Christianity and Science

• What is geocentrism?

  Earth-centred model of the cosmos as taught by the Church - sun orbits the Earth, stars are points of light equidistant from the Earth - sky was a canopy
• What is heliocentrism?

  The Earth and other planets orbit the sun, stars and planets are at varying distances away
• Who came up with the heliocentric model?

  Copernicus and Galileo
• What is the 'God of the gaps' theory?

  Believers turned to God to explain things that we did not understand e.g. natural disasters and disease. As science expanded our knowledge, the space for God was filled by science so God was reduced to existing in the gaps in human knowledge. Eventually, science will explain more and more and the need for God as an explanation will disappear
• What is the scientific method?

  Based on empiricism (observation of the world). Testing of hypothesis. You gather evidence through experimentation then consider whether this evidence supports your hypothesis. If so, then we have new knowledge. If not, refine your hypothesis and test again. It works through the process of falsification
• What is falsification?

  To falsify an idea means to know what will count against it. A hypothesis must be capable of being falsified if it is to be meaningful and give new knowledge
• Can religious claims be falsified?

  If 'God exists' is a meaningful hypothesis, evil should falsify belief in an all-loving, all-powerful creator but Christians do not allow evil to count against their belief in God. They tend to qualify this belief with justifications for God - FW, soul making, "God has a plan"
• What does Polkinghorne say about God?

  He says that maybe God is acting in the world at the quantum level but this seems to be another example of the 'God of the gaps' fallacy as we don't fully understand quantum physics. But in time we will, so God will disappear here too
• What viewpoint Polkinghorne take on Christianity and science?

  He argues that they are totally compatible - God is the author of the laws of nature
• What viewpoint does Stephen Jay Gould take on Christianity and science?

  Science and religion are 'non-overlapping magisteria.' Where a magisterium us an area of knowledge: science deals in facts and the natural world, religion operates in the area of human values, meanings and purposes. Neither can claim any authority in the area of the other
• What viewpoint does Richard Dawkins take on Christianity and science?

  Argues that Gould's distinction cannot hold. Religion makes claims to the truth about reality and as such, moves into the domain of science
• What viewpoint does Francis Collins take on Christianity and science?

  Argues that science and religion partially overlap, though accepts that morals and ethics cannot be determined from observation of the natural world
• What viewpoint does the Catholic Church take on Christianity and science?

  Humani Generis Pius XII stated that there was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of faith about man and his vocation. RCC can accept evolution but it does not accept that the soul is something that emerged from evolution - it comes from God and gives humans imago dei
• What connects early modern scientists and Christian thinking?

  First modern scientists were also Christians and saw no contradiction or conflict between science and religion belief. Underpinned by belief that human reason could understand the way the world works, without divine or supernatural influence. Involves trust in evidence and experiment as a means of acquiring knowledge and belief that the world is intelligible and orderly
• What is deism?

  The view that sees God as an intelligent designer that put the universe and laws of nature in place, then left it to its own devices. This preserves the idea of an ordered universe. God is not present in the universe and does not intervene in any way. It offers a religious way of explaining the predictable universe. Cannot be challenged easily by science, as it does not depend on God doing anything in the world
• What is existentialism?

  Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard saw faith as a matter of personal commitment, not related to scientific facts. He was the first Christian existentialist - humans create their own personal reality based on the choices they make. He attacked Hegel's idealistic philosophy, which he argued left out the most important part of human experience - existence itself. The experience of reality was what mattered, not the idea of it
• What is evolution?

  Argued that a natural mechanism - natural selection - could explain the appearance of design, so God is not needed as a designer
• What is the Christian response to evolution?

  Could be compatible. Could argue that natural selection is the mechanism through which God works. Karl Rahner says that God authored laws of nature; God put evolution in place, but does not intervene
• What is the big bang theory?

  Can be known through observation of cosmic microwave background, discovered in the 1960s. All material contained in super-dense singularity expanded to create space and time
• What is the Christian response to the big bang theory?

  Accepted by mainstream Christians such as the Catholic Church
• What is quantum theory?

  Max Planck discovered that radiation did not appear to arrive as a continuous stream, but as packets or quanta
• What is the Christian response to quantum theory?

