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Book Sections and Chapters:

Preface

How to Use this book

Chapter 1 Historical Landmarks

Chapter 2 Religion: Ally or Enemy of Science?

Chapter 3 Religion and the Philosophy of Science

Chapter 4 Science and the Philosophy of Religion

Chapter 5 Creation and the Sciences

Chapter 6 Natural Theology: Finding God in Nature

Chapter 7 Models and Analogies in Science and Religion

Chapter 8 Issues in Science and Religion

Chapter 9 Case Studies in Science and Religion

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Book Outline:

I Preface

A. To fully understand and appreciate the complex interaction of the natural sciences and religion, it is necessary to have at least a good general working knowledge of at least one religion and one major natural science, preferably physics or biology.

B. This book assumes that its readers know little.

C. This book introduces its readers to the main themes and issues in the study of religion and the natural sciences.

D. The specific concern of this book is to explore the interface of science and religion.

II How to Use this Book

A. Read the material in this book in the order in which it is set out.

B. To better understand this book it is essential to become familiar with three major historical landmarks in the relation of science and religion.

1. The astronomical debates of the 16^th and early 17^th centuries.

2. The rise of the Newtonian world view in the later 17^th and 18^th centuries.

3. The Darwinian controversy of the 19^th century.

C. This book equips the reader for further reading and study.

III Chapter 1 Historical Landmarks

A. The Medieval Synthesis: the medieval period created an intellectual context within which the natural sciences could develop as serious intellectual disciplines, and also furnished ideas and methods which would prove of major importance to that development. Three medieval developments may be regarded as establishing a context within which the natural sciences were to develop.

1. The translation into Latin of a series of scientific texts which had their origins in the Greco-Arabian tradition. These included the rediscovery and translation of Aristotle’s works.

2. Great universities of western Europe were founded that would prove to be of central importance in the development of the natural sciences.

3. A class of theologians and natural philosophers emerged that were convinced that the study of the natural world was theologically legitimate. The growing emphasis on natural philosophy proved to be of major importance to the emergence of the natural sciences in western Europe.

The question of biblical interpretation would prove to be of major importance in the 16^th century. The history of Christian theology can be regarded as the history of biblical interpretation. Whether certain biblical passages were to be interpreted literally, and others in a non-literal or allegorical manner was a major issue that developed in the Middle Ages. Two major schools of biblical interpretation developed:

1. One school was associated with the city of Alexandria. This school drew on the methods of the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria. Other important theologians of this school were Clement, Origen and Didymus the Blind. This school allowed the literal interpretation of scripture to be supplemented by an appeal to allegory. Philo argued that it was necessary to look beneath the surface meaning of scripture.

2. The second school was associated with the city of Antioch. This school placed an emphasis upon the interpretation of Scripture in the light of its historical context. This school was associated with writers such as Diodore of Tarsus, John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia who emphasized the historical location of Old Testament prophecies. Every prophetic oracle was to be interpreted as having a single consistent historical or literal meaning.

In the western church a slightly distinct approach developed such as in the writings of Ambrose of Milan. Ambrose developed a threefold understanding of the scriptures. In addition to a natural sense, the interpreter may discern a moral and rational or theological sense. However, Augustine argued for a twofold sense; a literal-fleshly-historical approach and an allegorical-mystical-spiritual sense. Although Augustine allowed some passages to possess both senses. To Augustine, understanding the Old Testament at purely a historical level is unacceptable; the key to its understanding lies in its correct interpretation. The distinction between the literal or historical sense of Scripture and a deeper spiritual or allegorical meaning became generally accepted within the church during the early Middle Ages. The standard method of biblical interpretation used during the Middle Ages is usually known as the Quadriga, or four-fold sense of Scripture. The origins of this method lie specifically in the distinction between the literal and spiritual senses. Scripture possesses four different senses, a literal and three nonliteral senses. Misinterpretation was avoided by insisting that nothing should be believed on the basis of a non-literal sense of Scripture, unless it could be first established on the basis of the literal sense. The following four senses were established:

1. A literal sense of Scripture, in which the text could be taken at face value.

2. An allegorical sense defining what Christians were to believe. These passages tended to be either obscure, or to have a literal meaning which was unacceptable, for theological reasons, to their readers.

3. A tropological or moral sense defining what Christians are to do. Such passages provided ethical guidance for Christian conduct.

4. An anagogical sense defining what Christians were to hope for. These passages pointed toward the future fulfillment of the divine promises in the New Jerusalem.

B. The New Astronomy: The Copernican and Galileian Controversies: one of the more important beliefs during the medieval period was a geocentric view of the universe in which the sun and other celestial bodies rotated around the earth. This model was devised by Cladius Ptolemy, an astronomer from the Egyptian city of Alexandria during the first half of the second century. During the 16^th century, the geocentric model was abandoned in favor of a heliocentric model, which depicted the sun as lying at the center of the universe. This was one of the most significant changes in the human perception of reality to have taken place in the last millennium. This shirt is often referred to as the Copernican revolution, but three individuals were of major importance in bringing about the acceptance of this change.

1. Nicholas Copernicus argued that the planets moved in concentric circles around the sun. The earth rotated about the sun and also rotated on its own axis. The apparent motion of the stars and planets was thus due to a combination of the rotation of the earth on its axis, and its rotation around the sun.

2. Tycho Brahe carried out a series of precise observations on planetary motion from 1576-92. These observations would form the basis for Kepler’s modified model of the solar system. Kepler acted as Tycho’s assistant for a period.

3. Johannes Kepler focused his attention on the observation of the motion of the planet Mars. In 1609 Kepler announced that he had uncovered two general laws governing the motion of Mars. First, Mars rotated in an elliptical orbit, with the sun at one of its two foci. Second, the line joining Mars to the sun covers equal areas in equal periods of time. By 1619, he had extended these two laws to the known planets and uncovered a third law. This new law stated that the square of the periodic time of a planet (the time taken for a planet to complete one orbit around the sun) is directly proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun.

Within the Christian tradition, three broad approaches to biblical interpretation exist.

1. A literal approach in which a passage is taken at its face value.

2. An allegorical approach which stresses that certain sections of the Bible are written in a style which should not be taken literally.

3. The idea of accommodation. This approach argues that some Bible scripture (such as the opening chapters of Genesis) uses language and imagery appropriate to the cultural conditions of its original audience, and is not to be taken literally.

a. The idea of accommodation proved to be of special importance during the debates over the relation between theology and astronomy during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The reformer John Calvin made two positive contributions towards the development of the natural sciences during this period.

1. Calvin encouraged the scientific study of nature. He stressed the orderliness of nature which was seen in the physical world and the human body, and credited this to the wisdom and character of God.

2. Calvin eliminated a significant obstacle to the development of the natural sciences through biblical literalism. Calvin pointed out that the Bible is primarily concerned with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and it is not a astronomical, geographical, or biological textbook.

Galileo’s commitment to the Coperican position (heliocentric) position led him to develop a different approach to biblical interpretation. The real issue was how to interpret the bible, and Galileo’s critics argued that some biblical passages contradicted him. For example, Joshua 10:12 spoke of the sun standing still at Joshua’s command. Did this not prove that the sun rotated around the earth? The official condemnation of Galileo’s viewpoint was based on two considerations.

1. Scripture is to be interpreted according to the proper meaning of the words, or a more literal approach.

2. The Bible is to be interpreted according to the common interpretation and understanding of the Holy Fathers and of learned theologians.

C. The Mechanistic Universe: Newton and Deism: Part of the genius of Issac Newton lay in the three laws of motion he developed which established the principles relating to terrestrial motion. The critical point in his assumption was that these laws could also be applied to celestial mechanics. It is important to note that Newton was able to demonstrate that a vast range of observational data could be explained on the basis of a set of universal principles. Newton’s successes in explaining terrestrial and celestial mechanics led to the rapid development of the idea that the universe could be thought of as a great machine, governed by a set of fixed laws. This is often referred to as the mechanistic world view. The success of Newton’s mechanistic world view led to the rise of Deism. Deism denies God’s continued involvement in creation. In contrast, Theism allows for God’s continued involvement within the world.

