Religion and Science

• Big Bang Theory
• Evolution
• Creationism
• Progressive Christians
• Liberal Christians
• Dawkins
• Intelligent Design
• Irreducible Complexity (Behe)

• Edwin Hubble observed that the light from the stars became redder the further they travelled away from earth. He deduced the universe is expanding
• By measuring the red shift Edwin calculated the speed they were travelling and the date this movement begun
• Its start was nick named the Big Bang and postulates a cosmic explosion of enormous heat and energy from which all matter was formed
• Big Bang occurred approximately 13.77 billion years ago
• After the big bang the universe was an extremely hot and dense state and began expanding rapidly
• After the expansion the universe began to cool and to allow energy to be converted into various subatomic particles including protons neutrons and electrons
• The first element produced was hydrogen, along with traces of helium and lithium

• Developed by Charles Darwin
• Came to conclusions after observations on Galapagos islands
• All species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small inherited variations that increase the individuals ability to compete, survive and reproduce
• The world is not constant or recently created nor perpetually cycling but steadily changing
• Organisms are transformed in time
• Species have evolved from one common ancestor
• Herbert Spencer= Survival of the fittest

• Bible literally true
• Creation in 6 days
• No big bang nor evolution
• Young earth= 6000 years (ussher: the world was created in 4004 BCE)
• Universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation
• Humans made in ‘image of God’
• Modern creationists use science to support scriptures (inherent word from God)
• Fossils are prematurely aged by God from catastrophes such as Noah’s ark
• Dating of fossils and radiometric dating of rocks is fallible and inaccurate
• Many creationists follow intelligent design (a posteriori [empiricist] explanation)
• Evolution is just a theory

• Bible not literally true
• Genesis 2 is a mythical story
• Creation was in 6 phases not days
• Reject big bang theory
• Reject theory of evolution

• God is behind the big bang theory
• God is behind the process of evolution
• Accept science and say God is the cause of it

• People who believe in God are deluded
• 4 major points:
  • Belief in God is irrational (infantile eg Santa)
  • Science shows us there is no God
  • Faith in God can be explained away on scientific grounds
  • Faith in God leads to violence
• ‘Real scientists do not believe in God’
• Science proves things with certainty
• Anything worth knowing can be proved by science. Anything else is delusion, wishful thinking or madness
• Predisposed to believe in God? Psychological need for God
• There is no God, lots of people believe in God, therefore they invent God to meet their needs
• Religion has caused lots of problems such as intolerance and violence

• The idea that the universe must have a designer rather than being the result of changed or undirected natural process

• The idea that some biological organisms are two complex to evolve without the help of and unevolved
• Mouse trap example (Behe)-
  • Mouse trap has 5 parts that are absolutely necessary for mouse trap to function.
  • Can’t build a mouse trap by Darwinian natural selection
  • Factory use all the parts but for different purposes
  • If you put them in a cupboard and mice invade the factory they cannot spontaneously self assemble
  • The pieces must be put together by someone
• Cilium example (Behe) (tiny hair wafting mucus [that traps bacteria] out of body) = part of us that needs external influence to explain it. Like the mousetrap, it has all the properties of design and none of the properties of natural selection

• Attacks notion  of randomness from mathematical point of view
• Living organisms exhibit extraordinary precise, complex, specified information
• Likens to combination lock-
  • Improbable to randomly get correct combination
  • Just like the probability of matter being correctly arranged to produce the first form of life
  • The idea the universe has evolved without God is impossible

• Peter Atkins
• Keith Ward
• Edwin Hubble
• Stephen Hawking
• Morris and Whitcomb
• Philip Gosse
• Colin Humphrey
• Rev. Dr John Polkinghorne
• Professor Fred Hoyle
• Darwin
• Rev Arthur Peacocke
• Denis Alexander
• Professor Michael Behe
• ETC

END