Goddard Faith vs. Science

1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-62287-015-8
Verlag: First Edition Design Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 100 Seiten

This is not a book on theology, nor is it a highly technical scientific analysis. It’s really just a conversation—between me and a hypothetical, non-hostile unbeliever. My purpose is to help scientific people see that religion is not just for kooks and to help religious people see that science is not just for atheists.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Goddard, Jerome

Leseproben

Introduction The idea that God used evolution to bring about life on the earth is called “theistic evolution.” This view, which was recently officially adopted by the Catholic Church, purports that evolution was God’s way—his creative force. Humans have a soul or spiritual nature only because somewhere along the path of evolution, God made sure there was the development of conscience and spirituality. “Intelligent Design” scientists think evolution on earth was guided by some sort of mind or intelligence.[32] Note the following quote by Dr. John Eccles, a Nobel Laureate:  
I believe that there is a Divine Providence operating over and above the materialist happenings of biological evolution. That belief brands me as a finalist. We must not dogmatically assert that biological evolution in its present form is the ultimate truth. Rather, we should believe that it is the main story and that in some mysterious way there is guidance in the chain of contingency that has led to us. [35]  
Inspiration of scripture Before describing a working model of origins for scientists, it is important to lay the groundwork concerning the interpretation of and the importance of Holy Scripture. Christians believe the Bible is inspired scripture, more than just beautiful poetry or historical accounts of ancient believers. The degree and manner of inspiration is debatable and not the topic of discussion here. However, since Christians believe they are “inspired,” Holy Scriptures contain insights about things existing beyond the knowledge of the person who wrote them. For example, if the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament said God was going to destroy Jerusalem in the future and allow the Israelites to be carried off into Babylonian captivity for seventy years (something that actually happened later), then he must have gotten this information from somewhere. There are numerous examples of these fulfilled prophecies. Sure, a skeptic might say these guys just made lots of best guesses, and by chance, a few of them later came true. But Christians believe God gave divine revelation to certain people to know things beyond what they ordinarily would have known. When they wrote things down, the writings became recognized by both themselves and others as inspired scripture.  
Significance of the Genesis account Accordingly, Christians believe the creation story in the book of Genesis constitutes “inspired scripture.” It’s more than just a pretty story. The narrative contains elements of truth beyond what Moses knew and wrote (many believe Moses was the writer of Genesis). Sure, there is evidence that Moses may have compiled local oral creation myths and edited them. But even if this is true, Christians believe God watched over, influenced, and inspired what was ultimately written down as scripture on the subject of origins. That’s why Christians often carefully study the wording of passages—like lawyers pouring over legal documents—to determine the exact meaning because they are convinced the wording was inspired by God. The importance of this discussion is that the elements/events contained in scripture are there for a reason. They are truths or, at a minimum, collectively make up an inspired metaphor to explain the nature of God to humans. This is true for the Genesis account of origins. People get hung up on the simplicity and poetic description of God’s creation event, thinking the description fails to scientifically explain our origin, and thus, they dismiss the whole thing. But, first of all, the creation story in Genesis was never intended to be a scientific account of the origin of the universe and ultimately, the origin of humans. It was written in broad strokes, like those of an artist, whereby we get the gist of the story, but the details are lacking. God needed the Bible to be equally understood, through thousands of years, by a wide range of humans, from the most primitive native to the Ph.D. scientist—quite a task, if you think about it. That’s why it is written in these broad strokes.  
Wording is important Even though the Genesis account is written in broad, descriptive strokes, I personally take great interest in the choice of wording used there. For one thing, the creation is accomplished in successive stages with different entities being created on different days. The Bible says everything was created in six days. However, those six days of creation could represent long ages of time instead of literal twenty-four hour days. The Hebrew word used in the first chapter of Genesis, yom, is used a few other places in the Bible to indicate periods of time longer than twenty-four hours (e.g. Psa. 90:4, 2 Pe. 3:8, and Zec. 12-14). Also, the “days” described for the first three days of creation could not be literal twenty-four hour solar days because the sun wasn’t created until the fourth day. In the creation account there is a basic progression from simpler things to more complex organisms, with humans being created last (see the discussion in Gutzke [36]). For example, land appeared before grass; grass appeared before animals; and animals appeared before humans. This is consistent with the findings of modern science. What’s really surprising is how the Genesis account differs from other myths of that time. Most creation myths in the time during which the Old Testament was written were quite bizarre, fantastic, and grotesque.[36] But the creation story in Genesis is clearly ennobling and inspiring, far ahead of its time. In the Hebrew language, various words are used for God, denoting various attributes of his nature. In Genesis, the name used is Elohim. This particular word means the “Strong One.”[36] Elohim translates literally “the one with energy.” We now know that virtually everything is energy at its most basic form. The basic element of the big bang was energy. The Hebrew language fits well with this concept when it says in Genesis that the “Great Energy One” is the one who created the heavens and earth. Another great example of unique wording in Genesis is the Hebrew word rakiah, translated as “firmament” in Genesis 1:6.[36] This word does not mean that the heavens are “firm” which would be consistent with the scientific understanding of the Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans of that day. Instead, rakiah actually means “expanse,” which is exactly what we mean by the term “space” today. Interestingly, I’ll also point out for my strict, unwavering evolutionist readers that in the first chapter of Genesis, the scriptures say, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind (Gen. 1:11).” He also says this about the oceans: “Let the waters bring forth creatures.” This choice of words sounds very much like ones consistent with an evolutionary concept—causing the earth or ocean to “bring forth” life on its own. Best I can tell, both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas believed that inanimate matter actually had an intrinsic potency to bring forth life. Another interesting choice of words is found in the account of the creation of animals and humans. God “breathed” life into humans, whereas at no time did he breathe into animals, demonstrating that humans have a soul/spirit. I also think it is significant that the book of Genesis says that evil was present from the beginning, or at least, nearly the beginning. God created the first man and woman and placed them in a perfect place (the Garden of Eden), but the serpent, representing an evil force, came around to tempt them. Finally, for my vegetarian friends, it is of interest to note that when God first created humans, they were commanded to eat only plants, herbs, and fruits (Gen. 1:29). Meat-eating was only allowed after the flood of Noah’s day (Gen. 9:3). Does this mean vegetarianism is God’s intended way? I personally hope not; I like hamburgers too much.  
Origin of the universe The Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth—be it by the big bang or whatever method he may have used. If the big bang theory of creation is correct, then God made the original matter and energy that blew up...or perhaps more importantly, God lit the fuse. The Bible says God made light, and thus a distinction was made between light and darkness. We take things for granted. What is light anyway? How valuable is light? What would the universe be like if there were no light? God spoke, and stars, moons, and planets sprung into existence. The skeptic might say, “No, that happened billions of years later as a natural result of the big bang.” Okay, God spoke, making the big bang happen, which ultimately led to the creation of all heavenly bodies. Time is of no consequence. A miracle that takes a billion years to happen is no less a miracle than one that happens in an instant. God made the universe amazingly consistent, another fact that we take for granted. Water remains water. Salt remains salt. Fire remains fire. Tadpoles don’t transform into frogs one time, and birds the next. God created the world and keeps it in its place. I used to wonder why the Psalmist said things like, “It’s you, Oh Lord, who sets the boundaries for the oceans that they may not cross.” Now I don’t wonder about that because I’ve come to realize nothing’s really changed. God does ultimately set the boundaries for the oceans, as...