Tim Ross’s talk on Christianity and science

  Faith Versus Science

 Is the big fight a big fake?

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

The Conflict
Richard Dawkins in Channel 4s series “The Genius of Charles Darwin” made it very clear that, as far as he is concerned, science and ALL religion are completely opposed to each other. At the beginning of the very first episode he says this:

“What Darwin achieved was a complete explanation of the complexity and diversity of all life… In this series I want to persuade you that evolution offers a far richer and more spectacular view of life than any religious story. It is one reason why I don’t believe in God.”

As far as Dawkins is concerned, anything that any religion has to say about how the universe and life came into being is completely worthless and has no more value in understanding truth than a fairy tale. For Dawkins, science explains everything, therefore any non-scientific explanation has no element of truth whatsoever.

On the face of it, the way science and Christianity explain the origins of the universe do appear to conflict.

On the one hand, modern cosmology and the theory of evolution by natural selection say that the universe was created 13.7 billion years ago in a huge explosion, and that life on earth began with very simple organisms, which evolved over millions of years into the complex creatures we see today.

On the other hand, the book of Genesis says that God created the universe, the sun, moon and earth in three days, and that all living things were made by distinct acts of creation over the next three days.

Which is correct?

It seems like a straightforward choice. Either you accept a scientific theory based on collected evidence and experiment or you push the whole of modern science to one side and trust a literal interpretation of Genesis.

Day-Age Creationism

This is based on 2 Peter 3:8-9 which contains this:

“With the Lord, as day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.”

Day-age creationism notes that the word “day” in the Bible can mean not only a 24-hour time period, it can also mean “age” or “era”. It also notes that the sun, which gives us our days, was not created until the fourth day of creation. The theory concludes from these two facts that the days of creation are therefore actually eras or phases of creation, which could conceivably have taken billions of years.

The theory does have a strong appeal, because it deflates instantly all the arguments from atheists who claim that the Genesis time frame of six days of creation is in conflict with the whole of modern science.

Day-age creationism also notes the similarities between the accounts that both Genesis and science give of the formation of the universe, earth and then life. For instance, the early universe was too hot for stars and galaxies to form, so there was light before any solid matter appeared. When being interviewed by the Radio Times about the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, professor Brian Cox, who worked on the experiment said, “We think that everything was mass-less at the start of the universe, so everything was like light – nothing had substance.” This is exactly the picture portrayed in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.

Day-age Creationist Hugh Ross notes the following parallels between the accounts of creation given by science and Genesis.

1. Creation of the physical universe (space, time, matter, energy, galaxies, stars, etc.)
2. Transformation of the earth’s atmosphere from opaque to translucent.
3. Formation of a stable water cycle.
4. Establishment of continent(s) and ocean(s).
5. Production of plants on the continent(s).
6. Transformation of the atmosphere from translucent to transparent (Sun, Moon, and stars become visible).
7. Production of small sea animals.
8. Creation of sea mammals.
9. Creation of birds.
10. Making of land mammals.
11. Creation of mankind.

The problem with Day-age creationism is that it still makes scientific claims for Genesis chapter when it is primarily a theological document.

www.reasons.org is a website dedicated to the science/religion debate with particular emphasis on Day-Age Creationism.

Continue to the second part of the talk