D. The Origins of Humanity: The Darwinian Controversy: The prevailing popular idea that prepared the way for Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection was uniformitarianism; in which the same forces currently observed within the natural world are said to have been active over huge expenses of time in the past, and was supported by Charles Lyell. Darwin’s theory of evolution works on a related assumption: that forces which lead to the development of new species of plants or animals in the present operate over very long periods of time in the past. In sharp contrast to Darwin, Carl von Linne (Carolus Linnaeus) argued for the fixity of species. Linne believed that the present species in the natural world were the same as they had been in the past, and would remain the same always. Linne’s idea fit well with the traditional and popular reading of the Genesis account. Each species corresponded to those of the original creation, and had been created separately and distinctly by God, and endowed with its own fixed characteristics. However, fossil evidence suggested that certain species had become extinct; and if old species had died out, might new ones arise to replace them? Darwin also identified four specific observations that needed to be explained.

1. Adaptation, in which a species form is adapted to their needs. The doctrine of special creation would indicate that each species was created to fit its specific environmental needs.

2. Why do some species die out? How could the extinction of seemingly well-adapted species be explained, without recourse to catastrophe theories?

3. How could uneven geographical distribution of life forms throughout the world be explained?

4. Vestigial structures, such as the nipples of male mammals. How could the presence of such structures, which served no purpose be explained?

Darwin’s task was to develop an explanation which would account for these observations more satisfactorily than the theory of special creation. Darwin argued that a process of natural selection took place within nature. Variations arise within nature, and if these variations allow species to become better adapted, and more likely to survive, their characteristics will be inherited by their successors. Darwin argued that all species, including humanity, went through a long and complex process of biological evolution. However, traditional Christian thought regarded humanity as being set apart from the rest of nature, created as the height of God’s creation, and alone endowed with the "image of God." Darwin’s theory suggested that human nature emerged gradually, over a long period of time, and that no fundamental biological distinction could be drawn between human beings and animals in terms of their origins and development.

IV Chapter 2 Religion: Ally or Enemy of Science?

A. Defining "Religion": Some Clarifications: Definitions of religion are rarely neutral, but are often generated to favor beliefs and institutions with which one is in sympathy and penalize those to which one is hostile. Definitions of religions often depend on the particular purposes and prejudices of individual scholars. An unwarranted assumption is that all religions say the same thing. The idea of a universal notion of religion, of which individual religions are sunsets, is a very western idea, which appears to have emerged at the time of the Enlightenment. A major debate within contemporary anthropology and sociology of religion concerns whether religion is to be defined functionally, or substantially. Functionally, religion has to do with certain social or personal functions of ideas and rituals. Substantially, religion has to do with certain beliefs concerning divine or spiritual beings.

B. Varieties within a Religion: The Case of Christianity: The religion which has been most closely involved in the interaction between religion and natural science is Christianity. Any attempt to understand the complex relationship of Christian theology and the sciences requires at least some degree of familiarity with the four main schools of Christian thought in the modern period.

1. Liberal Protestantism is of considerable importance, in that it adopts a generally positive attitude towards the religious significance of the natural sciences. This was especially clear in the case of the Darwinian theory of evolution, which was seen by many Liberal Protestant writers as illustrating the way in which human nature and society were developing upwards. Liberalism was generally inclined to interpret potentially difficult passages of the Bible in ways which reduced their supernatural significance, and found little difficulty in harmonizing the biblical accounts of creation with the Darwinian theory of evolution. Although liberalism retained traditional Christian ideas, they interpreted them in a manner which was conducive to the emerging consensus on biological evolution.

2. Modernism began as a school of Roman Catholic theologians operating toward the end of the 19^th century which adopted a critical and skeptical attitude to traditional Christain doctrines, especially those relating to Christology and Soteriology. The movement fostered a positive attitude to radical biblical criticism, and stressed the ethical, rather than the more theological dimensions of faith. Most modernist writers were concerned to integrate Christian thought with the spirit of the Enlightment, especially the new understandings of history and the natural sciences. Modernism argued that the supernatural was intrinsic to human existence, and stressed the importance of intuition over intellect. Modernism strongly supported Darwinian theories of evolution, and saw no difficulty in eliminating those aspects of Christian thought which they found inconvenient. In Modernism, much traditional Christian theology rested on a series of misunderstanding or mistakes. The rise of the natural sciences offered a corrective to these mistakes, and thus allowed Christian theologians the opportunity to correct these errors.

3. Neo-orthodoxy. By stressing the "otherness" of God, writers such as Karl Barth believed that they could escape from the doomed human-centered theology of liberalism. According to Barth, theology is a discipline which seeks to keep the proclamation of the Christian church faithful to its foundation in Jesus Christ, as He has been revealed to us in Scripture. Theology is not a response to the human situation or to human questions; it is a response to the word of God, which demands a response on account of its intrinsic nature. Barth insisted that theology was a discipline with its own distinct approach to its subject - God, and Neo-Orthodoxy did not relate to the natural sciences. God is to be regarded as radically distinct from the world, and methods which are used to study the world are totally inappropriate for the study of God. Science is about the human investigation of the world; theology is about responding to God’s self-revelation. For Barth, the natural sciences can neither confirm or contradict theology, in that they relate to different subjects, use different models of investigation, and speak different languages.

4. Evangelicalism is a term used widely to refer to a transdenominational trend in theology and spiritually, which lays particular emphasis upon the place of Scripture in the Christian life. Evangelicalism now centers upon a cluster of four assumptions:

a. The authority and sufficiency of Scripture.

b. The uniqueness of redemption through the death of Christ upon the cross.

c. The need for personal conversion.

d. The necessity, propriety, and urgency of evangelism.

Of particular importance is the question of evangelical understandings of the nature of the church. Historically, evangelicalism has never been committed to any particular theory of the church, regarding the New Testament as being open to a number of interpretations in this respect, and treating denominational distinctives as of secondary importance to the gospel itself. The attitude of evangelicalism to the natural sciences is complex. Many evangelicals argue that the biblical understanding of creation rests on a literal interpretation of the first two chapters of the book of Genesis. For this reason, they argue that it is not possible to speak of "evolution," in that the biblical account seems to speak of all forms of biological life, including humanity, being created within the space of several days. This would be in consistent with any evolutionary view of the origins of human nature. The movement known as scientific creationism has its origins in an evangelical context.

C. Models of the Interaction of Science and Religion: A number of different understandings of the relationship of science and religion exist. Two questions can be asked concerning this relationship:

1. Does science and religion relate to the same reality?

2. Are the insights of science and religion contradictory or complementary?

Two models of the relationship of science and religion exist.

1. Confrontational Models. Historically, the most significant understanding of the relation between science and religion is that of conflict. This strongly confrontational model continues to be deeply influential at the popular level, even if its appeal has diminished considerably at a more scholarly level. It is important to note that certain types of fundamentalist religious belief are implacably opposed to the natural sciences, and actively promote the concept of conflict. The general tone of the encounter between religion and the natural sciences can be argued to have been set by two works published near the end of the 19^th century - John Draper’s History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874), and Andrew White’s History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). Both works reflect a strongly positivist and "Whiggish" view of history, and a determination to settle old scores with organized religion. The incident which has since become an icon of this confrontationalism was the infamous Scopes Trial of 1925. Scopes was a young high school science teacher who disagreed with the state of Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution in its public schools. The American Civil Liberties Union supported Scopes, while William Bryan served as prosecution counsel. The agnostic attorney Clarence Darrow defended Scopes. Bryan unwisely declared that the trial was a "duel to the death" between Christianity and atheism, and proved to be the biggest public relations disaster of all time for fundamentalism. Later known as the "monkey trial", this incident came to be seen as a symbol of reactionary religious thinking in the face of scientific progress.

