Religion And Science Flashcards
Define ‘Scientific Truth’
Truth that has been found by theory and evidence.
Define ‘Religious truth’
Truth that is claimed by religious believers due to faith and belief evidence comes from conscience, experience and tradition.
Define ‘Big Bang’
Explanation for the origins of the universe, based on scientific truth.
Define ‘Creation Story’
The story in Genesis about how the world was created.
Define ‘Creationist’
Someone who believes the creation story.
Define ‘Myth’
A story with truth within it - maybe not scientific truth but moral truth.
Define ‘Cosmological revolution’
Scientific period of time when people realised the world was round and not at the centre of the universe.
Define ‘Evolution’
The fact that the world as we know it has come about by billions of years of change and survival.
Define ‘Natural selection’
The survival of the fittest. Some species survive and others die off depending on who is best adapted to their environment.
Define ‘Absolute Truth’
Fixed unchangeable facts that something will be true for all time and in all cultures.
Define ‘Authority’
Something that has the power and deserves obedience.
State what happens on each day in the creation story.
Day 1: God created night and day.
Day 2: God separated the sky and earth.
Day 3: God dried up some sea and formed land.
Day 4: God made the Sun, Moon and stars.
Day 5: God created sea creatures.
Day 6: God created plants, animals and humans.
Day 7: God rested.
Briefly explain what happened during the cosmological revolution.
- Religion and science worked hand in hand, science was not very advanced so mostly supported religious teachings.
- Nicholas Copernicus researched the orbits of stars in order to make a calendar for the church. He discovered that the Earth was in fact round, and we orbited the Sun.
- Later, Galileo created his telescope and discovered that different planets, the Sun and the Moon were not all perfectly spherical like the Bible suggested, as the moon had craters all over it.
- Galileo stated that the planets movements had nothing to do with God and were entirely natural.
- However, Galileo was a religious believer and believed that “the Bible shows the way to go to heaven not the way the heavens go.
What did Einstein mean by “Science with religion is lame, religion without science is blind”?
Einstein meant that they both have a place in the world, and many believe that they look at the same thing, just from different points of view. God can sustain the universe and science is just our way of understanding it.
