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Question: Discuss one or more recent books on the relationship between science and theology.
Through this essay, I will be discussing the relationship between religion (specifically theology) and science with reference to a recent book on the topic by Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, University of Tübingen, Germany, Jürgen Moltmann. The book being titled Science and Wisdom, translated in 2003 by Margaret Kohl from the German, Wissenschaft und Weisheit: Zum Gesprüch zwischen Naturwissenscheft und Theologie (2002).
I would like to commit a major portion of this essay to the first two papers and to later papers, which show an amount of coherence with the ideas presented in the first.
The middle section of the book, Theology and Cosmology, contains six chapters and concerns issues of:
- Creation under differing (universal) system paradigms
- The consummation of Creation, the history of the universe in terms of Jewish theology of God’s Shekinah, the Christian theology of Christ’s Kenosis and the Kabbalistic concept of zimzum.
- The future of the universe from eschatological perspectives.
- The nature and experience of time and the subject’s place in it.
- Space as a requirement of the living and the homely necessity of bounded space.
- Makom, trinitarian spaces of God and the ways in which it can be perceived that Creation dwells in the space of God and also as God dwelling within his Creation.
The reason I have passed over this material with only a schematic outline, is that these issues, while thoroughly interesting and thought provoking, were put forward from a heavily theological perspective. I found them to be of little importance in developing ideas of the relationship between science and theology; that is, except to give the reader a precise indication of the author’s background and theological views. The discussions on the relationship between science and theology are to be found in the opening two chapters and also the first half of the last section.
Moltmann states clearly in the Preface the he ‘never found the time to study physics thoroughly’ and ‘though lacking professional expertise in the scientific field, science is nevertheless for me a subject of interest and delight.’ This said, the section Theology and Cosmology does not fail to live up to the initial hope Moltmann had in publishing the papers: ‘that (the) contributions may encourage others to set out for themselves, and to follow their own paths into what we must surely call this new theological territory.’ (Xiii)
In a very broad sense, the text is divided into three major sections.
In 1936 a sixth-grade student by the name of Phyllis Wright wondered if scientists pray, and if so, what for. She decided to ask one of the greatest scientists of all time, Albert Einstein. A while later he wrote a letter back to Phyllis with his response. Understanding the context and purpose of his response assist in analyzing its effectiveness. After receiving a letter from such a young student, Einstein aimed to provide Phyllis with a comprehensible answer. He intended for his response not to sway her in one way or another, but to explain science and religion do not necessarily contradict each other completely. By using appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos, Einstein achieved his purpose by articulating a response suitable for a sixth grade
Science and faith are generally viewed as two topics that do not intermingle. However, Andy Crouch’s work, Delight in Creation, suggests that there is an approach to both faith and science that allows support of scientists in the church community. There is an approach that can regard science as a career that can reflect the nature of God.
Peterson, Michael - Hasker, Reichenbach and Basinger. Philosophy of Religion - Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press, NY.
Chapter 3, The Bible, Creation, and Science by Robert Branson, PhD presented some interesting aspects of biblical interpretations relative to science. “With the rapid changes and developments that all areas of modern science produce, it is a general belief that if an informed person is made to choose between science or the Bible, science will be chosen.” (loc 647 Kindle, Branson) Dr. Branson tries and explain the three positions people take with biblical studies. The three positions examined by Dr. Branson are 1. Concordance, 2. Young-Earth Creati...
the vital force that creates all things and the cosmic intellegence that governs it from
Throughout history there has always been discussions and theories as to how the universe came to be. Where did it come from? How did it happen? Was it through God that the universe was made? These philosophies have been discussed and rejected and new theories have been created. I will discuss three theories from our studies, Kalam’s Cosmological Argument, Aquinas’s Design Argument, and Paley’s Design Argument. In this article, I will discuss the arguments and what these arguments state as their belief. A common belief from these three theories is that the universe is not infinite, meaning that the universe was created and has a beginning date. Each believe that there was a God, deity, or master creator that created the universe for a reason. They also believe that
The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions by David Berlinski uses clever and unique critiques of militant atheism and its devotion to scientism. Ten in depth chapters shed light on the dogmatic stance of many of today’s popular “new atheists.” According to Berlinski new atheism poses itself as the sole holder of truth through science, “And like any militant church, this one places a familiar demand before all others: Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (10). Berlinski (a secular Jew) approaches ideas with his own mixture of intelligence and thought filled logic; exploring the world as well as important philosophical questions pertaining to “new atheism”. Thus providing the information needed to explore the sides for both and existence and nonexistence of God.
"Cosmology itself speaks to us of the origins of the universe and its makeup, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise but in order to state the correct relationship of man with God and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth, it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer . . . other teaching about the origin of and makeup of the universe is alien to the intentions of the Bible, which does not wish to teach how heaven was made but how one goes to heaven."
Haldeman, I.M. Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture. Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1909.
"EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 & 2." EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.
Have you ever wonder how the universe was created? Some people believe in the Earth creation by the Supreme Being, some believe in the scientific explanation of Big Bang explosion theory. Every civilization in the world has its own story of how things are created. Each story reflects how people see and think the world at their time. In this essay, I am going to compare two myths of how man was created – the creation tale of Mohawk Tribe and the Hebrew Bible creation story. There are a lot of similarities as well as differences between these legends. While some differences between the two tales are the development of the stories and the meaning behind the stories, the similarities between them is the concept of creationism.
...wever, in the best interest of advancing education and an enlightened society, science must be pursued outside of the realm of faith and religion. There are obvious faith-based and untestable aspects of religion, but to interfere and cross over into everyday affairs of knowledge should not occur in the informational age. This overbearing aspect of the Church’s influence was put in check with the scientific era, and the Scientific Revolution in a sense established the facet of logic in society, which allows us to not only live more efficiently, but intelligently as well. It should not take away from the faith aspect of religion, but serve to enhance it.
The aspect of ordered space versus uniform space is the first comparison drawn between the Sacred and Profane experience of life. Space has a sense of order for religious men because holy places gave the universe a fixed center and sacred territories were distinctly separated from the profane territories. Furthermore, the foundation on which religious men built their entire reality were heirophanies. This is because of their desire to connect to the transcendent being. Heirophanies revealed the glory of god’s power and each action that a religious man carried out in life was symbolically surmounted on this base, thereby ...
ABSTRACT: The universe as a whole can be shown to consist of two worlds: the real world and the transcendental world. The real world is a multitude of passing things in a gravitational field: it is the world of nature, every unit of which is born (from the transcendental world), develops, degrades and dies (that is, it returns to the transcendental world). The transcendental world is the world of the integrated, nonpassing, unborn and undying, internally functioning Unity, which is the other side of the real world (so to speak) as roots to a tree and its branches in relation to the surface of the Earth. The fundamental science of the real world is theoretical physics. The transcendental world is also a 'physical' but energyless world. In this paper, I outline characteristics of the real world, and the basic characteristics of the transcendental world which are essential for constructing a theory about the functioning of the cosmological vacuum.
Stenmark, Mickael. How to Relate Science and Religion. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.