UNIT 1 Foundations

1. UNIT 1Foundations Chapter 1 Finding Your Way in God’s World

2. Science isn’t what it used to be… • Open up to the beginning of Unit 1 • Let’s read… • Unit 1 covers Chapters 1-3 • Finding Your Way in God’s World • Matter • Measurements

3. Finding Your Way in God’s WorldChapter 1A - Lose Your Place, Lose Your Life Objectives/Assignment • Describe presuppositions and how they work together to form a worldview. • List the most basic presuppositions of Christianity. • Describe scientism and explain how it is the basis for a secularist worldview. • Discuss how the Bible is essential to true scientific investigation of our world. • Assignment: Section Review, page 9

4. Lost with Map in Hand • The Story of Admiral Shovell • Page 4

5. Science as a Map • What can science tell us? • Observations • Conclusions • Relationships that exist in the physical world • Production of life-saving medicines and energy efficient methods of transportation

6. Science as a Map • What about other important questions, can science answers these? • Who are we as humans • Where did we come from • Why are we hear • Where are we headed • Where do we fit in • Can Science prove that there is a God, that we survive death or the difference between right and wrong

7. Science and a Christian Worldview • As Christians we need a greater authority than a map: the Word of God, the Bible. • The Bible gives us presuppositions. • An idea that is not proved but that we use as the basis for proving other things. • The most basic presupposition is that God spoke to us in the Bible. • All Humans have presuppositions.

8. Science and a Christian Worldview • Presuppositions form a worldview. • An outlook from which a person interprets all of life. What is YOUR worldview?? • A Christian Worldview can be summed up in three main points: • God made the world and placed humans at the center of that world. • The world has fallen into a broken condition because of human sin. • God is working to redeem this world to Himself. • With this worldview we can make proper use of the map of science.

9. Science and a Christian Worldview • God made the world and placed humans at the center of that world. • Our world is only a few thousand years old, not billions. • We are made in God’s image: we can learn and love each other equally. • We are to have dominion, or power, over His creation, known as the Creation Mandate. • God’s command to exercise dominion over the world by wisely using the resources He has placed here.

10. Science and a Christian Worldview • The world has fallen into a broken condition because of human sin. • We rebelled against God • Hurricanes, disease, death, earthquakes are not normal events of an evolving world, they are the effects of sin. • We are under God’s curse.

11. Science and a Christian Worldview • God is working to redeem this world to Himself • God’s Word gives us hope! • He has promised to redeem us. • Commanded us to teach all nations. • We can use our knowledge of God and science to help others hear the gospel.

12. Science and a Secularist Worldview • Many Scientists believe that science needs to be kept secular. • Free from religious influence • Key presupposition of secularists is a faith in scientism. • The belief that the only things we can know with confidence are the things we learn through scientific study. • We can only know what is on the map, if it is not on the map then it is not worth asking. • The map is the only thing we can trust. • High view of science, low view of humans.

13. Science and a Secularist Worldview • The physical universe is not the creation of a personal God. • It always existed. • The present condition is due to natural processes that have gone on forever. • Humans are not in the image of God, they are complex chemical beings. • We exist to satisfy our desires, just like animals. • Love, joy, peace are not gifts from God, just chemical reactions in the brain.

14. Science and a Secularist Worldview • We are not under God’s curse. • Suffering and death are part of the ongoing natural processes that have produced us. • Chemical bonds eventually dissolve and the elements are absorbed into other systems like plants and animals. • Science can not distinguish between good and evil.

15. Science and a Secularist Worldview • No true redemption. • Extend our lives by decades • Save us from death? • Why spend so much money on “chemical beings”? • Why not let the forces have their way?

16. Scripture and Scientific Study • The Bible needs to take its place in the study of science. • Many believe this will cause science to become pseudoscience, false science. • The Bible establishes science. • Records creation • Explains the difficulties of nature • Shows us our place in this world.

17. Chapter 1B - Science: The Map in Hand • Objectives • Describe various kinds of scientific models and their single most important property. • List and briefly discuss the attributes that science is believed to have but does not. • Discuss the overall structure of scientific knowledge. • Compare and contrast theory, hypothesis, and law. • Define science in a biblically acceptable way. • List several scientific concepts that cannot be clearly defined. • Describe the subject areas of physical science. • Assignment: Section Review, page 15

18. Maps, Modeling, and Science • Science is about modeling and a map is essentially a model. • Anything that is a simplified depiction of a far more complex object or concept. • Physical models: miniature representations of full-sized objects. • Nonphysical models: a conceptual model like particle theory. • Allows a person to organize what he has observed or knows into an understandable idea.

19. Maps, Modeling, and Science • Digital Numerical models: computer programs. • Mathematical models • Models are never entirely complete or accurate, the goal is workability. • The usefulness of something for a particular purpose. • Workability is the most important property of a scientific model.

20. What Science is NOT • Science is NOT a source of settled truth. • No scientific concept is exempt from the possibility of being changed because of a new discovery. • Science is NOT a progression toward the correct view of the world. • Every major model for observing the world in the past has been replace by different models; we are no closer to the “true” view of the world.

21. What Science is NOT • Science is NOT completely objective. • Scientists are not supposed to rely on their personal inclinations, their biases; this is not the case. • Science is NOT always based on direct observations. • Theories have been based on particles to small to be seen.

22. What Science is NOT • Historical Science • The study of the evidence for the origin of all things, also called origins science. • Inference • A process of reasoning used to suggest what may have caused past events or processes based on observations of current events and processes; conclusions drawn from indirect evidence. • Largely based on presuppositions. • At best, scientific knowledge represents our diligent attempts at a workable model of some aspect of the natural world.