2. Non-confrontational Models. Two other significant approaches to the relation between religion and the natural sciences can be identified.

a. Science and religion are convergent. A number of strands within western Christian theology have stressed that "all truth is God’s truth." On the basis of this assumption, all advances and developments in a scientific understanding of the universe are to be welcomed, and accommodated within the Christian faith. Process theology is a good example of a form of religious thought which has actively sought to adapt the Christian tradition to the insights of the natural sciences.

b. Science and religion are distinct. This approach stresses the distinctiveness of science and religion. This is the case with Neo-orthodoxy, a movement which is widely regarded as a reaction against Liberal Protestantism, especially its tendency to "accommodate" itself to the prevailing culture. Karl Barth believed that the natural sciences have no bearing on the Christian, and they can not be used to support or contradict faith, in that the sciences and theology operate on the basis of very different assumptions. According to Langdon Gilkey, theology and the natural sciences represent independent and different ways of approaching reality. The natural sciences are concerned with asking "how" questions; and theology asks "why" questions. The former deals with secondary causes (interactions within the sphere of nature), while the latter deals with primary causes (the ultimate origin and purpose of nature).

D. Religion and the Development of the Natural Sciences: The emergence of the natural sciences within the specific Christian context of western Europe led to general factors of the interaction between religion and the natural sciences. Two negative factors are:

1. The Conservatism of Traditional Religion. In western Europe from about 1100-1900, the Christian churches tended to be seen as guardians of tradition, opposed to radical new ideas. This is not necessarily a result of Christian theology, but reflects the social role which the churches played over a long period in western Europeon history. The natural sciences were often seen as radical, calling into question received wisdom. A common element of most visions of science is that of "rebellion against the restrictions imposed by the local prevailing culture." Science is thus a subversive activity. In western Europe, scientific advance inevitably involved confrontation with the culture of the day - including its political, social, and religious elements. Because the west is largely dominated by Christianity, the tension between science and religion is seen as a confrontation between science and Christianity.

2. The Scientific World view Challenges Traditional Religious Views. The rise of the scientific world view called into question many traditional religious views. Such as the rise and gradual acceptance of the Copernican model of the solar system which posed a serious challenge to an earth-centered view of the universe, which had become the accepted tradition in much religious thinking. Additionally, as Newtonianism was further developed, it began to take on anti-religious tones, most notably in that it was interpreted as implying that there was no further need for God in the working of the universe. Also, the Darwinian controversy posed the most radical threat to traditional religious beliefs, in that it posed a direct challenge to the belief that God created each species directly (special creation), and particularly the idea that humanity was the apex of God’s creation, created in such a manner that it was set apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Darwin’s ideas clearly implied that human beings were rather less special than they might like to think. The general perception arose that there was a fundamental, perhaps even fatal, contradiction between the two disciplines of science and religion. The fact remains that some tension still exists, and thus potentially makes religion hostile to scientific advance.

Two positive factors are:

3. To Study nature is to Study God. The concept that God created the world is widely agreed to offer a fundamental motivation for scientific research. Three broad positions on the question of the status of the natural order can be distinguished:

a. The natural world is divine.

b. The natural world is created, and bears some resemblance to its creator.

c. The natural world has no relation to God.

If the natural world has no relation to God, there will be no motivation to study it. However, if the natural world does bear some relation to God, there will clearly be a very good reason for studying it, in that it offers deeper insights into the nature of the God who created it. It is clearly therefore of considerable interest to explore the way in which a doctrine of creation established a connection between God and the natural order.

4. The Divine Ordering of Nature. One of the fundamental themes of a doctrine of creation is that in creation God imposes order, rationality, and beauty upon nature. The doctrine of creation leads directly to the notion that the universe is possessed of a regularity which is capable of being uncovered by humanity. This theme, which is expressed in terms of "the laws of nature," is of fundamental importance to the emergence and the development of the natural sciences. This religious undergirding of the notion of the regularity of nature is known to have been of major historical importance to the emergence of the natural sciences.

V Chapter 3 Religion and the Philosophy of Science (The philosophy of science that deals with the philosophical issues associated with the natural sciences)

A. Rationalism and Empiricism: are terms used in significantly different ways by different writers and is one of the most philosophical distinctions of relevance to the development of the natural sciences. The issue to emerge from the debate between rationalism and empiricism is whether certain truths are a priori or a posteriori. Representing rationalism is a priori and says that truth arises within the human mind itself. Representing empiricism is a posteriori and says that truth arises from reflection within the mind on what the human faculties experience through sense perception. The same debate can be found within religion itself and is the issue of whether knowledge of God is a priori (generated within the human mind or planted there by God), or is a posteriori (generated by reflection on experience or divine revelation).

1. Rationalism is generally understood to refer to the view that all truth has its origins in human thought, unaided by any form of supernatural intervention or an appeal to the experience of the senses. The origins of this appeal to reason lie in a desire to break free from any dependence upon divine revelation for reliable human knowledge of the truth. Descartes and Leibniz are regarded as the most significant rationalist philosophers.

Descartes argued that God is a supremely perfect being. As existence is perfection, God must have the perfection of existence, as he would otherwise not be perfect. The science which offered the most to Descartes and Leibniz was pure mathematics. Descartes argued that a series of "universal concepts of reason" could be deduced , and set out in terms of certain fundamental mathematical and logical relationships. These could then be applied to human sense perception and experience.

2. Empiricism was an appeal to experience. John Locke was one of the major contributors to empiricism. Locke argued that God does not implant ideas within our minds from birth, but provides us with the faculties which we need to acquire them. The primary source of knowledge is human experience, and reason is brought into matters to reflect on those perceptions. The idea of God is not innate. All human knowledge of God, including both God’s existence and nature, derives from experience.

B. Realism and Idealism:

1. Idealism does not deny that such things as physical objects exist in the world, but says we can only have knowledge of how things appear to us, or are experienced, not as things are in themselves. This form of idealism is phenomenalism and was supported by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Phenomenalism said that we can not know extra-mental realities directly, but only through their appearances or representations.

2. Realism. The basic theme of realism is that entities exist in the world independent of human perception or any human mental process. Three primary, but differing statements concerning realism exist.

a. Entities in the world exist independently of the human mind.

b. The only entities that can really be said to exist are "extra-mental" - those which have an independent and real existence.

c. Both mental and non-mental entities exist.

One form of realism which relates to the theme of science and religion is critical realism (or naive realism), and says there is a direct relationship between the external world and human perception, so that reality can be perceived directly. One of the most significant questions to be debated within philosophy of religion, is whether God is simply a construct of the human mind, or exists independently of human thought. Critical realism summarizes this in two ways.

a. God exists independently of human thought.

b. Humans are obliged to use models or analogies to depict God, who can not be known directly.

C. The Duhem-Quine Thesis says that if incompatible data and theory are seen to be in conflict, one can not draw the conclusion that any particular theoretical statement is responsible, and is therefore to be rejected. A view referred to as the underdetermination thesis, especially associated with sociological approaches to the natural sciences, holds that an indefinite number of theories are capable of fitting observed facts more or less adequately. Two implications of the underdetermination thesis can be noted.

1. There are a number of possible theories which are consistent with any given experimental result. All are to be regarded as equally valid.

2. Theories can not be explained purely on the basis of experimental evidence. Additional factors, generally of a sociological nature, need to be taken into account.

One of the more significant areas of relevance of the Duhem-Quine Thesis to religion concerns the problem of suffering, which is one of the most difficult aspects to belief in God. How can belief in God be justified in the face of suffering? If God is good and loving, how can the existence of suffering be understood? Does the existence of suffering cause us to abandon faith in God, or merely to modify some small aspect of that belief? To understand the importance of the Duhem-Quine Thesis from a natural science perspective a theory can be used.

Theory: that there exists a God

Main Hypotheses:

1) That this God is good and loving

2) That this God is all-powerful

Auxiliary hypotheses:

1) That an all-powerful God can do anything (except logically inconsistent things, such as drawing square triangles).

2) That we are in a position to know enough about God to be able to make statements about God.

D. Logical Positivism: The Vienna Circle arose in the 20^th century Austrian capital of Vienna. One of the most fundamental themes of this group was that beliefs must be justified on the basis of experience. This belief is found within the writings of David Hume. Within logical positivism, statements which did not directly connect with or relate to the real world were of no value, and simply perpetuated fruitless conflicts of the past. This overall idea has two parts.

