Science And Religion

Science and Religion

1. Copernican models

There were three broad responses within the Christian traditions regarding the Copernican models, this approaches include the literal approach, the accommodation approach and the allegorical approach.

The literal approach:

This approach argues that the readings from the Holy Bible should not be taken literally, one should take the information from the readings not literally but at face value, an example to demonstrate this approach was that people may take it literally that the creation in the book of Genesis took six period of twenty four hours, therefore according to this approach we are supposed to take the face value of information contained and not to take the information literally that the earth is still and it is the sun that moves as demonstrated by the readings in the bible. [ 1]

The accommodation approach:

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This approach is the most important in describing the Copernican model, this approach argues that the scriptures were written under anthropological and cultural conditioned forms and manner, this approach states that the first chapters of Genesis were written using a language and also an imagery that was appropriate to the cultural condition of its audience at the time. For this reason therefore this approach argues that the first chapters of the Genesis from the Holy Bible should not be taken literally. [2]

The allegorical approach:

This is another approach toward the Copernican model. This approach states that some of the chapters in the Holy Bible were written in a certain style that requires us not to take them literally, according to this approach the first chapters of the Holy Bible that depict the origin of the earth are allegorical accounts and do not depict literal history the earth origin.

[3]

Therefore the three broad responses in the Christian traditions regarding the Copernican models include the literal approach, the accommodation approach and the allegorical approach.The literal approach argues that the readings from the Holy Bible should not be taken literally, one should take the information from the readings not literally but at face value.

The accommodation approach states that the scriptures were written under anthropological and cultural conditioned forms and manner, this approach states that the first chapters of Genesis were written using a language and also an imagery that was appropriate to the cultural condition of its audience at the time. Finally the allegorical approach states that some of the chapters in

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the Holy Bible were written in a certain style that requires us not to take them literally, according to this approach the first chapters of the Holy Bible that depict the origin of the earth are allegorical accounts and do not depict the history of the earth.

2. Deism and the discoveries of Isaac Newton

Deism is a movement that rejects the existence of supernatural occurrences such as miracles and the existence of prophets, Deism depict that God does not interfere with life of humans and laws that exist in the world. They view the Holy Books as interpretations that were made by other humans and not by an authoritative source. [4]

Deism has a number of features they believe that reason brought about the origin of their believe and not faith, they reject religious holy books that claim to have contained the word of God, they also reject reports of miracles and prophesies and they reject the creation of the world as described by Genesis. [5]

However despite rejecting other religious believes they acknowledge the existence of God who is the creator of the world and the universe and that God wants us to behave morally but God does not interfere with the laws of the universe.

The origin of Deism can be seen as motivated following the work of Isaac Newton who is well known for his discovery of the law of motion and gravitation force, according to his work the law of motion does explain the motion of the planets, however he does not dismiss the existence of god, he states that gravity explains the motions of all the planets but does not explain who set

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these planets on motion, for this reason we conclude that God set the planets in motion and left as stated by Deism. [6]

Further Newton stated that God created the world and left, he does not interfere with the affairs of the world, this is because he made the world with perfection and the interference of God in the affairs of the world would only be evidence of imperfection in the creation of the world, this is consistence with Deism believes.

According to deism the Newton’s law of gravity explains the behaviours of objects in the universe. It portrays a view that the universe and its objects are controlled by nature laws, this is to say that God set the Laws of nature that would control the universe and left. Deism therefore reject the existence of miracles and prophets as they are described as violating natural laws, for this reason there is a justified reason of the Deism believes.

Miracles and prophets are rejected by the Deism believe in that they are not consistent with natural laws, according to the Newton theory the laws of nature are clearly stated which govern the universe.

For this reason therefore we can conclude that Newton’s theory of the universe motivated the emergence of Deism, this is because the Newton’s theory depict the existence of laws of nature that are followed but there is a creator of these laws who left them to govern the universe.

