Science and religion

Question 1

Explain Big Bang Theory

Answer 1

• an empirical falsifiable argument
• Edward Hubble
• Red shift = thermal trail
• There was an atom sized point at that exploded at the beginning of time, and the universe is constantly expanding from that central point

Question 2

Evaluate the Big Bang Theory

Answer 2

+ Quantum: can explain why explosions happen as at a sub-atomic level, there is a fundamental unpredictability
+ Flew/Popper: it is falsifiable
CP: admitted that evolution may not be falsifiable, undermining scientific basis of evolution
+ Creationists don’t allow evidence (carbon dating of a fossil) to falsify their theory
+ Strong rationalism: morally incorrect to hold a belief without evidence

Question 3

Scriptural understandings

Answer 3

• Genesis 1 + 2: God created the word in seven days, where before his breath was hovering over a “formless void”
• Fundamentalists take such a reading literally (contrast with liberal theologians)

Question 4

Evaluate scriptutal understandings

Answer 4

• circular argument
  + Kierkegaard: lack of evidence is what makes a belief profound
  + Ockham’s razor: creationism is a simpler explanation, there are gaps in fossil records and carbon dating isn’t always accurate

Question 5

Philosophical argument

Answer 5

• cosmological argument
• there is an origin of the universe and that origin is God
• Leibniz’s PSR: science only produces a proximate reason

Question 6

Evaluate philosophical argument

Answer 6

• Russell: universe is a “brute fact”
  + Copleston: dodging the debate
• Hume’s causation: an effect doesn’t necessarily have a cause; “a constant conjunction is not a necessary connection”
• Kant: jumps from evidence to a speculative conclusion and that conclusion cannot be falsified => undermined its main strength of being scientific

Question 7

Evolution

Answer 7

• shows how life has evolved rather than being created ‘ex nihilo’
• Neo-Darwinists (Dawkins) show that the theories of Darwinism are fundamentally incompatible with religious belief

Question 8

Evaluate evolution

Answer 8

+ ‘Origin of species’: natural selection in Galapagos Islands shows the variation of species, which can be explained by evolution
+ Fossil evidence of extinct species: creationists claim that all animals were created at once, making species seem immutable, but in nineteenth century, discovery of fossils shows creatures that no longer exist, Bible cannot explain such a thing
- Behe: evolution does not explain everything its meant to explain, for example, irreducible complexity, which is better explained by intelligent design
- anthropic principle: the universe must be structured to encourage life because life is so unlikely
- F.R Tennant: process of evolution happens but that is not an explanation for why it happens, such an explanation could be an intelligent designer (cf Polkinghorne: evolution doesn’t have to be in opposition to religion)