More on God
A third argument postulated by theologians is the ’something from nothing’ argument; Dawkins doesn’t say much about the physics of this this in his book, but modern physics certainly has an answer. Put simply, the total energy content of the universe may well be zero - if so, it is entirely possible that the universe arose as a quantum fluctuation (see earlier post).
A more serious problem between religion and science is of course scripture - there is quite strong disagreement between several passages in the Book of Genesis and scientific fact e.g.
Earth is not stationary Sun does not orbit the earth Age of earth is wrong Age of sun is wrong
Timeframe of creation is wrongOne solution is to take a non-literal interpretation of the Bible, as suggestioned by Augustine. However, this raises 2 problems
(i) as hardliners point out, where does the slide stop?
(ii) many Christians insist on a literal interpretation, resuting in statements like
Any theory of origins that is contrary to the early chapters
of Genesis is not true and will not stand the test of time’
…not so reasonable
I’m with Augistine on this one. Genesis is a bit of a soft target. Scholars suggest that Genesis began to take shape in 1200BC (or BCE depending on your persuasion!). Applying modern scientific analysis to ancient story-telling based narrative is a little tricky.
Most mainstream Christians would accept that creation, Noah, etc. are myths. They are stories handed down from generation that are not meant to be interpreted literally. Despite this acceptance, it always concerns me that an exorcism prayer is performed at Catholic baptisms, because babies are born with original sin. Original sin represents Adam’s misdemeanours in the Garden of Eden resulting in the “Fall of Man”. So a literal interpretation of Genesis forms part of one of most important Catholic sacraments!
As regards “the slide”, one could argue, perhaps, that the it stops (or slows) when a biblical account records reasonably contemporary events. John’s Gospel is now believed to have been written 50-70 years after the crucifixion. Hardly contemporary by modern standards, but by biblical standards it almost represent hot off the press!
Yes, but it’s interesting that Augustine philosophy probably arose from an attempt to reconcile apparent contradictions between different gospels - only later was it used to reconcile differences between the literal gospel and the world as man began to perceive it through science!
Re literal interpretation, there are quite a few instances where we regularly invoke a literal interpretation of scripture - the passion week every Easter, communion, holy water, funeral rites, to mention but a few…Cormac