Recap  What is intelligent design?  What is irreducible complexity?

Discussion  ‘The more science understands, the less we need to believe in God’  Agree  Disagree

Aims  To explore the possibility of reconciling religious and scientific views  To plan an answer to a past question  To review the religion and science section of the course

Theistic Evolution  God intended to create a universe that would support life  God intended to create life in his image so that we would seek out fellowship with God  God used the process of evolution to achieve these goals  For God this process is not slow and random but intentional and ordered Booklets, p.74

Theistic Evolution  Within this God-given process of evolution some suffering is necessary  The ugliness of death is part of the freedom that God has granted to nature  John Polkinghorne  The evolutionary universe is a creation allowed to make itself  Consequently the universe contains both beautiful and ugly things

Dawkins  According to Dawkins:  A scientific worldview makes belief in God unnecessary or impossible  Religious assertions are grounded in faith and are therefore incompatible with the scientific evidence- based pursuit of truth  Religion leads to evil  Religion offers a bleak view of the world; science offers a brilliant vision of the world as awe-inspiring

Faith and Evidence  Dawkins criticises any beliefs that are not grounded in the observable  He believes that religious faith (a form of mental illness) is blind trust in the absence of evidence  However, this is not really a very good definition of faith and Dawkins offers no evidence that religious believers would agree with his definition

What is Faith?  Dawkins says faith is blind trust and a form of mental illness.  What do you think faith is?

Faith and Evidence  Dawkins argues that believing in God is as infantile as believing in the Tooth Fairy or Santa  Has Dawkins made a reasonable comparison?

Religion is evil?  There is now psychological evidence to suggest that religion may be good for us  How do you think religion might help us in:  Coping with stress?  Our physical and mental health?

Catholic View  The Catholic view is that religion and science should be in harmony  Humani Generis, 1950  The body of Adam may have been developed by a process of natural selection but his soul was created directly by God  Karl Rahner  Evolution is a mechanism through which God operates

Should we interpret Genesis 1-3 literally?  Did Darwin Kill God? Did Darwin Kill God?  15 minutes

Task – 10 minutes  Use p in your booklet and p in your textbook to plan an answer: (a) Explain the debate between Creationism and the Big Bang theory. [25] (b) 'The Big Bang theory is no more believable than Creationism.' Discuss. [10]

(a) Explain the debate between Creationism and the Big Bang theory. [25] (b) 'The Big Bang theory is no more believable than Creationism.' Discuss. [10]

Homework – due next week (a) Explain the debate between Creationism and the Big Bang theory. [25] (b) 'The Big Bang theory is no more believable than Creationism.' Discuss. [10]

Task – 30 minutes  Complete the review questions on the handout