how does science correspond with the bible?

How does the Bible Correspond

With Science?

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He set the earth on its found-ations, so that it should never be moved.

Psalm 104:5

All Christians believe that God is

the creator . . .

1

. . . but we don’t all agree on what that

means

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No Christian would dare say that the narrative must not be take in a figurative sense.

Augustine (AD 391)

Young Earth Special

Creationists

Old Earth Special

Creationists

Evolutionary Creationists

Young Earth

Old Earth

Creation through miracle

Creation through process

Controversy divides Christians

and alienates everyone else

Evolution stops some people taking the

Bible seriously . . .

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. . . but special creation stops others

taking the Bible seriously

2

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Evolution is one of the big stumbling blocks to people today being receptive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis

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I’ve seen too many students who’ve had their faith wrecked . . . [because] people have said to them, ‘Unless you toe this line, you’re not truly a Christian.’ . . .

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. . . Then when they have found that the scientific evidence they’re faced with means they cannot toe that line, they can often flip over into a rebellion against their background and that often means a rebellion against God and Christianity. That’s tragic.

Ernest Lucas

There are good reasons for believing special creation . . .

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. . . but there are good reasons for believing evolutionary creation

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My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.

Antony Flew, former atheist philosopher

Where does the evidence lead?

• Fine-tuning of the universe

• Unique positioning of Earth

• Fine-tuning of chemistry for life

• Extraordinary complexity of DNA and protein-building mechanisms

If the rate of expansion of the universe one second after the Big bang was smaller by 1 part in 100,000,000, 000,000,000, it would have re-collapsed into a hot fireball.

Stephen Hawking

© NASA. Used by permission

1 1,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

shooting

Odds against the initial conditions being suitable for star formation: 1 followed by a thousand billion billion zeroes at least

Paul Davies

© A

rs Electron

ica, used

un

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reative Co

mm

on

s licence

Even if there is only one unique set of possible laws, it is only a set of equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to govern? . . .

© NASA. Used by permission

. . . Although science may solve the problem of how the universe began, it cannot answer the question: Why does the universe bother to exist? I don’t know the answer to that.

Stephen Hawking© NASA. Used by permission

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The amazing complexity of even the simplest cell; the information-bearing properties of DNA; the exquisite fine-tuning of the laws and constants of physics that make organic life possible . . .

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. . . these signs of intelligence do not compel our belief in a God who thundered from Mount Sinai, lay in a manger or hung from a cross . . .

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. . . But the evidence does have metaphysical implications, drawing us to a still place of wonder where such notions can be reasonably entertained.

Jonathan Witt

We need to focus on the Bible’s primary

purpose

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HOW? WHY?

Science Bible

Understanding Genesis

History

Genre

Context

Five perspectives• Literal approach

• Gap Theory

• Days = Ages

• Days of Revelation

• Days = Literary structure

The issue is not belief, but interpretation

We must respect those with whom we disagree

The message of Genesis 1-3

God is the creator of everything

There is only one God

The world reflects its creator

God is the law-giver

Humans are God’s image-bearers

Animal?

Machine?

We are machines built by DNA whose purpose is to make more copies of the same DNA . . . That is exactly what we are here for. We are machines for propagating DNA . . . It is every living object’s sole reason for living.

Richard Dawkins

made in God’s image?

Human beings are rebels against God

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