Science and Belief

Intro

• Belief that the world is orderly and intelligible and that evidence and experiment are the means to acquire knowledge. 
• Desires to challenge and evaluate all claims to truth.

Formal system

• Observation - Observing and gathering data on something in nature.
• Hypothesis - Making an educated guess to explain the gathered data.
• Experiment - Testing the hypothesis in controlled conditions. Confirm or falsify. 
• Verification - Repeat. The more times the more accurate.

This is based on inductive reasoning and is not complete proof.

• Bertrand Russel on scientist - 'his beliefs are tentative; they are not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition. 
• Inductive Reasoning - although it cannot prove, it can be made highly likely.
• Popper's falsification - can be constantly updated through time.
• Objective - "truth is scientific truth" - Dawkins.

• Meaning - God revealing himself and his meaning to earth.
• Natural - Learning about God throgh his own creation. Eg. size of earth shows his power.
• Special - God revealing himself to a specific person/people at a specific time. 
• Decisive - Jesus is the decisive revelation as he is God's human form.

• Fundamentalism, creationism
• Bible is infallible - claims to truth. It's word is absolute and cannot be challenged.
• Genesis 1 - earth created in 6 24 hour periods. John Ussher says the earth is 6000 years old.

Genesis 1

• Man and woman created at the same time - 1 v 27, "man was created in God's image".
• Pinnacle of God's creation - stewardship 1 v 31, "very good".

Genesis 2

• Man was created first and he named the creatures.
• Woman was created from man's rib.

• DNA/Genetics - Our DNA can be monitored to be shown it has changed/evolved over time.
• Geology - Layers of strata can show how long the earth dates back.
• Fossils - Fossils can show that humans weren't around the same time as dinosaurs therefore humans have evolved.
• Natural selection in action - Darwin's finches and their different beaks.
• Similarities with animals - eg. tailbone.

Successful

• Catechism of catholic church - Led to greater admiration of creator, supported by the fact that he's created a longer universe.
• St. Augustine - The bible is not meant to be read literally.
• Wittgenstein - Language games. Migliore said science suggests how and belief suggests why.

Partially Successful

• Anthropic priciple - Evolution can only take place in a habitable universe.
• Tennent - Man possesses aesthetic awareness.
• Temple - If we all followed survival of the fittest, there would be no morality.
• Evolution is God's mechanism (this challenges an all powerful/loving God.)

Unsuccessful 

• Evolution is only a theory - it cannot be proved despite it being likely 
• John Polkinghorne - God and providence. "flexibility of the process".

Firstly

• Analogy - Paley compares a pocket watch to complex and purposeful mechanisms in nature. Because the pocket watch is designed and purposeful, so too are the natural mechanisms.

Secondly

• Comparison - The watch is complex and purposeful. It is a product of intellignet design. Nature has complex and purposeful mechanisms. Therefore they also have an intelligent designer.

Thirdly

• Proportionality - Natural mechanisms are much more complicated than man-made mechanisms. Therefore designer of the natural mechanisms is much more powerful and intelligent than that of the watch. This designer is God.

Fourthly

• Chance - Unlikely for complex and purposeful mechanisms to come about by chance. Even more unlikely for a more complex, natural mechanism to come about by chance

Lastly

• Regularity - Swinburne suggests that regularity points to order, and therefore a designer.

Firstly

• Hume - Universe could've come about by chance. In infinite time, particle matter could've randomly created a functioning universe.

Secondly

• Evolution - Paley wrote before Darwin. Evolution provides a much more compelling alternative than species being created to suit their environment.

Thirdly

• Evolution variation - Evolution explains why species seem so expertly adapted to their environment

Lastly

• Steve Jones - There is no purpose to life, evolution is completely natural explanation.

Edwin Hubble - redshift shows that stars are moving away from us which shows that the universe is expanding. Universe expanded from the Big Bang.

Background Radiation - we can still detect radiation that supports an explosion of that size eg. static in TVs.