuaded Adam to do so.
- When God came to know of their sin, he drove them to Earth, to toil.
6
Q
Discuss the Account of creation in Islam
A
- The Qur’an states that Allah created the universe in six phases.
- Allah decided to create the universe and commanded things to come into being.
- He then made all living creatures, the angels, the planets and the rain to allow vegetation to grow.
- Allah sent angels to Earth to collect seven handfuls of soil, all of different colours.
- With that soil Allah made the first man, Adam, breathing life and power into him.
- Eve, the first woman, was created from the side of Adam and lived with him in paradise.
- Adam and Eve disobeyed Allah.
- They were forgiven, but were sent from paradise to the Earth
- The Earth was created to allow Adam and Eve and their descendants (the human race) to live and thrive.
- It took Allah six days to complete the creation of the universe.
- The universe is not eternal but has a fixed timespan.
7
Q
Explain in detail The Big Bang Theory
A
- The most popular scientific theory of the universe is the so-called ‘Big Bang’ theory.
- According to this theory, we don’t know what existed before the Big Bang.
- But there was an enormous explosion, and, within seconds, the universe had appeared and filled out to an enormous size.
- This happened about 15 billion years ago.
- Small temperature differences led to varying densities throughout the universe.
- These eventually formed into clusters of matter and energy.
- Scientists believe that the universe is still expanding but it is not known whether or how the universe will end.
- Not all scientists agree with the Big Bang theory.
8
Q
Explain in detail Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
A
- Species contain a variety of minor differences.
- In the fight for survival, better adapted stages will be favoured.
- This applies to change in humans aswell.
- In the fight for survival, humans changed from apes to human beings.
- The process of change and adaptation happened over a very long period.
- Science offers no explanation of creation as part of a divine plan.
9
Q
Discuss Religious counter arguments against Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
A
- Christians argued that:
- The Theory of Evolution seemed to go against religious teachings that God made the Earth and created all living things, as they knew them.
- Christians believed that God had created humans ‘in His own image’
- They believed that humans were superior to all other creatures and had a soul that is immortal.
- The argued that Theory of Evolution challenged the idea that God is the designer of the universe.
- They put forward that the beauty, order and complexity of the universe is evidence of God’s perfect design when He created the world.
- The idea that living things adapt to their environment was opposed to their belief that God had created the perfect environment for them.
- The Bible says humans were created on the sixth day of creation, not over a period of millions of years.
10
Q
Discuss Rejection of the Theory of Evolution by certain strands of Judaism and Christianity
A
- There are two views of creation of man amongst Judaism. The Conservative Jews believe that the Genesis story should be treated as a symbolic account of the creation of man. This view tends to tie in with the Theory of Evolution. An argument is put forth that whilst God remains the Creator, the Theory of Evolution uncovers some of the laws that govern the creation.
- A second view that is supported by the Orthodox Jews totally rejects the Theory of Evolution, arguing that it goes against the literal words of the scriptures. The rejection of the Theory of Evolution by Orthodox Jews corresponds to the same stance that is adopted by Conservative or Fundamentalist Christians.
11
Q
Discuss Account of creation of human beings in Abrahamic religions
A
- Christianity’s response is like that of the other two Abrahamic faiths: the conservatives reject Darwin’s theory, while liberals merge it into a more flexible interpretation of sacred text.
- There is no connection between the traditional Christians and the Theory of Evolution.
- Traditional Christians only accept that God created Adam and Eve as it is narrated in the Book of Genesis.
- They argue that there is no evidence in history of human beings evolving the world.
- However, there is a connection between the Theory of Evolution and liberal or progressive Christians.
- They argue that everything in the universe was created by God, and the process of evolution is also part of the Divine Plan. (It is referred as ‘intelligent design’).
- They say God was responsible for the Big Bang.
- Most Christians would accept that the central message of both Genesis 1 and 2, whether seen as one or two stories, is:
o God made everything
o God made everything good
o God made humanity as the high point of creation - Fundamentalist Christians believe that as the Bible comes directly from God, everything in it must be the exact truth.
- Anything that contradicts the Bible is wrong. Therefore, for fundamentalist Christians, the Big Bang theory is not correct.
- Darwin’s theory, then, is seen as an affront to the Biblical account of Creation.
- Some Christians believe that the Bible should be interpreted symbolically and not literally.
- Progressive Christians accept the idea of guided evolution and add that the
creation myth must be seen as symbolic. - They admit that there were some stages of creation which involved evolution, as explained by scientists.
- They believe that God was responsible for the beginning of the universe – that He set things in motion and oversaw the process. They can also learn lessons from the story about the importance of mankind and the responsibility mankind has over the rest
of creation. - These people believe that there is no conflict between science and religion.
12
Q
Explain, in detail, Intelligent design
A
- Intelligent design (ID) is a scientific theory that acknowledges the existence of God in the creation of the universe.
- This theory proposes an alternative to evolutionary explanation of how the creation of the universe occurred.
- Those who believe in this theory state that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause.
