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Outline of Class Investigating Christianity

Outline of Class Investigating Christianity. Week 1: Investigative Framework Week 2: Christianity and Other Religions Week 3: Science and Christianity Week 4: Why Believe the Bible? Week 5: The Problem of Evil. A clarification from Xenos on this material:

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Outline of Class Investigating Christianity

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  1. Outline of Class Investigating Christianity • Week 1: Investigative Framework • Week 2: Christianity and Other Religions • Week 3: Science and Christianity • Week 4: Why Believe the Bible? • Week 5: The Problem of Evil A clarification from Xenos on this material: Doug's presentation contained his opinions on the Day/Age interpretation of Genesis 1, and the possible compatibility of Genesis 1 with a natural process for the creation of plant and animal life. Xenos does not endorse these views, and in fact does not have a formal position on these issues.

  2. Outline of Class Investigating Christianity • Week 1: Investigative Framework • Week 2: Christianity and Other Religions • Week 3: Science and Christianity • Week 4: Why Believe the Bible? • Week 5: The Problem of Evil Two goals: 1-To define Christianity 2-To explore common objections to biblical Christianity The class is for non-Christians, as well as Christians

  3. Outline of Class Investigating Christianity “When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:21-22 • Week 1: Investigative Framework • Week 2: Christianity and Other Religions • Week 3: Science and Christianity • Week 4: Why Believe the Bible? • Week 5: The Problem of Evil Two goals: 1-To define Christianity 2-To explore common objections to biblical Christianity The class is for non-Christians, as well as Christians

  4. Science and Christianity

  5. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science

  6. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16 “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change his mind.” Numbers 23:19

  7. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science: • Clear statements from scripture should not contradict well-documented facts from science

  8. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science “…people…wrongly suppress the truth, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20

  9. Science and Christianity “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Psalms 139:13-16 • The Biblical View of Science “…men…suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20

  10. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science: • Clear statements from scripture should not contradict well-documented facts from science • A study of physical reality should provide evidence of God’s existence and power

  11. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science: • Clear statements from scripture should not contradict well-documented facts from science • A study of physical reality should provide evidence of God’s existence and power “I implore my reader not to forget the divine goodness conferred on mankind, and which the psalmist urges him especially to consider. When he has returned from church and entered on the study of astronomy, may he praise and glorify the wisdom and greatness of the creator. Let him not only extol the bounty of God in the preservation of living creatures of all kinds by the strength and stability of the earth, but also let him acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator in its motion, so abstruse, so admirable.” Johannes Kepler, Astronomia nova

  12. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science: • Clear statements from scripture should not contradict well-documented facts from science • A study of physical reality should provide evidence of God’s existence and power “I implore my reader not to forget the divine goodness conferred on mankind, and which the psalmist urges him especially to consider. When he has returned from church and entered on the study of astronomy, may he praise and glorify the wisdom and greatness of the creator. Let him not only extol the bounty of God in the preservation of living creatures of all kinds by the strength and stability of the earth, but also let him acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator in its motion, so abstruse, so admirable.” Johannes Kepler, Astronomia nova

  13. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science: • Clear statements from scripture should not contradict well-documented facts from science • A study of physical reality should provide evidence of God’s existence and power “I implore my reader not to forget the divine goodness conferred on mankind, and which the psalmist urges him especially to consider. When he has returned from church and entered on the study of astronomy, may he praise and glorify the wisdom and greatness of the creator. Let him not only extol the bounty of God in the preservation of living creatures of all kinds by the strength and stability of the earth, but also let him acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator in its motion, so abstruse, so admirable.” Johannes Kepler, Astronomia nova The Galileo Mistake: Failing to reconsider the range of legitimate interpretations that may harmonize with new scientific information.

  14. "Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world...now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics [of the commonly understood natural workings of creation], and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show a vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn…” Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science: • Clear statements from scripture should not contradict well-documented facts from science • A study of physical reality should provide evidence of God’s existence and power “I implore my reader not to forget the divine goodness conferred on mankind, and which the psalmist urges him especially to consider. When he has returned from church and entered on the study of astronomy, may he praise and glorify the wisdom and greatness of the creator. Let him not only extol the bounty of God in the preservation of living creatures of all kinds by the strength and stability of the earth, but also let him acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator in its motion, so abstruse, so admirable.” Johannes Kepler, Astronomia nova The Galileo Mistake: Failing to reconsider the range of legitimate interpretations that may harmonize with new scientific information.

  15. “The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss to those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scriptures are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books on matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learned from experience in the light of reason?” Augustine (from Collins, Language of God, pg. 157) Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science: • Clear statements from scripture should not contradict well-documented facts from science • A study of physical reality should provide evidence of God’s existence and power “I implore my reader not to forget the divine goodness conferred on mankind, and which the psalmist urges him especially to consider. When he has returned from church and entered on the study of astronomy, may he praise and glorify the wisdom and greatness of the creator. Let him not only extol the bounty of God in the preservation of living creatures of all kinds by the strength and stability of the earth, but also let him acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator in its motion, so abstruse, so admirable.” Johannes Kepler, Astronomia nova The Galileo Mistake: Failing to reconsider the range of legitimate interpretations that may harmonize with new scientific information.

