Science Flashcards
Give two non-Christian men in history who claimed that modern science was born out of the Christian world view
• Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), widely respected mathematician and philosopher
• J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), atomic scientist and director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
(Schaeffer, 132-133)
What was Whitehead’s rational for the claim that modern science came from the Christian world view?
Because the universe was made by an all-knowing God, we should not be surprised to find order in the universe. The early scientists were Christians and believed this.
Does Whitehead’s rationale apply to early non-Christian scientists?
Yes, because the early scientists were operating within the pattern of thought that derived from western Christianity. They didn’t have to be Christian to accept the presupposition that the universe had order and therefore that science was worth doing.
To which area did Arabic scholars contribute in science during the Middle Ages?
Mathematics, especially trigonometry and algebra
Who was Omar Khayyam
(c. 1048-1122)?
Arabic scholar who calculated the solar year and made advances in algebra
What is the main difference between medieval science and modern science?
Medieval science was based on authority of philosophers rather than observation
Why did the Roman Church attack Copernicus and Galileo?
Because their findings conflicted with church orthodoxy, which by that time had become melded with Aristotelian science. Their findings did not contradict the Bible, only Aristotle.
In what year was Galileo forced by the Roman Inquisition to recant his findings of astronomy?
1632
Who wrote, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres?
Copernicus, published posthumously in the 1540’s
When did Leonardo da Vinci live?
1452-1519
When did Luther die?
1546
Who was Johannes Kepler?
German astronomer during the time of Galileo who showed that the orbits of the planets are elliptical, not circular
Who wrote, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy?
Sir Isaac Newton (1687)
What was Descartes’s religion?
Catholic
True or false: Francis Bacon didn’t take the Bible seriously?
False, he believed the Bible to be compatible with science
What is the “indeterminacy principle” (1927)?
Principle developed by Werner Heisenberg that the exact location and speed of particles can’t be observed
True or false: in quantum theory, light, whether functioning as a wave or particle, does not function at random?
True
Who discovered that Einstein had divided by zero when he formulated the cosmological constant?
Russian mathematician Alexander Friedmann in 1922
Who discovered the “red shift” in every observable galaxy?
Edwin Hubble in 1927, at Mt. Wilson Observatory, California
According to Geisler and Turek, what is one of the strongest lines of evidence for the existence of a theistic God?
General Relativity
(Geisler and Turek, 74)
What is the fundamental principle of science?
The Law of Causality
Who said, “True knowledge is knowledge by causes”?
Francis Bacon in The New Organon
What is the First Law of Thermodynamics?
The amount of energy in the universe remains constant
What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
The universe is running out of usable energy
What is the Law of Entropy?
Nature tends to bring things to disorder (also known as The Second Law of Thermodynamics)
How do we distinguish a scientific theory from a made up explanation (pop-metaphysics)?
A legitimate scientific theory will have scientific evidence supporting it
Who discovered the cosmic background radiation?
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1965 in their lab in New Jersey