Religion & Scientific Naturalism


Page 6. These are charts from a course titled "Religion & Scientific Naturalism" which I taught to high schoolers at the First Presbyterian Church, Durango, Colorado, on three Sunday mornings, Sept 14, 21 and 28, 2003. They are work-in-progress. See page 6 for the full course as taught on the graduate level. This page was last updated on Sept 9, 2010

The two most important questions:

Why is there anything?

What am I doing here?


Week 1:

What is life all about?

Religion and science are two ways of knowing. Each leads naturally into philosophy. These three disciplines interact -- in ethical issues.

Why does the universe bother to exist?
"God" is not God's name
The size of the universe
The age of the universe
The size of the universe (external link) -- A 10 minute movie from the physics department at Florida State University (my alma mater)

When did "spiritual" humanity begin?

Plato's parable on "reality"
Foil -- Agnostic fleas
The rules of science"
Scientific "laws"
What about biblical miracles?
Two views of science


three positions on "creation/evolution"
There are those who reject the findings of science

There are conceptual difficulties in the Young Earth position:
Foil -- Conceptual difficulty #1 (of many)
Foil -- conceptual difficulty #2

One way to save the young earth hypothesis is to posit that God created the world 6000 or so years ago with the appearance of age. This model was proposed in 1857 by Phillip Gosse, a respected biologist of the day -- also a Christian who took Genesis literally -- in his book OMPHALOS.

Book Review -- Omphalos, by Phillip Henry Gosse
Russell's Hypothesis

More on the young earth position may be found on page 2, section 5 of this web site.

Evidences of evolution,

Does evolution have a purpose?

How does evolution work? (not)

It's not "creation vs. evolution," but "purpose vs. accidentalism."

The religion of scientism (philosophical naturalism
Foil -- the thrill of scientific discovery -- not

Evolution is a FACT -- but is it? The NABT controversy.

All Christians are creationists. R. Schneider

Ethical principles - beginning of life issues
The case of the deaths of Molly Nash's brothers and Jorge Morales
Molly Nash and her surviving brother
Jorge Morales
Three ways of making an ethical argument -- Dr. Dana Wilbanks, The Iliff School of Theology.



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