Newton’s law therefore accepts the existence of a creator who is God who created the universe and the laws that govern it and left. God does not interfere with the laws of the universe as the interference of these laws would show imperfection in creation, this is consistent with Deism believes. The existence of the laws of nature by Isaac Newton theory clearly justifies Deism

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view to reject the existence of prophets and miracles. This is because miracles and prophets

3. Darwin’s theory and challenges on Christians

Darwin theory of evolution challenged Christian teaching on origin of life, according to the Darwi n

theory man and other animals originated from non life forms and through the years man evolved from animals. This challenged the Christian view on the origin of man which states that man was created by God on the sixth day and according to Darwin

theory man evolved from other primates, the theory of evolution therefore posed a challenge to tradition Christian teaching on the origin of man.

[8]

According to Darwin life forms evolved from non life forms and that the many forms of life in the world were due to mutation and natural selection, what most challenged the Christians at the time of the introduction of this theory was because Darwin had studied theology and had become a clergy man, however after the death of his daughter he published the theory.

Despite his theory he still claimed the existence of God as the creator of the universe but he later lost his faith in Christianity. The theory therefore created a challenge to Christianity especially the origin of man, the Holy Bible states that God made animal and man and all that is contained in the world in six days, but according to Darwin’s theory man evolved from primates where all animals have evolved over the years.

[9]

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4. Based on the doctrines of logical positivism does the statement “God is all-powerful” have any possible meaning (that is, could be true or false)? If so, how is that meaning determined? If not, why not? Include in your answer the relevant doctrine of logical positivism.

Logical positivism was first developed in 1931 by Herbert Feigl and Albert Blumberg, and it was centred on one task which was to clarify the meaning of ideas and concepts, this led to the inquiry of what meaning was and what statements had meaning and those that didn’t have meaning, for this reason therefore logical positivism states that meaning is necessary and fundamental if and only if it connects to experience in this world. [10]

Logical positivism states that meaning is fundamental and necessary if it is connected to the experience in the world. There is usually only two statements which are taken to have meaning in logical positivism, the first statement is that which encompasses truth, logic and ordinary language and the second statement is that there are empirical propositions about the world which should not be always be true, this is to state that the statements may be true with lesser or greater probability about the world.

There are various doctrines regarding logical positivism, this include the verifiable principle doctrine and the anti realism doctrine, according to the verifiable principles the validity and the meanings of propositions are dependent on whether the proposition can be verified or cannot be verified, and if the proposition cannot be verified then it is untrue, according to the anti realism doctrine a statement can only be understood by first understanding under what circumstance the person who wrote it would say the truth.

Verifiability principle doctrine:

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One of the doctrines of logical positivism is verifiability principle, according to this principle the validity and the meanings of propositions are dependent on whether the proposition can be verified or cannot be verified. For the statements which are not verified are automatically referred to as invalid and with no meaning.

According to this doctrine therefore the statement that God is all powerful can be referred to as having no meaning as the statement cannot be verified, for this reason therefore the statement according to the verifiable doctrine will be invalid because it cannot be verified. However some extreme of the principle of verifiability will require that a statement be conclusive verifiable while the others only require that verification only, for this reason therefore according to the extreme principle of verification our statement will be termed as invalid and with no meaning. [11]

According to logical positivism doctrine of verification religion is one of the systems whose thoughts and statements that they make which cannot be verified, according to this principle the proposition that religion gives mostly is usually only describing emotional states and of people and have therefore no meaning.

This doctrine has one weakness in that it cannot be applied to itself, this is to say that we exclude too much by following this doctrine, some of the excluded information include proposition in history and science, for this reason therefore it exclude too much for us to give correct propositions of whether verified or not verified and whether true of not true. However this view has its root in the doctrine of anti realism which is discussed below.

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Anti realism doctrine:

The origin of this doctrine is associated with Dummett in 1925, it states that a statement can only be understood by first understanding under what circumstance the person who wrote it would say the truth, this doctrine therefore states that we can only understand a statement if we could manifest understanding by asserting it in relevant circumstance. Further is we don’t understand any truth then in principle it cannot be verified.

According to this doctrine it clearly states that we cannot assert that our statement which states that God is all powerful is untrue, this is because we need to understand at what circumstance the individuals who wrote and under what circumstance they would be telling the truth, for this reason therefore our statement remains true because we cannot assert at what circumstance the individuals who stated it would tell the truth.