23. Structure of Science • Scientists are educated from the same collection of knowledge and view of the world available at that time, a paradigm. • The accepted body of knowledge, theories, hypotheses, and experimental approaches to answering questions of science; a generally accepted worldview.

25. Structure of Science • Scientists acquire new knowledge using a framework of theories, hypotheses, and laws. • Theory • An overarching model that describes the behavior or a related set of natural phenomena. (observable object, process, or property) • Hypothesis • A temporary, testable explanation of a phenomenon that stimulates and guides further scientific investigation. • Law • A simple statement, often expressed as a mathematical equation, that models or describes the relationship among natural phenomena under specified conditions. • Laws describe what happens while theories explain why it happens.

26. Defining Science • Science from the Christian perspective: • The collection of observations, inferences, and models produced through a systematic study of nature for the purpose of enabling humans to exercise good and wise dominion over God’s world; the systematic methods that produce the observations, inferences, and models. • The what, how and why

27. Defining Science • Some of the indefinable phenomena studied in this course: • Matter-that which has a measurable volume and mass • Energy-the ability to do work • Space-a physical extent measured in three dimensions to which matter exists and phenomena occur • Time-a nonphysical continuum that orders the sequence of events and phenomena

28. Physical Science • Deals with two major divisions of the sciences: physics and chemistry. • Physics – the study of matter and energy and how they interact. • Mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity, optics, acoustics, nuclear physics, quantum physics, and relativity. • Chemistry – the study of the structure, composition, and properties of matter and how matter acts in the presence of other matter. • Biochemistry, organic, inorganic, physical, and nuclear chemistry

29. Chapter 1C - Doing Science: The Map in Use • Objectives • Compare becoming a scientist to entering other professions. • Compare operational science to historical science. • Discuss the general sequence of scientific methodology from question to published research report. • Describe various ways that a scientific question can be recognized. • Differentiate between the two major kinds of scientific data and state the ways that data can be collected. • List the various things that a professional scientist may do. • Assignment: Section Review, page 20

30. Becoming a Scientist • Preparing for a career in science is far different than other professions. • For each area of science there exists only one paradigm. • Other professions recognize the existence of other paradigms. • Art – impressionistic, realistic, etc. • Scientists eliminate competing paradigms.

31. Scientific Methodology“The Scientific Method” • Methodology – a system or collection of tools, rules, and procedures used within an area of study. • Scientific methodology – a collection of standards that govern how scientific work is conducted, based on the existing scientific paradigm.

32. Scientific Methodology • Asking Scientific Questions (Step 1) • Questions may arise out of the blue or from these: • An unexpected observation • A prediction made by a theory • Numerical or physical patterns observed in data • A desire to extend human knowledge • A need to solve a technological problem • A desire to improve the human condition

33. Scientific Methodology • Suggesting a Hypothesis (Step 2) • When a question occurs it is a natural tendency to suggest an explanation from one’s one experience or try to find an answer. • Hypothesis • forms a starting point for further study and investigation. • guides a scientist • is a temporary, testable explanation that is not final and subject to change. (Review)

34. Scientific Methodology • Testing the Hypothesis – Data Collection (Step 3) • Data – information collected through observation • Qualitative Data – observations that cannot be numerically measured, usually consisting of verbal descriptions of an observation • Quantitative Data – information obtained by measuring, usually expressed in numbers

35. Scientific Methodology • There are different ways to collect data depending on personal preference and type of matter. • Data Mining • Collections • Surveys • When opportunity presents itself • Trial and error (rarely) • Controlled experiment (most familiar)

36. Scientific Methodology • Evaluating the Hypothesis (Step 4) • One test is not enough, scientists need to repeat in order to have valid results. • Experimental replication – repeating an experiment to validate its results • An honest scientist will be objective even if the results do not support the original hypothesis.

37. Scientific Methodology • Reporting Conclusions (Step 5) • Write a formal report to submit to a professional journal. • First must be submitted to peer review • The analysis of a scientific paper by other qualified scientists for comment and correction to ensure that the paper meets the high standards necessary for scientific work.

38. What Scientists Do • Operational Science • Science that develops answers to natural world questions by directly testing and observing present day phenomena • Examples: computer model of a thunderstorm, understanding the molecular structure of a cell, developing a nuclear fusion reactor, etc. • Historical science • Completely dependent on ones presuppositions • Evolutionism verses creationism • Educate the next generation • Provide expert opinions

39. Chapter 1D – Charting Your Course • Objectives • Discuss the activities associated with theoretical science and applied science. • Show how a scientist can obey the First Great Commandment in his work. • Explain that dominion science is science that fulfills the Creation Mandate. • Describe various ways that a scientist can obey the Second Great Commandment. • Assignment: Section Review, page 23

40. Introduction • Scientific work is divided into two major areas • Theoretical science • Science that extends the current scientific paradigm by discovering new facts about the natural world. The knowledge gained does not have to provide immediate practical benefits. • Applied science • Science that discovers new ways to use existing scientific knowledge for human benefit.

41. Loving God with Science • The First Great Commandment • Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. • Adore His greatness • Marvel His intelligence • Live out the Creation Mandate • Operational science will be referred to as dominion science in this book, a tool to obey the Creation Mandate.

42. Loving Your Neighbor Through Science • The Second Great Commandment • Love your neighbor as yourself • More likely to listen to people who have saved lives and enriched the lives of human beings through his work • How? • Warning of a tsunami • Diagnose disease without even entering the body • Drinkable water in remote locations • Many more….

43. TOMORROW!! • Vocabulary Quiz • Includes all vocabulary throughout the entire chapter, PowerPoints, and front board; not just the box at the end. • Complete Chapter Review in Class • Study for Chapter 1 Test