polkinghorne

• Polkinghorne believes that science is compatible with Christianity
• Polkinghorne's main premise is that the world is intelligible - we can understand it by science - when it might easily not have been so

  • the fact we can understand the world + that it makes sense is important
  • the fact that we are beings that can understand the universe leads to the concept of a fine-tuning - which leads to the idea of a God causing this
• explanation is needed for the fact that the world is intelligible

  • there is no survival value in the capacity for humans to make sense of the universe - the fact we can suggests this was part of God's creative plan

  challenge from Hume: universe naturally goes through cycles of order + chaos - this period of order has nothing to do with God

  • response = this is nothing more than speculation

  challenge from multiverse theory: no. of universes = infinite

  • response = no evidence so the argument against God fails
• the idea of providence (protective care of God) is at the heart of God's relationship with the world and humankind

  • God creates, cares for + sustains life for a purpose
  • God does this in a way that humans cannot detect

  challenge: this doesn't address the problem of evil
• both religion + science are concerned with the understanding + making sense of experience

  • religious experiences do require serious consideration
  • the differences as seen in the different religions are due to cultural conditions, but are nevertheless experiences of the same reality

  challenge: this could lead to the conclusion that the whole of Christianity is simply a culturally conditioned interpretation of religion + its claims cannot be compared or assessed like scientific facts
• the Bible gives evidence for Christian claims about Jesus that can be rationally examined just as scientific theory can

  challenge: a scientific theory arises out of repeated experiement - claims about Jesus are made on one unrepeatable series of events said to give a unique revelation of God

  • scientific theories are empirically based, whereas claims about Jesus are matters of belief
• the claim that there is a God seems to many to be one that can be made on the basis of evidence + as such can be treated in the same way as a scientific claim

  • Christianity is compatible with science, in that both are different ways of understanding reality

  challenge: at best this argues for the existence of God in the sense of deism as opposed to theism (Polkinghorne opposed deism)

  • specific claims about Jesus, which make Christianity the religion that it is, cannot have a scientific basis, but are based on belief