Therefore according to the verifiable principles the validity and the meanings of our proposition cannot be verified and for this reason our statement according to this doctrine is untrue. according to the anti realism doctrine a statement can only be understood by first understanding under what circumstance the person who wrote it would say the truth, for this reason we accept our statement as true because we are not aware at what circumstance the individuals who wrote the bible would tell the truth.

5. Three major approaches to God’s action on earth

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The three approaches to show Gods actions to the world include the agential approach, the embodiment and non embodiment approach and the third is the metaphysical approach, this are the major approaches that tend to explain the actions of God on the world. [12]

The Agential model:

This model is an approach towards establishing God’s interaction with the world. This model contains the top down casualty and the whole part constraint, the top down approach depict the relationship that the processes that are at the higher levels will affect the processes at the lower level, and it discusses the divine actions and the actions of the mind which rely on holistic epistemology and supervinience. This approach therefore shows how the actions by God through top down causality can result into actual changes at the lower level.

The whole part constraint concentrates on one level complexity, it states that the whole part which refers to the effect of the whole system on its parts, this view brings out the idea that God interacts with the whole of which the events are a part. A good example is the Bernard phenomena which are evident in fluids. He states that at critical point the molecules in the fluid move in hexagonal cells which are caused by the fluid which is bound by the container and also by the collusion of molecules in the fluid. For this reason this approach brings out the evidence of the existence of God bringing events through interaction.

Embodiment and non embodiment approach:

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This approach represent forms of root analogy, it stresses that both the God acts as creator of the world and God creating the world continuously, this approach can also be supported by the evolution theory where there is evidence of continuous evolution over time and this is evidence of Gods continuous creation of the world. This approach also states that God is already aware of the events in nature and that God acts both in unique events and universally. The non embodiment approach in this approach is important for the concepts of freedom, unity and divine perfection.

Metaphysical System approach:

The relationship of divine power and natural occurrences of events depend on a developed metaphysical system, and this depends on their relationship between divine and natural science. According to this approach it states that Christian theology offers a non interventionist version of divine actions which allows God to take actions intrinsically in events of nature without determining their outcome. However showing how God actions could make a difference in the world at any level is a challenge.

The similarities of these approaches is that they all consider the existence of Gods power on the world through actions that God undertakes in the world, the other similarity is that they all have the view that God takes actions but does not determine the outcome of such actions. However there exist difference sin these models in that the agential approach considers the higher levels and low level while the metaphysical approach points out the power and natural events while the embodiment approach concentrates on the continuous creation of the world by God.

The Agential model therefore depict the existence of a relationship where the higher levels processes will affect the processes at the lower level, it therefore shows how the actions by God

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through top down causality can result into actual changes at the lower level. The Embodiment and non embodiment approach his approach represent forms of root analogy, it stresses that both the God acts as creator of the world and God creating the world continuously, this approach can also be supported by the evolution theory where there is evidence of continuous evolution over time and this is evidence of Gods continuous creation of the world.

The Metaphysical System approach on the other hand states that The relationship of divine power and natural occurrences of events depend on a developed metaphysical system, According to this approach it states that Christian theology offers a non interventionist version of divine actions which allows God to take actions intrinsically in events of nature without determining their outcome.

References:

Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New  York

Mircea Eliade (1998) Myth and Reality: Religious Traditions of the World, Waveland Press, New York

Scott Khan (2000) Paediatric signs and symptoms, Blackwell publishers, New York

Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New York (page 16)

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[1] Scott Khan (2000) Paediatric signs and symptoms, Blackwell publishers, New York (page

208)

[2] Scott Khan (2000) Paediatric signs and symptoms, Blackwell publishers, New York (page 208)

[3] Scott Khan (2000) Paediatric signs and symptoms, Blackwell publishers, New York (page 208)

[4] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New York

(page 16)

[5] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New York

(page 17)

[6] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New York

(page 17)

[7] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New York

(page 16)

[8] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New York

(page 21)

[9] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New

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York

(page 21)

[10] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New

York (page 71)

[11] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New

York (page 71)

[12] Alister McGrath (1998) Science and Religion: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, New

York (page 102)

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