1. All meaningful statements can be reduced to, or defined by statements which contain only observational terms.

2. All such reductive statements must be capable of being stated in logical terms.

Additionally, Rudolph Carnap’s verification principle stated that only statements which are capable of being verified are meaningful. Logical Positivism is a philosophical approach which takes its lead from the methods of the natural sciences. The natural sciences are being given a position of priority in terms of the theory of knowledge, with philosophy being seen as a tool for clarifying what has been established by empirical analysis.

E. Falsification: Karl Popper. Popper felt that the verification principle of logical positivism was too rigid, but that the principle was important. Theories had to be tested against, which would lead to their being verified or falsified. A theoretical system must be capable of being tested against observation of the world. Popper thus placed emphasis upon experiments which could falsify a theory. In what was later known as the "falsification" debate Anthony Flew argued that religious statements can not be regarded as meaningful, in that nothing drawn from experience can be regarded as falsifying them. Popper’s concern lay in eliminating metaphysics from science, and thought that he could exclude metaphysical statements by falsifying them.

F. Paradigm Shifts in Science: Thomas S. Kuhn. One of the most widely discussed accounts of the development of the scientific method focused on the idea of "scientific revolutions." Kuhn uses the term in two senses.

1. Used in a general sense to refer to the broad group of common assumptions which unites particular groups of scientists. It is an accepted cluster of generalizations, methods and models.

2. The term is also used in a more specific and restricted sense to refer to a past scientific explanatory success, which seems to refer to a framework which can be treated as normative, and is treated as exemplary afterwards - until something finally causes that paradigm to be abandoned.

The period that follows an accepted paradigm shift is referred to as "normal science" by Kuhn. To Kuhn such paradigm shifts come about from a steady progression in scientific understanding through a gradual accumulation of data and understanding. Two of Kuhn’s themes illustrate importance in religious belief.

1. Kuhn’s paradigm shifts are helpful in understanding the major intellectual shifts which have taken place in the history of religious thought. Religious thinking is influenced by the cultural and philosophical presuppositions of the day. Radical shifts in these background assumptions can be of major importance, as the development of Christian theology has demonstrated. The Reformation, The Enlightenment and Postmodernism are three examples of religious paradigm shifts.

2. The decision to accept one theory rather than another rests not so much on experimental evidence, as on various social values, vested interested, and institutional concerns. This has raised the very significant question of whether religious doctrines correspond to anything that is "real", or whether they can be seen as determined by social factors.

G. Knowledge and Commitment: Michael Polanyi. Polanyi’s insight most extensively cited by religious writers relates to the nature of knowledge itself. Polanyi’s fundamental assertion is that all knowledge (natural sciences, religion or philosophy), is personal in nature. Although knowledge involves concepts or ideas, it must involve personal commitment. Polanyi refers to this personal involvement as " the fiduciary rootedness of all rationality." Knowledge is not disembodied ideas, but involves the personal element of commitment both to what is known, and the means which must be used to know it. The natural sciences can be understood in terms of personal knowledge, intellectual commitment, and a passionate and committed search for patterns in nature. Objectivity is also integral to the process of knowing.

VI Chapter 4 Science and the Philosophy of Religion

A. Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God

1. Anselm of Canterbury’s Ontological Argument. Anselm is chiefly noted for his strong defense of the intellectual foundations of Christianity, and is especially associated with the "ontological argument" for the existence of God. Ontology refers to the area of philosophy that deals with the notion of being. In his Proslogion, Anselm offers a definition of God as "that than which no greater thing can be thought." Anselm says that if this definition of God is correct, it necessarily implies the existence of God. If God does not exist, the idea of God remains, yet the reality of God is absent. Yet the reality of God is greater than the idea of God. Therefore is God is "that than which no greater thing can be thought" the idea of God must lead to accepting the reality of God, otherwise the mere idea of God is the greatest thing which can be thought.

2. Thomas Aquinas’ Five Ways. Aquinas is probably the most famous and influential theologian of the Middle Ages. The basic idea of the Five Ways is that the world mirrors God, as its creator. What we observe in the world, its signs of ordering - can be explained on the basis of the existence of God as its creator. God is both its first cause and its designer. God has brought the world into existence, and impressed the divine image and likeness upon it. Aquinas argues that the ordering of the world is the most convincing evidence of God’s existence and wisdom. This idea of design is often referred to as the teleological argument. The Five Ways are as follows.

a. Things in the world are in motion or change. Why isn’t nature static? Aquinas argues that everything that moves is moved by something else, and there must be a single cause at the origin of this series. Aquinas thus argues for the existence of a single original cause of all this motion, he concludes this is none other than God.

b. The idea of causation, which says one event (the effect) is explained by the influence of another (the cause). Aquinas argues that all effects may be traced back to a single original cause, which is God.

c. The existence of contingent beings in the world (i.e., humans) which are not there as a matter of necessity. In contrast, God would be a necessary being (one who is there as a matter of necessity). Humans are contingent beings, and the fact that we exist needs explanation. Aquinas argues that a being (humans) comes into existence because a necessary being (God) brought it into being.

d. Where do human values such as truth, goodness and nobility come from? Aquinas argues that there must be something which is in itself true, good and noble, which is the source of such ideas. Aquinas suggests that the source of these ideas is God.

e. The teleological argument itself that shows traces of intelligent design in the world. Natural processes and objects have certain definite objectives in mind, have a purpose, and seem to have been designed. However, things don’t design themselves, but are caused by someone or something else. Aquinas suggests that this source of natural ordering must be God.

B. Science and Arguments for the Existence for God

1. The Cosmological Argument. This argument (referred to by the Latin phrase ex motu) concerns the observation of change or motion in the world and is similar to Aquinas’ First Cause. The argument assumes that the existence of the universe is something that requires explanation. This type of argument relates directly to modern cosmological research, particularly the "big bang" theory of the origins of the cosmos.

2. The Kalam Argument. Kalam is an inquiry into God, and into the world as God’s creation, and into man as the special creature placed by God in the world under obligation to his creator. The mutakallimun (practitioners of the kalam) saw themselves as reconciling revealed truth and human wisdom, and developed an argument for the existence of God which stressed the importance of causality. There are four propositions of this argument.

a. Everything which has a beginning must have a cause

b. The universe began to exist

c. Therefore the beginning of the existence of the universe must have been caused by something

d. The only such cause can be God

3. The Teleogical Argument. This idea is more widely known as the argument from design, and is the most widely discussed of the philosophical arguments for the existence of God. The term Teleological ("directed towards some goal) is widely used to indicate the apparently goal-directed aspect of nature. In this aspect of nature, which has often been discussed in relation to the natural sciences; the orderliness of nature seems to be a sign that nature has been designed for some purpose. The force of this argument also rests on an identity: nature is a mechanism, and hence was intelligently designed. Supporting this is Sir Issac Newton’s discovery of the regularity of nature and was termed as "celestial mechanics." It was clear that the entire universe could be thought of as a complex mechanism, operating according to regular and understandable principles.

C. God’s Action in the World (One of the interfaces between scientific and religious thought concerns the manner in which God can be said to act in the world, and can be approached in three areas)

1. Deism: God Acts Through the Laws of Nature. The deist position says that God created the world in a rational and ordered manner, which reflected His own rational nature. The ordering of the world is open to human investigation, and demonstrates the wisdom of God. The laws of nature have been set into place by God, for humans to discover. Deism defended the idea that God created the world, and endowed it with the ability to develop and function without the need for his continuing presence or interference. According to Deism, God does not act in the world. The world is completely autonomous and self-sufficient. No further action is necessary by God.

2. Thomism: God Acts Through Secondary Causes. According to Aquinas, God does not work directly in the world, but through secondary causes. The ability of the primary cause to achieve the desired effect is dependent upon the secondary cause which has to be used. Aquinas uses this appeal to secondary causes to deal with some of the issues relating to the presence of evil in the world. Suffering and pain are not to be ascribed to the direct action of God, but to the fragility and frailty of the secondary causes through which God works. God is to be seen as the primary cause, and various agencies within the world as the associated secondary causes.

