from dust to dust

FROM DUST TO DUSTFROM DUST TO DUST

Discourse on Science & Theology

a ministry of theACADEMY FOR CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

We are all born to die, no one escapes the biological expiration of our existence.

So what does it mean when we use the phrase, from dust to dust?

It means we return to the source of our composition –biochemical components physically constructed to harness the power of self-conscious thought.

Premise

Science without Religion is Lame; Religion without Science is Blind … Albert Einstein

1. Thesis

Knowledge of science & theologyin their proper contexts enrich our understanding, make theology clearer & science more meaningful.

Crisis of Faith in the 19th Century

• Disenchantment with Christianity: Moral repugnance of eternal damnation.

• Naturalism in the new Historical Sciences• Unbelief in Miracles• Darwinism: Are we Rising Beasts or

Fallen Angels?

2. Fallacies1. The Bible makes no mention of science

(Moses in Acts 7:22)

2. Science was divorced from religion in the 17th century (No fusion. Rather, subordination to differentiation)

3. Facts1. The scientific method can neither

prove nor disprove the existence of God.

2. The Bible cannot be used to make scientific judgments.

Premise

Philosophy helps Science and Theology to maintain their boundaries of competences

4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (a)

Science offers the most reasonable account of observed phenomena

(chronic or temporal truth).

Theology explains truths of reality that we are given before we can understand

(kairic or eschatological truth).

4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (b)

When the implications of science exceed their explanatory boundaries (e. g. when biological evolutionary theories claim that God is unnecessary), it is a bad use of science or a use of bad science.

4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (c)

When biblical exegesis of Genesis is used to claim that Adam and Eve is inconsistent with the existence of hominids (and the thousands of fossils found), it is bad theology making scientific claims.

4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (d)

Scientific conclusions may lead to implications which neither support nor diminish theological claims.

Theological reflection may lead to implications which neither support nor undermine scientific views.

5. Philosophy keepsScience & Theology honest

(a)Philosophy has no content but asks

probing questions of any discipline to determine its coherence and consistency. It keeps them honest!


(b)The philosophical key: Learn how to

spot the difference between MEANING and IMPLICATIONS of both science & theology.


(c)Scientific investigation is selective

and the chosen methodology is socially constructed by the peer group that serves as gatekeeper to the guild which issues credibility.


(d)All scientists have to earn passage

into their chosen circle of credits.Once this is achieved, they have

more freedom to dissent or depart from existing orthodoxy.


(e)Reading the Bible with care helps us avoid

unnecessarily importing unsustainable implications.

That Jesus is both God and resurrected man is a doctrinal fact. That we will be divine like Jesus is an implication with neither warrant nor evidence.


(f)Biological evolution as change over

time is a scientific fact but that natural selection is the mechanism is an implication that is not supported by scientific investigation.


(g)Ask if a scientific or theological truth claim is a fact, a

theory or doctrine, an inference, or an implication (FTII).

1. Facts are self-evident2. Theories and doctrines are testable or falsifiable.3. Inferences are reasonable guesses about the

unknown based on the known.4. Implications are possible consequential outcomes

which may or may not be the case.


(h)FTII tables for Darwinian & Post-Darwinian

EvolutionThere is no GodImplicationCommon AncestryInferenceNatural SelectionTheoryBiological EvolutionFact God ExistsImplicationCommon AncestryInferenceDivine SelectionTheoryBiological EvolutionFact


(i)Post-Darwinian biological evolution need

not necessarily give rise to atheism.The fact of biological evolution may be

explained by the theory or doctrine of divine selection by which we infer that there was a common ancestry which implies that God exists to effect the fact.

Premise

Science and Theology are mutually beneficial and enriching

6. Science teaches us about God

Augustine’s ‘Egyptian Gold’Discovery of Ugaritic

1. The Flat Earth2. The Ends of the World3. The Young Earth Conjecture (YEC)

7. The Bible encourages Scientific Investigation (a)

The Doctrines of Creation & Providence (Creatio initio, continua & nova) provided the philosophical foundations for the scientific method involves the regularity of the orders of the universe.

7. The Bible encourages Scientific Investigation (b)

Rene Descartes and the Tricky Devil

The Assumption of Universal Mechanical Regularity & the Reality of Miracles

7. The Bible encourages Scientific Investigation (c)

1. Projection Theory of Religion (PTR) Feuerbach’s explanation for the phenomenon of religion

2. Mathematical Cognitive Convergence (MCC): How can we know what we know about knowledge?

3. Contingency of Morality (COM): Is God good? (The Euthyphro Dilemma)

8. ImplicationsGood science is always curious about

extra-scientific resources to enhance the investigative enterprise.

Good theology acknowledges that because God made that exists, any study of creation leads to knowledge about God.

9. Applications (a)1. Invite science into Christian thinking: Adam & Eve were the first

‘scientists’, so we ought to reclaim the methods of scientific inquiry as the tool of the discovering divine disclosure that it is.

2. Invite Christian beliefs into scientific investigation: Christian beliefs provide insights into the purpose of why things are the way they are, asking the questions pertaining to justice, mercy, altruism and charity.

9.Applications (b)

3. Encourage dialogue between the disciplines to develop a comprehensive view of reality.

10. WHY IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCIENCE & GOD

IMPORTANT? Our theological posture about

responsibilities as custodians of science and technology conditions even if it does not determine, how we use its awesome powers for good and ill.

from dust to dust

Spiritual