Theme B life

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  • Created by: Sia11
  • Created on: 26-03-21 17:15
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  • Theme B Life
    • Religious views on the origins of the universe
      • Literalist Christians believe the Bible teaches us how God created the universe. Genesis shows that God created the universe, and everything in it. 
        • God is completely in control of creation and creates by speaking “God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light.”
      • Muslims also look to scripture as the basis of their belief that God created the universe. The Quran doesn’t have one chronological story.
        • It does say that it took “6 ayyams” to create the universe and everything in it. God is in complete control and says “come together.”
      • Liberal Christians might see the Bible as a myth. They say it holds spiritual truths but that the exact details aren’t necessarily true. 
        • The spiritual truth of Genesis is that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This might not have happened over days but billions of years.
    • Scientific views of the origins of the universe
      • The Big Bang Theory states that the universe was created from a random expansion of hot gasses 14 billion years ago. Before the Big Bang there was nothing, but then from a point of singularity matter expanded and cooled. 
        • 20th Century evidence supporting this includes Red Shift and Cosmic Background Radiation.
      • Muslims believe empirical evidence found by scientists in the 20th C can be used to further prove the events of creation as revealed in the Quran. 
        • This tells of one point being “cast asunder”, “hot smoke” “rounded courses” and “expanding.” The only difference for a Muslim is that before the Big Bang, Allah existed and rather than chance He caused it.
      • Literalist Christians do not agree with the Big Bang Theory. They base their views about creation on the Genesis account which states it took 6 days and not billions of years to create the universe. 
        • Young Earth Creationists deny the claim that the universe is 14 billion years old and argue that biblical dating traces it to under 10,000 years old. They would say the Big Bang is just a theory.
    • Religious interpretations about the origins of life
      • Liberal Christians look to the story of Genesis to discover the origins of life. It teaches that all life was made within the 6  days of creation and that humans were created by God ‘In His image.’ 
        • Adam and Eve were the first humans, from whom we are all descendants.
      • Muslims look to the revealed word of Allah in the Quran, which teaches that Allah made all life in 6 ayyams. 
        • Although in Islam we are not made in the image of God, we are special as Allah ‘breathes His spirit’ in to Adam. Adam and Eve are the first humans.
      • Liberal Christians may see the Genesis account as a myth. They would say the spiritual truth behind it is that God created all life and that humans are special.
        • They might think Adam and Eve represent all of humanity, rather than being individual people.
    • Scientific views of the origins of life
      • One scientific view of the origins of life is Evolution Theory. It was developed by Darwin in the 19th C. He made empirical observations to discover that all life can be traced back over millions of years to primordial soup, where the first single celled organism originates. 
        • From that all life has adapted over time through a process called natural selection, whereby the fittest genes survive and are passed on to offspring. Humans share a common ancestor with primates in this process.
      • Liberal Christians might accept this theory. They might believe in theistic evolution, whereby God has created and guided evolution as the means to create life and humans. God chose to create us over time. 
      • Hindus accept evolution and use it as evidence of how, as people reincarnate in to better lives, there is a growing human population.
      • Muslims do not accept the evolution of humans. They trust the Quran as the revealed word of Allah and in it it clearly explains the process by which humanity was created. Adam was the first human and was made “first from clay, then as a drop of sperm, then as a blood clot and a suspended thing.”
        • This is seen as explaining embryonic development way ahead of scientific knowledge of it. Evolution is a theory and may one day be refuted. Literalist Christians agree.

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