3. Process Theology: God Acts Through Persuasion. According to Alfred Whitehead, he conceived reality as a process. The world as an organic whole, is something dynamic, not static. Reality is made up of building blocks of "actual entities" or "actual occasions", and is characterized by becoming, change, and event. Causation is thus not a matter of an entity being coerced to act in a given manner: it is a matter of influence and persuasion. Entities influence each other in a "dipolar manner" - mentally and physically. Precisely the same is true of God, as for other entities. God can only act in a persuasive manner, within the limits of the process itself. God keeps the rules of the process. Just as God influences other entities, so God is also influenced by them. God is a fellow sufferer who understands. God is thus affected and influenced by the world. Process thought thus redefines God’s omnipotence in terms of persuasion or influence within the overall world process. This is an important development, as it explains the attraction of this way of understanding God’s relation to the world in relation to the problem of evil. Where the traditional free-will defense of moral evil argues that human beings are free to disobey or ignore God, process theology argues that the individual components of the world are likewise free to ignore divine attempts to influence or persuade them. They are not bound to respond to God. God is thus absolved of responsibility for both moral and natural evil. The traditional free-will defense of God in the face of evil is persuasive in the case of moral evil (evil resulting from human actions and decisions). But what of natural evil? What of earthquakes, famines and other natural disasters? Process thought argues that God can not force nature to obey the divine will or purpose for it. God can only attempt to influence the process from within, by persuasion and attraction. Each entity enjoys a degree of freedom and creativity, which God can not override.

VII Chapter 5 Creation and the Sciences

A. Some Themes of the Concept of Creation The dominant form of the doctrine of creation is that associated with Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Job 38: 1-42 sets out what is the most comprehensive understanding of God as creator to be found in the Old Testament, stressing the role of God as creator and sustainer of the world. Of interest is the Old Testament theme of "creation as ordering," and the manner in which the critically important theme of "order" is established and justified with reference to cosmological foundations. The establishment of order is usually represented in two different ways.

1. Creation is an imposition of order on a formless chaos. This model is especially associated with the image of a potter working clay into a recognizably ordered structure (e.g., Genesis 2:7; Isaiah 29:16, 44; Jeremiah 18:1-6).

2. Creation concerns conflict with a series of chaotic forces, often depicted as a dragon or monster who must be subdued (Job 3:8; 7:12; 9:13, 40:15-32; Psalm 74:13-15; 139:10-11; Isaiah 27:1; 41:9-10; Zechariah 10:11).

The concept of world order is closely linked with two concepts which play a major role in the Old Testament, and in Ancient Near East thought in general - "righteousness" and "truth." The theme of conforming to the order of the world can be seen as underlying both.

1. Righteousness can be thought of as ethical conformity to the world-ordering established by God.

2. Truth can be considered to be its metaphysical counterpart.

B. Creation: A Brief Theological Analysis The importance of the Old Testament for Christianity is often held to be grounded in the fact that the God of which it speaks is the same God to be revealed in the New Testament. The creator and redeemer God are one and the same. Gnosticism mounted a vigorous attack on both the authority of the Old Testament, and the idea that God was creator of the world. A sharp distinction was to be drawn between the God who redeemed humanity from the world, and a somewhat inferior deity (often termed the "demiurge") who created the world in the first place. The Old Testament was regarded by the Gnostics as dealing with this lesser deity, an the New Testament was concerned with the redeemer God. The early Christian tradition affirmed that the natural order possessed a goodness, rationality and orderliness which derived directly from its creation by God. Origen argued that it was God’s creation of the world which structured the natural order in such a manner that it could be comprehended by the human mind, by conferring upon that order an intrinsic rationality and order which derived from and reflected the divine nature itself.

C. Three Models of Creation

1. Emanation was widely used by early Christian writers to clarify the relation between God and the world. The image of creation suggests that the creation of the world can be regarded as an overflowing of the creative energy of God.

2. Construction. Many biblical passages portray God as a master builder, deliberately constructing the world. This imagery is powerful, conveying the ideas of purpose, planning and a deliberate intention to create. The image is important, in that it draws attention to both the creator and the creation. In addition to bringing out the skill of the creator, it also allows the beauty and ordering of the resulting creation to be appreciated, both for what it is in itself, and for its testimony to the creativity and care of its creator.

3. Artistic Expression. Many Christian writers speak of creation as the "handiwork of God," comparing it to a work of art which is both beautiful in itself, as well as expressing the personality of its creator.

D. Creation and Time One of the most significant debates within Christian theology is the complex issue of the relation of creation and time. One of the most significant critics of this view was Augustine of Hippo. Augustine held that the view presupposed or implied a change in the divine substance itself, and argued that God could not be considered to have brought the creation into being at a certain definite moment in time, as if time itself existed prior to creation. Time itself must be seen as an aspect of the created order, to be contrasted with the timelessness which he held to be the essential feature of eternity.

E. Creation and Ecology The question of the relationship of the doctrine of creation to the exploitation of nature exists. In a published article by Lynn White, he asserted that Christianity was to blame for the emerging ecological crisis due to its using the concept of the "image of God" found in the Genesis creation account, as a pretext for justifying human exploitation of the world’s resources. Genesis he argued, legitimated the notion of human domination over the creation, hence leading to its exploitation. A closer reading of the Genesis text indicated that such themes as "humanity as the steward of creation" and "humanity as the partner of God" are indicated by the text, rather than that of "humanity as the lord of creation." Far from being the enemy of ecology, the doctrine of creation affirms the importance of human responsibility towards the environment. The exploitation of the world reflects the rise of technology, and seems to have little to do with specifically Christian teachings. Four fundamental ecological principles can readily be discerned within the biblical narratives.

1. The "earth keeping principle": just as the creator keeps and sustains humanity, so must humanity keep and sustain the creator’s creation.

2. The "sabbath principle": the creation must be allowed to recover from human use of its resources.

3. The "fruitfullness principle": the fecundity of the creation is to be enjoyed, not destroyed.

4. The "fulfilment and limits principle": there are limits set to humanity’s role within creation, with boundaries set in place which must be respected.

F. Creation and the Laws of Nature The theme of "regularity within nature" is widely regarded as an essential theme of the natural sciences. There is something about the world - and the nature of the human mind - which allows us to discern patterns within nature, for which explanations may be advanced and evaluated. One of the most significant parallels between the natural sciences and religion is this fundamental conviction that the world is characterized by regularity and intelligibility. This perception of ordering and intelligibility is of immense significance, both at the scientific and religious levels. In Renaissance Europe, the justification for what we today call the scientific approach to inquiry was the belief in a rational God whose created order could be discerned from a careful study of nature. This insight is directly derived from the Christian doctrine of creation, and reflects the deeply religious world view of the medieval and Renaissance periods. Oliver O’Donovan establishes the close connection between the theological notions of creation and order. Three highly significant themes of major relevance can be discerned as emerging from O’Donovan’s analysis.

1. The concept of creation is understood to be focused on the establishment of ordering and coherence within the world.

2. The ordering or coherence within the world can be regarded as expressing or reflecting the nature of God himself.

3. The creation can thus be seen as pointing to God, in that the exploration of its ordering or coherence leads to an understanding of the one who ordered it in this manner.

As Stephen Hawking pointed out, the existence of God is easily and naturally correlated with the regularity and ordering of the world. "It would be completely consistent with all we know to say that there was a Being who is responsible for the laws of physics." The theme of cosmic order is of major importance within the writings of Issac Newton, who argued that the regularity and predictability of the world were a direct consequence of its created origins. The phrase "law of nature" appears to have begun to be used systematically during the early 18^th century. The phrase reflects the widely-held notion, prevalent within both orthodox Christianity and Deism, that the world was ordered by a divine law giver, who laid down the manner in which the creation should behave. According to Paul Davies, the "laws of nature" can be considered to have four features.

1. They are universal. The laws of physics are assumed to be valid at every place and every time.

2. They are absolute and they do not depend on the nature of the observor. The state of a system may change over time, and be related to a series of contingent and circumstantial considerations; the laws, which provide correlation between those states at various moments, do not change with time.

3. They are eternal, in that they are held to be grounded in the mathematical structures which are used to represent the physical world. The remarkable correlation between "mathematical reality" and the observed physical world is of considerable significance. It is of considerable importance in this context to note that all known fundamental laws are mathematical in form.

