Creation

1. Creation

2. God as Creator • Creation ex nihilo • Young Earth Creationism • Ussher • Old Earth Creationism • Qualities of the God of Creationism

3. Theory of Intelligent Design • 1970s • Discovery Institute • Science and Religion together • Fine-tuned • DNA • Anthropic Principle • God is the intelligent creator

4. God as Creator – Symbolic interpretation of Genesis • “Identical realities described in vastly different terms.” • Genesis and the Big Bang • Let there be light • Bible = symbolic truth that God created the universe • ‘Middle way’ between Creationism and scientists who reject the creation story because of Big Bang Theory.

5. God as sustainer • Ontological Dependance • Creation ex nihilo • Order – Heaven, Earth and Waters • Order – Time • ‘Being’

6. God as Personal • Genesis – caring God • Genesis 2 – God described anthropomorphically • Relationships – Adam and Eve • ‘In the image of God’ • God the Father

7. Deism • God created world then left • Reason and rationality reveals creator God. • God is not personal • God is not a sustainer • No relationship – prayer is pointless.

8. The Big Bang – origin of the universe • 10-15 billion years ago • Huge explosion from a point of singularity • >1 second – time and space • Second later, laws of physics and chemistry, like gravity • 3 mins – protons and neutrons formed atoms • Half million years, temperatures cool enough for hydrogen and helium • Billion years – stars and galaxies • Many stars died before earth formed. Big Bang

9. Evidence for the Big Bang • The universe is expanding • Galaxies are moving apart from one another • Red Shift • Background radiation

10. Nature of the universe • Still expanding • Random chance • No creator • Will end in Big Crunch or will continuously expand • Still cooling

11. The explosion will slow down and stop due to gravity • Everything will rush back to the point of singularity • Oscillating Universe Theory • Conditions for life = chance • BUT expansion seems to be getting quicker End of the Universe • Expansion getting faster • 2nd law thermodynamics – entropy • Heat Death

12. How does the Big Bang challenge religion? • Different to Genesis account • Questions the age of the universe • Undermines the Bible • Suggests that the universe could be a cosmic accident rather than the result of loving design • Questions the relationship humans feel they have with God. • Explains the existence of the universe without need for God.

13. Evolution • Charles Darwin • 1859 – On the Origin of the Species • Adaptation • Survival of the fittest • Natural Selection • Richard Dawkins

14. How does Evolution challenge religion? • Undermines the Bible • Questions the special relationship and the ‘image of God’ • Purpose? (“Blind, unconscious, automatic process ...”) • Is there any need for God? ‘Intellectual suicide’? • Suggests that creatures have adapted to their environment, countering the religious idea that God loving crafted their environment.

15. How do Christians respond to these challenges? • Creationists – deny scientific theories. • Scientific creationism – the Bible is science. • Symbolic interpretation (Schroeder) • Mythological and theological truth • Reductionism

16. Science and Religion are irrelevant to each other • Science cannot discredit religious faith • “We can neither affirm or deny it, we simply cannot comment on it as scientists.” • Evolutionary theory has no bearing on the existence of God. • “Either half of my colleagues are enormously stupid, or else the science of Darwinism is fully compatible with conventional religious beliefs – and equally compatible with atheism.”

17. “Dawkins presents Darwinism as an intellectual highway to atheism. In reality, the intellectual trajectory mapped out by Dawkins seems to get stuck in a rut at agnosticism. There is a substantial logical gap between Darwinism and atheism, which Dawkins seems to prefer to bridge by rhetoric, rather than evidence.” (McGrath)

18. “Old God so wise that He could make all things; behold He so much more wise … He can make all things make themselves.” (Kingsley)

19. Irrelevant Conflict So, do science and religion conflict with each other? Are they complimentary? Are they just irrelevant to each other? Compliment

20. B Questions A good B question will: • Have a clear argument running through it, but will not use ‘I’. • Examine both sides. • Contain analysis (next slide will help) • Be focussed on the question. • Come to a conclusion which is based on evidence discussed in the essay.

21. Critical Analysis This is a very damaging criticism because ___. However, one could argue that _____. The Design Argument can not stand up against this criticism because _____ Although Polkinghorne defends the Design Argument by stating _____, he fails to protect the argument fully because _______. Dawkin’s argument’s is weak here because ____. Despite this criticism, the Design Argument is still a sound one because ________.

22. Michael Behe • Discovery Institute • irreducible complexity • Blood clots Is Intelligent Design a scientific or religious theory? • Daniel Dennett • Even complex structures, like the eye, can be explained through Natural Selection • Even the eye has flaws, such as blind spots – why would God create flaws?