Christianity and Science

Overview

Recall questions on the challenge of modern cosmology, Galileo on scripture and nature, Darwin's challenge, the conflict thesis, young earth creationism and Intelligent Design, theistic evolution, and the lasting impact of these debates.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   How does modern cosmology challenge traditional Christian belief?

   Model answer

   It describes a universe roughly fourteen billion years old, expanding from an initial hot dense state, in which the earth is a small planet around an ordinary star in one of an enormous number of galaxies. That conflicts with any literal six-day creation and with chronologies that dated creation a few thousand years back, and it displaces humanity from the centre. More broadly it suggests the universe's history can be described without invoking a creator at any point.

2. 2

   Outline the Galileo affair, and explain why it is more complicated than it looks.

   Model answer

   Galileo's telescope showed the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and mountains on the moon, and he argued publicly for a sun-centred system. Warned in 1616, he was tried in 1633 and spent his remaining years under house arrest. Historians stress that Aristotelian academics were as hostile as churchmen, that the observational evidence was not yet decisive, and that Galileo's tactlessness and papal politics were central. It is therefore a poor advertisement for a simple war between religion and science.

3. 3

   What did Galileo argue about how scripture and nature relate?

   Model answer

   He argued that God is the author of both scripture and the natural world, so they cannot genuinely conflict. Scripture, being addressed to ordinary people about salvation, speaks in everyday language about the heavens and does not aim to teach astronomy; where a demonstrated physical truth clashes with a literal reading, the reading should be revised. He drove the point home with an aphorism he borrowed from Cardinal Baronius, that scripture teaches how to go to heaven and not how the heavens go, quoting a churchman back at the Church; many churches later adopted the principle.

4. 4

   How does Darwin's account of evolution challenge Christian belief?

   Model answer

   Natural selection explains the appearance of design without a designer, undercutting arguments from the fit between organism and environment. Common descent removes any special creation of separate species and places human beings among the animals, which pressures claims about human uniqueness and the image of God. The mechanism also relies on vast waste, extinction and suffering, which complicates the goodness of creation, and it leaves no room for an original human pair falling from perfection.

5. 5

   Distinguish the challenge Galileo represents from the challenge Darwin represents.

   Model answer

   Galileo's challenge is about authority and interpretation: the physical claims in scripture and in inherited philosophy turned out to be wrong, so Christians had to decide what the Bible is for. Darwin's challenge cuts deeper, into doctrine itself, touching human uniqueness, the goodness of creation, the historicity of a fall, and the design argument. Galileo also insisted he was defending a proper reading of scripture, whereas Darwin's account left theologians rethinking what humanity is.

6. 6

   What is the conflict thesis, and how strong is it?

   Model answer

   It is the claim that religion and science are inherently at war, with religion in permanent retreat. Its evidence is real: Galileo, the reception of Darwin, and continuing creationist campaigns. Historians of science, however, argue it was largely manufactured in the nineteenth century and ignores how much early modern science was done by believers who expected an ordered creation. Critics also point out that the thesis treats highly literalist Christianity as though it were the whole of Christianity.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.