Introduction to Faith & Science
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휌 ∇ ∙ 퐄 = 휀0 ∇ ∙ 퐁 = 0 휕퐁 ∇ × 퐄 = − 휕푡 Tyler Johnson Summer 2012 휕퐁 ∇ × 퐁 = 휇 퐉 + 휇 휀 0 0 0 휕푡 퐅 = 푞(퐄 + 퐯 × 퐁) 1 2 Faith & Science _____________________________________________________________________ 6 Truth and Hermeneutics______________________________________________________________ 7 An Exploration into Truth ___________________________________________________________________7 Hermeneutics ____________________________________________________________________________8 Recommended Reading ____________________________________________________________________8 Worldviews & Cosmic Geographies _____________________________________________________ 9 Ancient Cosmic Geography ________________________________________________________________ 10 The Aristotelian Worldview (~300 BC – 1600 AD) ______________________________________________ 11 From Aristotle to Newton_________________________________________________________________ 12 Newton’s Worldview (1600’s to today) ______________________________________________________ 13 The Universe since Newton _______________________________________________________________ 14 Final Thoughts __________________________________________________________________________ 15 Recommended Reading __________________________________________________________________ 15 The Theology of Genesis One _________________________________________________________ 16 Egypt _________________________________________________________________________________ 17 Israel _________________________________________________________________________________ 17 Babylon _______________________________________________________________________________ 18 Israel _________________________________________________________________________________ 18 Similarities between Accounts _____________________________________________________________ 19 Differences between Accounts_____________________________________________________________ 20 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________________________ 21 Recommended Reading __________________________________________________________________ 21 Evolution _________________________________________________________________________ 22 Background ____________________________________________________________________________ 22 An Analogy ____________________________________________________________________________ 23 Navigating the Extremes__________________________________________________________________ 24 Human Nature__________________________________________________________________________ 26 Inside the Layer Cake ____________________________________________________________________ 26 Recommended Reading __________________________________________________________________ 27 The Big Bang ______________________________________________________________________ 28 A Little History _________________________________________________________________________ 28 3 The Anthropic Principle __________________________________________________________________ 29 Recommend Reading ____________________________________________________________________ 32 Time & Eternity ____________________________________________________________________ 33 Eternity _______________________________________________________________________________ 33 The Nature of Time ______________________________________________________________________ 34 Time and Modern Science ________________________________________________________________ 36 Putting it All Together____________________________________________________________________ 39 Recommended Reading __________________________________________________________________ 39 Numbers _________________________________________________________________________ 40 The Problems __________________________________________________________________________ 40 Mathematics ___________________________________________________________________________ 43 A Way Forward _________________________________________________________________________ 46 Epilogue _______________________________________________________________________________ 47 Bibliography ___________________________________________________________________________ 47 Eschatology _______________________________________________________________________ 48 Science and the Fate of the Universe ________________________________________________________ 48 Futility and Hope ________________________________________________________________________ 49 Continuity and Discontinuity ______________________________________________________________ 50 The Science of Hope _____________________________________________________________________ 50 Eschatoi Logoi (Last Words) _______________________________________________________________ 52 Recommended Reading __________________________________________________________________ 52 Bibliography for Faith & Science ______________________________________________________ 53 Short List – for those who don’t want to wade through the pages below ___________________________ 53 Web Resources _________________________________________________________________________ 53 DVD Resources _________________________________________________________________________ 53 General Issues in Faith & Science ___________________________________________________________ 53 Creation _______________________________________________________________________________ 54 Evolution/Genetics ______________________________________________________________________ 54 Neuroscience ___________________________________________________________________________ 54 Eschatology ____________________________________________________________________________ 54 On Biblical Interpretation _________________________________________________________________ 54 4 On the History and Philosophy of Science ____________________________________________________ 55 Appendix _________________________________________________________________________ 56 The Unchanging God _____________________________________________________________________ 56 5 Faith & Science The history of the Christian Church involves a tumultuous relationship with Science. There have been times of peaceful coexistence, times of mutual edification and times of passionate dissention. The crux of the matter seems to lie in the fact that both our religious faith and science claim to offer us truth, and not just simple truth, but deep truth that speaks to the core of who we are. In technical terms both faith and science make claims on defining our ontology (ontology meaning existence or being). There is naturally tension then if science seems to make claims upon us that appear unbiblical. But there is usually more going on than just a surface-level comparison. More often than not we bring to the discussion more than just bare scientific facts and pure biblical theology. To be able to properly navigate the tension between Faith & Science we need to understand some of the deeper issues going on. So I offer, as a starting point, 5 Theses regarding how we should approach Faith & Science: 1. The Bible is not a scientific book. I say this carefully because it would be wrong to think that the ancient writers of the Scriptures didn’t make careful observations of the way the world worked; they had a ‘science’ of their day. However, science in our Western world has been so tightly defined that it would be wrong to assume that the writers of the Bible used the same methodology, assumptions and even were seeking the same sort of answers that modern science does today. 2. Both Science and Christianity offer truth. This is undeniable to the professing Christian. Certainly science offers us true statements and ways of understanding the world we live in. If we didn’t trust that science offered us truth then we would be unable to trust in the products of science: buildings, bridges, medicine, vehicles, computers, etc. But as Christians we also believe that truth is found in the Bible and in our lives with God. 3. Our modern worldview has been profoundly shaped by modern science. By this I mean that on a very deep level we think in scientific terms. We believe the earth is a sphere and that it, along with the rest of the planets, revolves around a stationary sun. We believe that the fundamental building blocks of our world are molecules and atoms. We tend to picture the way the world works mechanically. We even expect numbers to correspond to reality in a very quantitative, mathematical way. The writers of the Bible shared very few, if any, of these same presuppositions and thus we should expect them to have a different view of the world, at a fundamental level. 4. Scientists have faith. If, as the author of Hebrews says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, then certainly scientists have great faith. Scientists find assurance in the fact that their methodology brings them closer to an accurate understanding of the way the world and the universe work. Many have great hope that one day science will lead to a complete understanding of everything. But they also have strong convictions about the existence of things not seen. Much of modern science deals with things that are too small, too far away, or too abstract to see and know completely. 5. Faithful Christians are scientists. By this I mean nothing more than that we make observations about the world around us and how it works. We may not use explicitly scientific methods, but each one of us gathers and interprets information about the world