Introduction

• When were systematic approaches to evidence taken?

  The 16th century
• When did modern science develop?

  Between the 16th and 18th century
• Did religion conflict with early science?

  No, most scientists were Christian
• What did Nicolaus Copernicus propose?

  That the sun was stationary and the earth revolved around it
• What did Aquinas say about reason?

  "Reason helps to understand God"
• What did Hume say about reason?

  "Reason also points away from God"
• What 2 things impacted Christian belief in the 17th century?

  Empiricism and rationalism
• What did Bertrand Russel say about the man of science?

  "It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it"
• Induction

  Observation and testing
• Deduction

  Taking information from a preposition
• What does scientism believe?

  Discovering evidence is the only route to knowledge
• How does science threaten Christianity?

  If everything can be explained through physical laws, there is little room for a belief in a personal God who enters nature and impacts its operation
• What does John Polkinghorne argue?

  An ordered universe suggests an intelligent, but impersonal designer
• What did Kierkegaard argue about faith?

  It is a personal commitment separate from scientific fact
• What does Paul Tillich say about symbols?

  They need to be understood in relation to existential questions concerning the purpose of life
• Empiricism

  The view that all knowledge starts from sense experience
• Rationalism

  The view that all knowledge starts with the process of human thought
• Natural selection

  One of the basic mechanisms of evolution where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring
• Existentialism

  Humans create their own personal reality
• What does NOMA stand for?

  Non-overlapping magisteria
• Who came up with NOMA?

  Stephen Jay Gould
• What is NOMA?

  The belief that science and religion represent different ideas of mastery, there is a complete difference between their domains of authority
• What does POMA stand for?

  Partially overlapping magisteria
• Who came up with POMA?

  Allister McGrath
• Rationalism

  Using the mind rather than the body to work things out
• What did Descartes believe about the senses?

  They deceive us and cannot be trusted
• What happens to God when everything can be explained through physical law?

  Becomes impersonal and cannot intervene in nature
• What are the advantages to diesm?

  • Religious explanation for the predictable nature of the universe
  • Cannot be easily challenged by science- God leaves the universe
• Providence

  God providing for people in circumstance
• What does Polkinghorne believe about deism?

  It does not allow for a personal God
• Deductive approach

  If one proposition is true, others may be deduced
• Inductive approach

  Depends on observation and testing