Science and Christianity: Friends or Foes

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Science and ChristianityFriends or Foes?

• by Ard Louis
• Dept. of Chemistry
• Cambridge University
• www-louis.ch.cam.ac.uk/urbana/

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What does the Bible say ?

• In the beginning, God created the heavens and
  the earth Gen 11
  
• For by him all things were created and in him
  all things hold together Col 116,17
• The Son is the radiance of Gods glory
  sustaining all things by his powerful word Heb
  13

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God sustains the universe

• Psalm 104 (praising Gods creation)
• He makes springs pour water into ravines it
  flows between the mountains the wild donkeys
  quench their thirst v10,11
• Natural processes are described both as divine
  and non-divine actions
• 2 perspectives on the same natural world

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Science studies the Customs of the Creator

• If God were to stop sustaining all things the
  world would stop existing
• Donald MacKay, The Clockwork Image, IVP
• An act of God is so marvelous that only the
  daily doing takes off the admiration
• John Donne (Eighty Sermons, 22 published in
  1640)
• Miracles are not God intervening in the laws
  of nature they are God working in less
  customary ways

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Science/Religion and the conflict metaphor?
Science and religion cannot be reconciled ...
Religion has failed, and its failures should be
exposed. Science, with its currently successful
pursuit of universal competence should be
acknowledged the king --Prof Peter Atkins,
Oxford U, in 1995
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Science/Religion and the conflict metaphor?
I dont know any historian of science, of any
religious persuasion or none, who would hold to
the theory that conflict is the name of the game
between science and religion, it simply isnt
true. --Prof Colin Russell, Open
University, UK
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Science/Religion and the conflict metaphor?

• Pervasive myth (Emperor has no clothes)
• Scientists are about as religious as the general
  population
• Galileo example far more complex
• Really about Aristotle/Greek cosmology
• Galilieo Connection, Prof Charles Hummel, IVP
  (1986)

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Christian origins of science

• Science has deeply Christian roots.
• Uniformity
• Rationality
• Intelligibility
• See e.g. books by Stanley Jaki R. Hooykaas e.g.
  China
• Royal Society, the words first scientific
  society. Founded in London July 15, 1662, many
  were Puritans

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Founders of Royal Society

• This most beautiful system of the sun, planets
  and comets could only proceed from the counsel
  and dominion of an intelligent being.
• Sir Isaac Newton

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Founders of Royal Society

• Wrote The Wisdom of God Manifested in Works of
  Creation, governor of the Corporation for the
  Spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New
  England
• Sir Robert Boyle(1627-1691)

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Mechanism v.s. Meaning

• Conflating mechanism and meaning is origin of
  most conflict
• Nothing Buttery
• Scientism
• The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever
  will be Carl Sagan
• The most important questions in life are not
  susceptible to solution by the scientific method
  Prof. Bill Newsome, Stanford U.

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God of the gaps

• When we come to the scientifically unknown, our
  correct policy is not to rejoice because we have
  found God it is to become better scientists
  Prof. Charles Coulson, Oxford U

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Fine Tuning and the Anthropic Principle

• The universe is the way it is, because we are
  here Prof. Stephen Hawking, Cambridge U
• If the fine structure constant were changed by
  1, the sun would immediately explode Prof. Max
  Tegmark, U. Penn

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We are made of Stardust He C via a
resonance

• Sir Fred Hoyle, Cambridge U
• A common sense interpretation of the facts
  suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with
  physics .. and biology
• His atheism was deeply shaken

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Fine Tuning and the Anthropic Principle

• Fine tuning is not a proof of God, but seems more
  consistent with theism than atheism
• Note the difference with God of the gaps

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Engaging with Science

• Do your homework
• Focus on meaning, not mechanism Fine
  tuning, not God of the gaps
• Fight evolutionism Who does speak for science?
• Amongst Christians, some emotive issues
• But on details, we should be allowed to disagree
• Current revolution in Biology will throw up many
  questions which Christians are uniquely
  qualified and called to evaluate

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Engaging with Scientists

• I.m.h.e. more open than arts/humanities students
• Often looking for a higher cause to which to
  dedicate their lives idealists
• Receptive to truth
• Still rarely become Christians through
  intellectual argument alone

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Science as a calling ?

• Good Scientific praxis resonates well with
  Christian principles
• Called not driven makes better scientists
• in Christian community
• Science and its derivatives will,through
  globalisation, have an increasingly large
  influence on thinking in the 2/3 world. Impact
  on missions.
• Christians are needed

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Summary

• Science and Christianity are not in conflict
• Mechanism versus meaning
• But watch out for God of the Gaps
• Fine tuning is cool
• Do your homework
• Could you be called to Science?

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Recommended Books, see also www-louis.ch.cam.ac
.uk/urbana/

• Science and Christianity Conflict or Coherence?,
  Henry F. Schaefer, III (Apollos, 2003)
• Quarks, Chaos and Christianity, John Polkinghorne
  (Triangle, 1994)
• Science Its Limits, Del Ratzsch (IVP 2000)
• Rebuilding the Matrix, Denis Alexander (Lion 2001)

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Recommended Books, see also www-louis.ch.cam.ac
.uk/urbana/

• The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll
  (IVP, 1994)
• Battle for the Beginnings, Del Ratzsch (IVP, 1996)