4. They are omnipotent, in that nothing can be held to be outside their scope.

VIII Chapter 6 Natural Theology: Finding God in Nature (The religious belief, grounded in a doctrine of creation, which affirms that at least something of God can be known from the study of nature)

A. Objections to Natural Theology

1. Theological Objections. A critical approach to natural theology has been developed by theologian Thomas Torrance. Torrance sets out what he understands to be Karl Barth’s earlier fundamental objection to natural theology - the radical separation between revealed theology and a totally autonomous and unconnected natural theology. Torrance accepts that a natural theology has a significant place within Christian theology, in the light of an understanding of the nature of God and the world which rests on divine revelation, and which can not itself be ascertained by human inquiry. Torrance therefore can be thought of as moving natural theology into the domain of systematic theology.

2. Philosophical Objections. Alvin Plantinga understands natural theology to be an attempt to prove or demonstrate the existence of God, and vigorously rejects it on the basis of his belief that it depends on a fallacious understanding of the nature of religious belief. Plantinga has two objections to natural theology.

a. Natural theology supposes that belief in God must rest upon an evidential basis. It is therefore a belief which requires to be itself grounded in some more basic belief. To ground a belief in God upon some other beliefs, is in effect, to depict that latter belief as endowed with a greater epistemic status than belief in God. A proper Christian approach is to affirm that belief in God is itself basic, and does not require justification with reference to other beliefs.

b. Natural theology is not justified with reference to the Reformed tradition, including Calvin and his later followers.

Natural theology is to be understood as a demonstration, from the standpoint of faith, of the consonance between that faith and the structures of the world. Natural theology is not intended to prove the existence of God, but presupposes that existence; it then asks "what should we expect the natural world to be like if it has indeed been created by such a God?" The search for order in nature is therefore not intended to demonstrate that God exists, but to reinforce the plausibility of an already existing belief. Natural theology thus offers "metaphysical reasons for the truth of theism as a general world-view," and allows us to build bridges to other disciplines.

B. Three Approaches to Natural Theology (within Christianity, three general approaches to the question of whether - and to what extent - God may be known through nature have been given)

1. The Appeal to Reason. If God is indeed to be discerned within his creation, we should expect to find him at the height of that creation. Augustine argued that the height of God’s creation is human nature. Augustine further argued that the height of human nature is the capacity to reason. Therefore, one should expect to find traces of God in human processes of reasoning. On the basis of this belief, Augustine developed the "psychological analogies of the Trinity."

2. The Appeal to the Ordering of the World. Aquinas’ arguments for the existence of God base themselves on the perception that there is an ordering within nature, which requires to be explained. Equally, the fact that the human mind can discern and investigate this ordering of nature is of considerable significance. There seems to be something about human nature which asks questions about the world; just as there seems to be something about the world which allows answers to those questions to be given. One of the most remarkable aspects of this ordering concerns the abstract structures of pure mathematics - a free creation of the human mind, which provide important clues to understanding the world.

3. The Appeal to the Beauty of Nature. A number of major Christian theologians have developed natural theologies, based on the sense of beauty which arises from contemplating the world. Augustine argued that there was a natural progression from an admiration of the beautiful things of the world to the worship of the one who had created these things, and whose beauty was reflected in them.

C. Natural and Revealed Theology In the writings of both Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, a distinction is drawn between a valid yet partial knowledge of God available through the observation of the world and a fuller knowledge of God resulting from God’s decision to reveal himself. Calvin draws a fundamental distinction between a general ‘knowledge of God the creator," which can be had through reflection on the created world, and a more specifically Christian "knowledge of God the redeemer," which can only be had through the Christian revelation. Calvin asks, how do we know anything about God? A general knowledge of God may be discerned throughout the creation - in humanity, in the natural order, and in the historical process itself. Two main grounds of such knowledge are identified.

1. The first is subjective and is a "sense of divinity," or a seed of religion implanted within every human being by God. God has endowed human beings with some inbuilt sense of the divine existence. It is as if something about God has been engraved in the hearts of every human being.

2. The second is objective and lies in experience of and reflection upon the ordering of the world. The fact that God is creator, together with an appreciation of the divine wisdom and justice, may be gained from an inspection of the created order, culminating in humanity itself.

Robert Boyle also noted that "as the two great books, of nature and of scripture, have the same author, so the study of the latter does not at all hinder an inquisitive man’s delight in the study of the former." It is clear that natural theology represents one of the most significant areas of dialogue between the natural sciences and religion.

IX Chapter 7 Models and Analogies in Science and Religion (One of the most intriguing aspects of the interface between science and religion is the use of "models" or "analogies" to depict complex entities - whether the entity in question as an atomic nucleus or God. There is a need to represent in a visual manner entities which can not presently be seen)

A. Models in Natural Sciences A model is understood to be a simplified way of representing a complex system, which allows its users to gain an increased understanding on at least some of its many aspects. Models can be made more sophisticated, to allow for the more complicated aspects of the system to be modeled. The basic idea is to establish a model which is able to explain the most important features of a system, and then develop the model further to incorporate more complex features of the behavior of the system. Patterns can be seen at work throughout the development of scientific models. They can be summarized in four ways.

1. The behavior of a system is established, and certain patterns noted.

2. A model is developed, which aims to explain the most important aspects of the system.

3. The model is found to have weaknesses at a number of points, on account of its simplicity.

4. The model can then be made more complex, in order to take account of these weaknesses.

Models play a significant role in the natural sciences. There are six important points to note.

1. Models are often seen as significant ways of visualizing complex and abstract concepts. This is especially true in relation to aspects of quantum theory.

2. Models are seen as "intermediates" between the complex entities and the human mind.

3. Models do not necessarily "exist" although what they attempt to represent has a real and independent existence.

4. Models are selected or constructed on the basis of the belief that there exist significant points of similarity between the model and what it is meant to represent.

5. Models are therefore not identical with what they model, and must not be treated as if they are.

6. In particular, it must not be assumed that every aspect of the model corresponds to the entity being modeled.

B. Analogy, Metaphor and Religion The idea of analogies and metaphors are ways of thinking and speaking about God (or any other subject) which are based on images, such as the biblical images of "God as shepherd" and "God as king." The most basic idea which underlies a theological example of an analogy is referred to as "principle of analogy," and is associated with the theologian Thomas Aquinas. To Aquinas, the fact that God created the world points to a fundamental "analogy of being" between God and the world. There is a continuity between God and the world on account of the expression of the being of God in the being of the world. It is legitimate to use entities within the created order as analogies for God. Theology does not reduce God to the level of a created object or being; it merely affirms that there is a likeness of correspondence between God and that being. A created entity can thus be like God, without being identical to God. Like all analogies, they break down at points. They are extremely useful and vivid ways of thinking about God, which allow us to use the vocabulary and images of our own world, to describe something which ultimately lies beyond that world. Aquinas’ doctrine of analogy is of fundamental importance to the way we think about God. It illuminates the manner in which God is revealed in and through Scriptural images and analogies, allowing us to understand how God can be above our world, and yet simultaneously be revealed in and through that world. God is not an object or a person in space and time. God, who is infinite, is able to be revealed in and through human words and finite images. A metaphor is a way of speaking about one thing in terms which are suggestive of another. Three features of metaphors have attracted theological attention in recent decades.

1. Metaphors imply both similarity and dissimilarity between the two things being compared. To speak of "God as father" should be seen as a metaphor, rather than an analogy, implying significant differences between God and a father, rather than (as in the case of an analogy) a direct line of similarities.

2. Metaphors can not be reduced to definite statements. Perhaps the most attractive feature of metaphors for Christian theology is their open-ended character. Some literary critics insist that no limits can be set to the extent of comparison. Thus the metaphor "God as father" can not be reduced to a set of precise statements about God, valid for every place and every time, and is meant to be suggestive.

3. Metaphors often have strongly emotional overtones. Theological metaphors are able to express the emotional dimensions of Christian faith in a way which makes them appropriate to worship. The metaphor of "God as light" has enormously powerful overtones, including those of illumination, purity and glorification.

C. The Ambivalence of Analogy: Case Studies in Science and Religion (The use of models or analogies in both science and religion has the potential to illuminate and to mislead. Analogies and models can help us understand what was previously opaque and puzzling. However, they can lead us to make assumptions which are inaccurate or misleading, resulting in inappropriate nuances and emphases - and occasionally serious distortions - being developed.)

