Rep criticisms

Criticisms

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Christian response to the challenges of BB and E

Religious fundamentalists, liberals and creationists.
- reject Big Bang theory and evolution
- everything in the bible is the word of god, no room for interpretation
- genesis god is speaking directly to humans
- archbishop usshur said god made earth 40004 before Jesus was born, used the genealogies of the bible

Scientific creationism
-
big bang theory is incompatible with the religious belief in a creator
- first two chapters are a scientific approach of how the world was made

The bible is symbolic (science and religion can go together)
-
genesis account is symbolic
- direct scientific link between the genesis story and the events in the Big Bang theory
- Gerald Schroeder says it is okay to accept modern scientific ideas and believe in a creator

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Christian responses continued

Mythological and theological truth
-
two stories in genesis (genesis 1 and genesis 2)
- need to accept the scientific ideas
- theistic evolutionists think that god made the world over long periods that the universe has gone through and this demonstrates his glory.
- Big Bang theory and theological truth should be put together, we need to understand science and religion to understand the universe.

Evolution (scientists and faith)
-
Stephen Jay Gould says science ant discredit religious faith.
- says Darwins theory has no bearing on the existence of god.
- argues that evolutionary scientists are either theists or atheists. Making them stupid or evolution is compatible with religion
- Alister McGrath says how Dawkins is wrong about evolution proving there is no god
- there is a gap between Darwinism and atheism
- he feels that Darwins theory is not a reason for everyone to be atheists.

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Christian responses continued

Evolution (scientists and faith)
- Charles Kingsley
he was a churchman who supported Darwin
- he felt that if god could create creatures that are callable of self-development then god is more Powerful and impressive
- it means god doesn't have to intervene to make new creatures
- FOSSILS there are no fossils to show evolution taking place. Scientists say these would be very rare.
- REDUCTIONISM (reducing everything down to science)
- loooking at complex things on a small scale, the simple parts which fit together to make them
- means nothing is more than parts, so humans are just molecules atoms and sub-atomic particles
- Martin Rodgers says we are much more than this
- he says science and religion should be put together to get the big picture
- those against reductionism state how humans are much more unique as we are able to have thoughts and a soul (enables relationship with god)

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Criticisms of miracles

DAVID HUME
-
his definition "a miracle is a transgression of a law of nature by a particular violation of a Diety"
- insufficient evidence, human testimony, competing religions
- two parts to his argument a priori and a posteriori

PART ONE (a priori) why the definition of miracles shows it is unreasonable to believe in them
- laws of nature are said to be descriptions of what has been observed to happen regularly
- they are firm and unalterable
- a miracle goes against the firm experience
- miracles thus can never happen
- miracles can be seen as the least unlikely events possible
- he didn't say it was impossible to break a law of nature
- he argues that we shouldn't believe in them
- too much evidence for nature being firm and regular
- hence his saying " a wise man proportions his belief to the evidence"

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Criticisms of miracles

PART TWO (a posteriori) reasons to doubt those claim to have evidence of miracles

  • Hume is an empiricist he needs evidence with knowledge to say it is true
  • he says that we ant trust all evidence
  • he believes in a strict criteria for belief in miracles, only when all these are present can he believe in a miracle
  • sufficient number of witnesses
  • unquestioned good sense
  • so educated as not to be deluded
  • beyond all suspicion of lying
  • with a very good reputation to lose if lying
  • the claim was public and easily falsified
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Criticisms of miracles

MAURICE WILES

  • doesn't believe in miracles
  • accepts him as creator but thinks he doesn't intervene
  • god made the world in its entirety she doesn't need to intervene and wouldn't undermine the natural laws
  • he argued that an omnibenevolent god would not perform trivial miracles but miracles of a mass scale
  • he said how god either acts arbitrarily (randomly) so we should not worship him
  • or he doesn't act at all
  • the biblical miracles should be seen as symbolic for god's teachings andn it rejected
  • prayer should be seen as having a purpose to connect with god not as god taking action
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Design argument criticisms

  • order and purpose is not evidence for existence of god, but adaptation of species to environments.
  • if everything has a designer then who designed god?
  • over the years science has proved evidence for the Big Bang theory but none for god
  • sometimes a watch isn't perfect but has faults, so the universe could have faults and not have perfect order
  • why one god? Why not many gods?
  • is a watch a suitable comparison to a universe??
  • inductive leap - may have a designer doesn't have to be god though
  • cant compare the universe to something as simple as a watch, universe isn't fully explored and discovered.
  • Darwins theory gives convincing explanations of nearly everything in nature that paley used in arguing there is a designer
  • laws of nature explain the order of the universe
  • regularity of the universe can be explained by newtons laws of motion
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Design criticisms continued

RICHARD DAWKINS
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Dawkins challenges those who claim evolution is a matter Of chance and that it is too unlikely that random mutations an make complex biologica structures.
- he says if they find it too hard to understand that things can form naturally it doesn't make it magic
- the idea of a supernatural being creating these sort of structures out of nothing is like trying to leap on to a mountain in one go
- unlike gradual evolution by natural selection is like climbing mount improbable (take one step at a time)
- before 1859 all attempts to understand humanity are useless (design argument therefore is useless)
- uses computer system to show how highly complex things can be produced through small randomly gendered yet natural selected steps
- this is instead of an intelligent designer
- the watchmaker analogy is self-refuting, if an intelligent designer designed complex objects then this designer to just be complex and needed a designer
- life was the result of complex biological processes not a god

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Design criticisms continued

DAVID HUME

Evil

  • if an all loving, all knowing, all powerful Christian god designed the universe why is there evil in the world?
  • is god evil?

Humans Know Nothing

  • humans only know about man made things, the universe is full of complex things
  • it isn't possible to apply this limited knowledge to something of universal creation

Vegetables

  • attacks the comparison between the world and a machine, a closer comparison would be something more organic and living.
  • applied to palye's watch analogy.
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Design criticisms continued

The Analogy

  • if we follow an analogy we would find an imperfect designer and probably a whole team of designers for something huge as the universe
  • the universe is imperfect (natural disasters) does this mean the designer was imperfect? Perhaps elderly or too young?
  • 23 years before the watch analogy Hume said someone would do it and listed out ways how it wouldn't work.

The Epicurean Hypothesis

  • matter is eternal meaning it is based on chance not a designer.
  • if enough time was given and random arrangements soon a universe exactly the same to this one would appear.
  • stability and order is the result of random particles not a designer.
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