  16. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science Does science discredit the Bible? Does scientific data confirm some aspects of the biblical worldview?

  17. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1

  18. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • The origin and structure of the universe points to a creator

  19. Star Formation

  20. Supernova

  21. Stellar Recycling

  22. Stellar Recycling “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries” Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, pg. 116

  23. Stellar Recycling “The principle ex nihilo nihil fit [nothing comes from nothing] seems to me to be a sort of metaphysical first principle, one of the most obvious truths we intuit when we reflect seriously. If the denial of this principle is the alternative to a theistic metaphysic, then let those who decry the irrationality of theism be henceforth silent!” William Lane Craig, Atheism, Theism, and Big Bang Cosmology, pg. 156 “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries” Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, pg. 116

  24. Stellar Recycling “The principle ex nihilo nihil fit [nothing comes from nothing] seems to me to be a sort of metaphysical first principle, one of the most obvious truths we intuit when we reflect seriously. If the denial of this principle is the alternative to a theistic metaphysic, then let those who decry the irrationality of theism be henceforth silent!” William Lane Craig, Atheism, Theism, and Big Bang Cosmology, pg. 156 “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries” Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, pg. 116 “It is hard to resist the impression that the present structure of the universe, apparently so sensitive to minor alterations in the numbers, has been rather carefully thought out... the seemingly miraculous concurrence of numerical values that nature has assigned to her fundamental constants must remain the most compelling evidence of cosmic design.” Paul Davies, God and the New Physics, pg. 189

  25. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • The origin and structure of the universe points to a creator

  26. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • The origin and structure of the universe points to a creator • But was the universe created in six days?

  27. Science and Christianity “And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day…And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day…And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Genesis 1:5, 8, 31 • The Biblical View of Science • Case Study: Noah’s Flood • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • The origin and structure of the universe points to a creator • But was the universe created in six days?

  28. Science and Christianity “And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day…And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day…And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Genesis 1:5, 8, 31 • The Biblical View of Science • Objections to the Biblical View • Case Study: Noah’s Flood • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • The origin and structure of the universe points to a creator • But was the universe created in six days?

  29. The Day/Age Interpretation • Usage of “yom” in OT includes “age” • Morning/evening terminology • Sabbath...not closed; Sabbath years • 24 hours is insufficient for all the events recorded in day six • Evidence for old earth from geology • Evidence for old universe from astronomy; appearance of age problematic

  30. Day/Age Harmonization with Standard Astronomy/Geology

  31. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • The origin and structure of the universe points to a creator • The Day/Age interpretation harmonizes with the data from science

  32. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1

  33. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2

  34. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator

  35. “To grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until is is twenty kilometers in diameter and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or New York. What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design…”

  36. “On the surface of the cell we would see millions of openings, like the port holes of a vast space ship, opening and closing to allow a continual stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity...” Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis

  37. (from Z. Xu,, A. L. Horwich, and P. B. Sigler, 1997)

  38. “For life to have originated on the earth it would be necessary that quite explicit instruction should have been provided for its assembly…there is no way in which we can expect to avoid the need for information, no way in which we can simply get by with a bigger and better organic soup, as we ourselves hoped might be possible a year or two ago...the correct position we think is…an intelligence…indeed such a theory is so obvious that one wonders why it is not widely accepted as being self-evident. The reasons are psychological rather than scientific.” Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (from Z. Xu,, A. L. Horwich, and P. B. Sigler, 1997)

  39. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator

  40. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator • What about Evolution?

  41. Science and Christianity “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)...” Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator • What about Evolution?

  42. Science and Christianity “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)...” Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator • What about Evolution? “Then God said, ‘Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night... God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars.” Genesis 1:14-15

  43. Science and Christianity “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)...” Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator • What about Evolution? “Then God said, ‘Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night... God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars.” Genesis 1:14-15 “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb…” Psalms 139:13-16

  44. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator • My opinion: biological evolution does not conflict with Genesis

  45. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2 • The origin and structure of life points to a creator • Scientific evolution does not conflict with Genesis “Modern science directly implies that...there are no gods and no designing forces that are rationally detectable. Second, modern science directly implies that there are no inherent moral or ethical laws, no absolute guiding principles for human society. Third, human beings are marvelously complex machines. The individual human becomes an ethical person by means of two primary mechanisms: heredity and environmental influences. That is all there is. Fourth, we must conclude that when we die, we die and that is the end of us. Finally, free will as it is traditionally conceived…simply does not exist.” William Provine, Cornell University, from Darwin on Trial, pg. 124

  46. Science and Christianity • The Biblical View of Science • Cosmology and Genesis 1 • Biology and Genesis 1-2

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