1. The Analogy of "Natural Selection". As an analogy, Charles Darwin developed the term "natural selection" as a metaphorical or non-literal means of referring to a process which he believed to be the most convincing means of explaining the patterns of diversity he observed within nature. The concept of "natural selection" was based on the perception of an analogy between the existing and familiar notion of "artificial selection." The methods of domestic animal breeders were of major importance to his thinking, and that his idea of "natural selection" was derived from this analogy.

2. The Analogy of "God as Father". When we suggest that a suitable model for God is a father, we are saying that, in certain respects, God may be thought of as being like a father; for example in his disciplining of his children. In certain respects, God is like a mother in his care and compassion for his children. But God is not male or female. It must be recalled that a model is both like and unlike what is being modeled. The important issue is to determine what the points of likeness are. To model God as a human father is not to say that God is male, or that males are superior to females. The maleness of this language is to be seen as an accommodation to human speech and ways of thinking, not a literal representation of God. Traditional Christian theology speaks and knows of a God who reveals himself through human culture, but is not bound by its categories. God is supr-cultural, just as he is supra-sexual.

D. Models, Analogies and Metaphor: Science and Religion Compared Three similarities and three differences between religious and scientific theoretical models exist.

Similarities:

1. In both science and religion, models are analogical in their origins and can be extended to cope with new situations, and are comprehensible as individual units.

2. Models, whether scientific or religious, are not to be taken either as literal depictions of reality, nor simply as useful fictions. They are symbolic representations, for particular purposes, of aspects of reality which are not directly accessible to us.

3. Models function as organizing images, allowing us to structure and interpret patterns of events in our personal lives and in the world. In the sciences, the models relate to observational data; in religion, to the experience of individuals and communities.

Differences:

1. Religious models serve non-cognitive functions which have no parallel in science.

2. Religious models evoke more total personal involvement than their scientific counterparts.

3. Religious models appear to be more influential than the formal beliefs and doctrines which are derived from them, whereas scientific models are subservient to theories.

E. The Concept of Complementarity (What happens if the behavior of a system is such that it appears to need more than one model to represent it? In religion this situation is well known. The Old and New Testaments use a wide variety of models or analogies to refer to God, such as "father, king, shepherd, and rock." Each of these is regarded as illustrating one aspect of the divine nature. Taken together, they provide a cumulative and more comprehensive depiction of the divine nature and character than any one such analogy might allow.)

1. Complementarity in Quantum Theory. By the 1920s it was clear that the behavior of light was such that it required to be explained on the basis of a wave-model in some respects, and a particle-model in others. The work of Louis de Broglie suggested that even matter had to be regarded as behaving as a wave in some respect. These theories led Niels Bohr to develop his concept of "complementarity." Bohr held that the experimental data at his disposal forced him to the conclusion that a complex situation (the behavior of light and matter) had to be represented by using two apparently contradictory and incompatible models. It is this principle of holding together two apparently irreconcilable models of a complex phenomenon in order to account for the behavior of that phenomenon which is known as the "principle of complementarity."

2. Complementarity in Theology. Christian orthodoxy has always held that Jesus Christ must be thought of as being truly divine and truly human. The Christological issue of critical importance was that the biblical portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth at times suggested that he behaved or functioned as God, at others as human. It was this awareness that Jesus required to be understood in both divine and human terms which eventually led to what is known as the "Chalcedonian definition of faith" - the famous assertion that Jesus is truly divine and truly human.

X Chapter 8 Issues in Science and Religion (The theme of science and religion is made more complicated by the fact that both science and religion refer to a variety of possibilities. Religion can refer to a variety of completely different belief systems. Christianity has had the closest relationship with and the greatest impact upon the development of the natural sciences in the western world. Judaism and Islam have also been involved in this development, but to a lesser extent. It is also important to know that there are significant differences between the individual natural sciences.)

A. Physics and Cosmology (It is generally thought that modern physics and cosmology offer the most important and fruitful possibilities for dialogue between the sciences and religion. The theme of "ordering of the universe" has major significance when viewed in the light of a doctrine of creation, which understands the world to possess an ordering and rationality having its origins in the mind of God. Two of the most important issues to emerge from modern cosmological research relate to "the big bang" and "the anthropic principle.")

1. The "Big Bang". It is now widely agreed that the universe had a beginning. This immediately points to at least some level of affinity with the Christian idea that the universe was created. Origins of the "big bang" theory may be argued to lie in the general theory of relativity proposed by Albert Einstein. Einstein’s theory was proposed at a time when the scientific consensus favored the notion of a static universe. The equations which Einstein derived to describe the effects of relativity were interpreted by him in terms of a gravitational and levitational equilibrium. If the universe was perfectly homogeneous and expanding, then the universe must have expanded from a singular initial state at some point in the past characterized by zero radius, and infinite density, temperature and curvature. Other solutions to the equations suggested a cycle of expansion and contraction.

2. The Anthropic Principle. This term is generally used to refer to the remarkable degree of "fine tuning" observed within the natural order. The remarkable convergence of certain fundamental constants is laden with religious significance. The seemingly miraculous concurrence of numerical values that nature has assigned to her fundamental constants must remain the most compelling evidence for an element of cosmic design. The possibility of life as we know it evolving in the universe depends on the values of a few physical constants - and is in some respects remarkably sensitive to their numerical values. The constants which assumed a particularly significant role were the electromagnetic fine structure constant, the gravitational fine structure constant, and the electron-to-proton mass ration. There are four examples of such fine tuning.

a. If the strong coupling constant was slightly smaller, hydrogen would be the only element in the universe. Since the evolution of life as we know it is fundamentally dependent on the chemical properties of carbon, that life could not have come into being without some hydrogen being converted to carbon by fusion. If the strong coupling constant were slightly larger, the hydrogen would have been converted to helium, with the result that no long lived stars would have been formed. In that such stars are regarded as essential to the emergence of life. b. If the weak fine constant was slightly smaller, no hydrogen would have formed during the early history of the universe. Consequently, no stars would have formed. If it was slightly larger, supernovae would have been unable to eject the heavier elements necessary for life.

c. If the electromagnetic fine structure constant was slightly larger, the stars would not be hot enough to warm planets to a temperature sufficient to maintain life in the form in which we know it. If smaller, the stars would have burned out too quickly to allow life to evolve on these planets.

d. If the gravitational fine structure constant were slightly smaller, stars and planets would not have been able to form, on account of the gravitational constraints necessary for coalescence of their constituent material. If stronger, the stars thus formed would have burned out too quickly to allow the evolution of life.

B. Biology (One of the most fundamental questions concerns the origins of humanity, and the implications of a Darwinian answer to this question for a Christian understanding of human nature.)

1. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) The specific issues raised by Darwin’s theory of natural selection were of direct religious importance. Darwin’s theory suggested that the process of evolution had taken place through a massive struggle for existence, in the course of which a number of species had been eliminated through competition. This element of waste seemed to come into conflict with the notion of divine providence. How could a wise and good God allow such waste to take place? Darwin’s theory of natural selection seemed to raise many of the difficulties associated with the traditional problem of evil. If God is omnipotent and good, why is there evil ans suffering in the world? The new twist lay in the extension of the suffering of the world from the present natural order to the process by which that present order came into being. A further point related to the apparent randomness of the evolutionary process. Darwin’s theory seemed to imply that plants and animals (including humans) came into existence by accident. Perhaps the most significant religious difficulty concerned the place of humanity. As Darwin hinted, humanity owed its origins and characteristics to precisely the same natural processes as those which brought other plant and animal species into being. Humanity was not exempt from this process, but was merely its most distinguished product to date. Humans were descended from other forms of life, and owed their dominance to their superior ability to survive. This stood in stark contrast to traditional Christian ideas concerning the special creation of humanity, and especially the notion that human nature was distinct from and superior to the remainder of the natural order. According to some, Darwin’s theory of evolution eliminated a need for belief in God. Darwinianism also obliges Christian theology to rethink the manner in which God governs the natural order - but not the fundamental belief that God created the world. This viewpoint is referred to as "Theistic evolutionism."

