2 - Universe and Human Life - Science

• Big Bang Theory -

  • Stephen Hawking is a famous scientist who explains the Big Bang
  • 14 billion years ago, a dense concentration of energy exploded and expanded
  • Atoms are created which concentrates into hot lumps (stars)
  • Stars explode and their material produces planets
  • The universe is still expanding like a balloon
• Evolution - Natural Selection -

  • Theory of Charles Darwin in 1859 book 'The Origin of the Species'
  • All life has evolved through natural selection
  • Animals and plants reproduce and there is variety in their offspring
  • Some lucky changes make them better suited to their environment
  • This is 'survival of the fittest'
• Evolution - Blind Evolution -

  • Theory of Richard Dawkins in his book 'The Blind Watchmaker'
  • There is no plan or purpose to evolution as it happens by chance
  • Evolution is 'blind' as there is nothing guiding it
• Evolution - Planned Evolution/Intelligent Design -

  • There are things in nature too complicated to have happened by chance
  • Just as a complicated watch needs a clever mind to design it, so do complicated things in nature like the human eye
  • So there must be an intelligent mind that has guided evolution (God)
• Literal Christians - Science is Wrong

  Big Bang is wrong because...

  • Earth is only 6000 years old and was created in 6 days
  • Earth is deliberately made and is part of God's plan, it is not an accident

  Evolution is wrong because...

  • Life is deliberately made by God, not by chance
  • God gave humanity souls so we are more important than animals
  • God made every type of species as they are, so they do not change
• Liberal Christians - Science is Right

  • The creation story is a myth - it is a story with a meaning
  • It is God who started the big bang, and God who guided evolution
  • Science tells us how the world was made, religion tells us why
• Islam Opinions -

  Muslims accept the Big Bang theory as science tells us what the Qur'an doesn't. Big Bang may be the way Allah created. They are unsure about evolution because -

  • Life is deliberately made by Allah and humans were created instantly
  • Humans are more important than animals as Allah gave us souls