  John Polkinghorne argues that God does influence the world at the quantum level. At a higher level, they appear to be ordered and can be described by the laws of science, so God brings order out of chaos
• What is neuroscience?

  Shows that thoughts, emotions and memories and sense experience are related to particular parts of the parts
• What is the Christian response to neuroscience?

  If scientists can succeed in showing that the self is an illusion caused by the brain's activity, then this implies that there is no soul that is morally responsible to God, nor is there any kind of afterlife or personal relationship with God
• What does Polkinghorne say about science and religion?

  They are both driven by a guest to understand the world. The world is intelligible through science and this has religious implications
• What is dual aspect monism?

  Polkinghorne supports this view. All is made from 1 substance, but this underlying substance gives rise to both mind and matter - though what this underlying substance might be is still unknown - maybe the quantum level. Regards the mind, soul and body as different aspects of the same underlying reality
• Why does Polkinghorne accept evolution?

  He rejects evolution but rejects the crude creationism of fundamentalist believers and their literal interpretation of Genesis. Seems to be an anthropic principle at work in the universe that the cosmological constants are fine-tuned to produce human beings
• Why does Polkinghorne reject the multiverse theory?

  He rejects the multiverse theory's view that our universe is ordered by chance - other universes are unobservable, thus unscientific and pointless to propose (occam's razor)
• What is religion and natural theology?

  Uses the insights of science to reach a clearer understanding of the world. It works alongside scripture and religious experience to give humans a unified worldview that comprehends both science and religion
• What is God's providence?


  The idea that God has chosen to provide for, care, nurture and sustain human life. Polkinghorne suggests that without God's special providence the idea that God seeks to meet people's needs, the idea of the person God of Christianity has no content
• What are the criticisms of the view that God intervenes at the quantum level but not 'fussily'?

  This can be challenged by saying that it is not clear what intervening fussily would mean. His view does little to save the problem of evil: does it make sense for God not to intervene in a situation like the Holocaust. God is meant to be all-powerful and compassionate but if he does intervene he seems to be too patient and subtle to make a great difference. It seems difficult to show how God could work through quantum processes
• In what ways does Polkinghorne agree with Alfred Whitehead?

  Agrees with Whitehead that the activities of religion and science are analogous. Both are concerned with the ordering and understanding of experience
• What does Polkinghorne say about scripture?

  Scripture is evidence for the claims made by Christians about Jesus. Examination of the evidence is similar to the handling of evidence in observational science
• What does the Church of England say about evolution?

  Church of England scientific representatives ridiculed the theory. Evolution challenges the notion that humans are created in God's image - if we evolved from other creatures, there is no uniquely human image - it also seems reasonable to argue that other animals also have some ability to reason and solve problems, so we are not unique in that sense
• What do liberal Anglicans say about evolution?

  They admired the theory. They argued that it was the way that God designed the world - he had the aim of producing beings like ourselves, so set nature to produce them through natural selection. This is reflected in Hick's soul-making theodicy, in which God produced humans via evolution so that we would remain at an epistemic distance from God
• What do young earth creationists say about evolution?

  They believe in the literal truth of a 6 day creation by God, which occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago - all humans descend from Adam and Eve and all species were created by God as we see them now - reject evolution
• What do old earth creationists say about evolution?

  They believe that science correctly gives the age of the earth as 4.5 billion years, but the 6 days of creation are interpreted as longer epochs and Darwinian evolution is modified or abandoned
• What does intelligent design say about evolution?

  Argues that the creation of the universe and its features are best explained by the actions of an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process like natural selection
• What does Michael Behe say?

  Evolution is 'irreducible complexity.' Many biological systems are irreducibly complex at the molecular level; this challenges Darwinian evolution because it cannot be produced by successive modifications. Science rejects the notion that complex features like the eye cannot arise through incremental evolution - evidence for which is blatantly ignored by intelligent design theorists
• How would conservative Christians view creation?

  Argue that although scripture was written by humans it was divinely inspired, and in some way, God spoke through their words. They believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. These Christians would argue that the biblical accounts were of the writer's time and may be outdated. In the Bible there are spiritual truths in scripture but parts of it need to be reinterpreted in the light of new