2. Neo-Darwinism: Richard Dawkins. Dawkins held a strong anti-religious approach. There are two main religious conclusions that Dawkins draws in his analysis.

a. One of the primary functions of religion is explanatory. Religions offer explanations of the way the world is, and are to be regarded as a type scientific theory. The theories of religion and God are to be rejected as inferior to that offered by natural selection. Religious explanations were once credible, but are no longer so, and should therefore be abandoned as outdated and unjustified.

b. Where the natural sciences offer theories which are justified with reference to evidence, the religions offer theories which are counter to the evidence. Faith is thus unwarranted and unsubstantiated. Faith, he argued is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of the lack of evidence. Dawkins even suggests that faith is a kind of mental illness, or one of the world’s great evils.

3. Evolutionary Theism. Others saw the mysterious process of evolution nothing less than the providential guiding hand of God, leading the creation on to higher states of consciousness and development - a viewpoint known as "theistic evolution." This idea integrated a Christian theology of providence with the Darwinian concept of an evolving world. Divine design could be seen in the laws within which the natural process operated. God providentially ordained that the animal origins of humanity should gradually be eliminated, so that its superior spiritual and moral capacity could be established.

C. Psychology

1. Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872). Feuerbach argued that the idea of God arises understandably, but mistakenly, from human experience. Religion is simply the projection of the desires and longings of human nature onto an illusory transcendent plane. Humans mistakenly objectify their own feelings, and interpret their subjective experience as an awareness or experience of God, whereas it is in fact nothing other than an experience of themselves. God is the longing of the human soul personified, and we yearn for a supernatural being that will satisfy all our desires and dreams. Additionally, the doctrine of Christ is nothing more than an echo of the deep human longing for immediate certainty of personal immortality.

2. William James (1842-1910). James pioneered the effort to construct an empirical study of the phenomenon of religious experience. His primary interest is personal religious experience, rather than the type of religious experiences which are associated with institutions. It is very important to insist on the distinction between religion as an individual personal function, and religion as an institutional, corporate or tribal product. To James, theology owes both its origins and form to experience. One of the most significant aspects of James’ work is that it does not attempt to reduce religious experience to social or psychological categories, but attempts to describe the phenomena in a manner which respects their integrity.

3. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud’s discussion of religion is one of the most significant contributions to the debate of science and religion, and is totally unsympathetic in tone, and strongly reductionist in approach. To Freud, religious ideas are illusions, fulfilments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind. Freud declared that religion was basically a distorted form of an obsessional neurosis. Freud’s studies of obsessional patients led him to argue that such disorders were the consequence of unresolved developmental issues, such as the association of "guilt" and "being unclean." He suggested that aspects of religious behavior (i.e., ritual cleansing ceremonies of Judaism) could arise through similar obsessions. Freud also said that religion represented the perpetuation of a piece of infantile behavior in adult life. Religion is simply an immature response to the awareness of helplessness, by going back to one’s childhood experiences of parental care: "my father will protect me; he is in control." Belief in a personal God is thus little more than an infantile delusion, the projection of an idealized father figure.

XI Chapter 9 Case Studies in Science and Religion

A. Ian G. Barbour (1923-). Barbour utilized the ideas developed in "process thought" or "process theology." The key aspect of process theology which Barbour used is the rejection of the classic doctrine of God’s omnipotence: God is one agent among many, not the sovereign Lord of all. Barbour saw God, as a God of persuasion rather than compulsion, who influences the world without determining it. Process theology identifies the origins of suffering and evil within the world to a limitation upon the power of God. Persuasion is seen as a means of exercising power in such a manner that the rights and freedom of others are respected. God is obliged to persuade every aspect of the process to act in the best possible manner. There is no guarantee that God’s benevolent persuasion will lead to favorable outcome. God intends good for the creation, and acts in its best interests, but does not exercise his divine will. As a result, God is unable to prevent certain things from happening. God is thus not responsible for evil. The metaphysical limits placed upon God are to prevent interference in the natural order of things. Barbour is considered to be a "panentheist"(meaning God includes and penetrates all things).

B. Charles A. Coulson (1910-1974). Coulson’s major contribution to the relation of science and religion lies in his vigorous and insistent rejection of the notion of a "God of the gaps;" that is gaps in human understanding. Coulson was alarmed at the tendency of some religious writers to propose that what could not presently be explained was to be put down to the action or influence of God. To Coulson, this was an unjustified strategy. It was vulnerable on account of scientific progress. What might be unexplained today, might find an explanation tomorrow. For Coulson, the biblical account of creation points to the universe possessing and demonstrating a meaningful and ordered pattern, which can be uncovered by the natural sciences. Coulson saw a strong convergence between science and Christianity and insisted that God was to be discerned through the ordering and beauty of the world, not hiding in its recesses.

C. Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928-). Pannenberg argued for the grounding of theology in what he termed "universal history." Pannenberg ‘s argument takes the following form. Christian theology is based upon an analysis of universal and publicly accessible history. Revelation is essentially a public and universal historical event which is recognized and interpreted as an act of God. History in all its totality, can only be understood when it is viewed from its endpoint. Pannenberg declared that this endpoint was provided only in Jesus. The end of history, which has yet to take place, has been disclosed in advance through Jesus Christ. Pannenberg also insisted that the resurrection of Jesus is an objective historical event, witnessed by all who had access to the evidence.

D. Arthur Peacocke (1924-). Peacocke focused on aspects of the relationship of religion and science in general, and the biological sciences in particular. One of Peacocke’s primary concerns is his belief that Christian theology needs to respond to the challenges posed by the natural sciences in the modern period. Peacocke believes that both science and religion operate on the basis of a "critical realism," in which models are "partial, adequate, revisable and a necessary" means of depicting reality. Science and theology both use imagery in an attempt to offer a reliable and responsible picture of the world as it really is.

E. John Polkinghorne (1930-). One of Polkinghorne’s most significant achievements is to establish a firm place for natural theology in apologetics and theology. Natural theology is perhaps the most important bridge between the worlds of science and religion. Polkinghorne directs attention to the ordering of the world, which is disclosed particularly clearly in the physical sciences. He argues that one of the most significant achievements of modern science has been its demonstration of the ordering of the world. It has disclosed an intelligible and delicately balanced structure, which raises questions which transcend the scientific, and provoke an intellectual restlessness which can only be satisfied through an adequate explanation.

F. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). Chardin’s writings taken together set out a remarkable fusion of evolutionary biology, philosophical theology and spirituality. Chardin viewed the universe as an evolutionary process which was constantly moving towards a state of greater complexity and higher levels of consciousness. Within this process of evolution, a number of critically important transitions can be discerned, generally referred to as "critical points." These critical points are like rungs on a ladder, leading to new stages in a continuous process of development. The world is to be seen as a single continuous process or various levels of organization. Each of these levels has its roots in earlier levels, and its emergence is to be seen as the actualization of what was potentially present in earlier levels. Chardin does not consider that there is a radical dividing line between consciousness and matter, or between humanity and other animals. The world is a single evolving entity, linked together as a web of mutually interconnected events, in which there is a natural progression from matter to life to human existence to human society. This clearly raises the question of how God is involved in evolution. Chardin places considerable emphasis on the theme of the consummation of the world in Jesus Christ, an idea which is clearly stated in the New Testament. Chardin develops his theme with particular reference to a concept he calls "Omega," and tends to think of Omega as the point towards which the evolutionary process is heading. The final result is that both the directionality of evolution and its final goal are explained in terms of a final union with God. G.Thomas F. Torrance (1913-). Torrance argued that there was a hidden traffic between theological and scientific ideas of the most far-reaching significance for both theology and science. Torrance draws a careful and critical distinction between religion and theology. The distinction is important, as many discussions of the interaction of religious and scientific ways of thinking often treat the issues of science and religion, and science and theology as synonymous, but are different ways of speaking about the same thing. Torrance insists that this is unacceptable. Religion is to be understood as concerning human consciousness and behavior. Religion is essentially a human creation. Theology has to do with our knowledge of God. In the case of the natural sciences, the reality is the natural order; in the case of theology, it is the Christian revelation.