1. Creation

2. God as Creator
Creation ex nihilo
Young Earth Creationism
Ussher
Old Earth Creationism
Qualities of the God of Creationism

3. Theory of Intelligent Design
Discovery Institute
Science and Religion together
Fine-tuned
DNA
Anthropic Principle
God is the intelligent creator

4. God as Creator – Symbolic interpretation of Genesis
“Identical realities described in vastly different terms.”
Genesis and the Big Bang
Let there be light
Bible = symbolic truth that God created the universe
‘Middle way’ between Creationism and scientists who reject the creation story because of Big Bang Theory.

5. God as sustainer
Ontological Dependance
Creation ex nihilo
Order – Heaven, Earth and Waters
Order – Time
‘Being’

6. God as Personal
Genesis – caring God
Genesis 2 – God described anthropomorphically
Relationships – Adam and Eve
‘In the image of God’
God the Father

7. Deism
God created world then left
Reason and rationality reveals creator God.
God is not personal
God is not a sustainer
No relationship – prayer is pointless.

8. Big Bang The Big Bang – origin of the universe 10-15 billion years ago
Huge explosion from a point of singularity
>1 second – time and space
Second later, laws of physics and chemistry, like gravity
3 mins – protons and neutrons formed atoms
Half million years, temperatures cool enough for hydrogen and helium
Billion years – stars and galaxies
Many stars died before earth formed.
Big Bang

9. Evidence for the Big Bang
The universe is expanding
Galaxies are moving apart from one another
Red Shift
Background radiation

10. Nature of the universe
Still expanding
Random chance
No creator
Will end in Big Crunch or will continuously expand
Still cooling

11. The explosion will slow down and stop due to gravity
Everything will rush back to the point of singularity
Oscillating Universe Theory
Conditions for life = chance
BUT expansion seems to be getting quicker
End of the Universe
Expansion getting faster
2nd law thermodynamics – entropy
Heat Death

12. How does the Big Bang challenge religion?
Different to Genesis account
Questions the age of the universe
Undermines the Bible
Suggests that the universe could be a cosmic accident rather than the result of loving design
Questions the relationship humans feel they have with God.
Explains the existence of the universe without need for God.

13. 1859 – On the Origin of the Species Adaptation Survival of the fittest
Evolution
Charles Darwin
1859 – On the Origin of the Species
Adaptation
Survival of the fittest
Natural Selection
Richard Dawkins

14. How does Evolution challenge religion?
Undermines the Bible
Questions the special relationship and the ‘image of God’
Purpose? (“Blind, unconscious, automatic process ...”)
Is there any need for God? ‘Intellectual suicide’?
Suggests that creatures have adapted to their environment, countering the religious idea that God loving crafted their environment.

15. How do Christians respond to these challenges?
Creationists – deny scientific theories.
Scientific creationism – the Bible is science.
Symbolic interpretation (Schroeder)
Mythological and theological truth
Reductionism

16. Science and Religion are irrelevant to each other
Science cannot discredit religious faith
“We can neither affirm or deny it, we simply cannot comment on it as scientists.”
Evolutionary theory has no bearing on the existence of God.
“Either half of my colleagues are enormously stupid, or else the science of Darwinism is fully compatible with conventional religious beliefs – and equally compatible with atheism.”

17. “Dawkins presents Darwinism as an intellectual highway to atheism
“Dawkins presents Darwinism as an intellectual highway to atheism. In reality, the intellectual trajectory mapped out by Dawkins seems to get stuck in a rut at agnosticism. There is a substantial logical gap between Darwinism and atheism, which Dawkins seems to prefer to bridge by rhetoric, rather than evidence.” (McGrath)

18. “Old God so wise that He could make all things; behold He so much more wise … He can make all things make themselves.”
(Kingsley)

19. Irrelevant Conflict Compliment
So, do science and religion conflict with each other? Are they complimentary? Are they just irrelevant to each other?
Compliment

20. B Questions A good B question will:
Have a clear argument running through it, but will not use ‘I’.
Examine both sides.
Contain analysis (next slide will help)
Be focussed on the question.
Come to a conclusion which is based on evidence discussed in the essay. 20

21. Critical Analysis This is a very damaging criticism because ___.
However, one could argue that _____.
The Design Argument can not stand up against this criticism because _____
Although Polkinghorne defends the Design Argument by stating _____, he fails to protect the argument fully because _______.
Dawkin’s argument’s is weak here because ____.
Despite this criticism, the Design Argument is still a sound one because ________. 21

22. Is Intelligent Design a scientific
Michael Behe
Discovery Institute
irreducible complexity
Blood clots
Is Intelligent Design a scientific
or religious theory?
Daniel Dennett
Even complex structures, like the eye, can be explained through Natural Selection
Even the eye has flaws, such as blind spots – why would God create flaws?