Term Paper on "Science and Religion One of the Responses"

Term Paper 5 pages (1299 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Science and Religion

One of the responses was given by Johannes Praetorius. His model noted a series of planets considered to be inferior revolving around the Sun, while the Sun itself revolved around a stationary Earth. The idea of this model was that the Earth was still the most important element of the Universe and that, eventually, all bodies actually revolved around it, including the Sun. However, this was already a way forward from the Ptolemaic model used by the Church.

Brahe's model posed two fundamental conclusions from his research, in reply to the Copernican model. The conclusions were mutually rejecting one another, so Brahe believed, through his calculations, either that the earth was motionless at the center of the Universe or that the stars were very far away one from the other. However, he believed that the stars could not be this far away from one another, which meant that, according to him, the Earth was the center of the Universe.

Finally, Michael Maestlin supported the Copernican model of the Universe, however, he could only teach the Ptolemaic model in the Universtiy, so he rather preferred to keep his own personal knowledge to himself and only a few of the knowledgeable individuals around him, among them Kepler.

2. Deism denies divine implication in human life and active Earthly principles and, as such, promotes a more rational approach towards the role and scope of a Supreme Being in the Universe.

One of the scientists that had an important contribution to deism was Isaac Newton. With his mechanics discoveries, including the discovery of universal gravitation, he was able to show that principles and mechanical rules had physical and mathematical motivations rather than purely divine ones. In this sense, his discoveries led way to a current that could support the idea of a non-interventionist God, which did not deny the idea of an existent God. Indeed, this God would have created the world and would have then retreated out of the mechanisms that governed it. The fact that Newton was able to provide rational explanations for some of these mechanisms meant that the theory gained more ground.

On the other hand, Newton's mechanisms were also able to explain the movement of bodies in the Universe, including planets. Again, this greatly helped the idea that physical mechanisms (the movement of planets around the Sun, for example) had purely physical rather than divine explanations.

From a philosophical and theological perspective, enlightenment thinkers could thus support an idea of a creative God who now no longer intervened with the nature laws that he had created, because these had already gained their own capacity to function rationally and without divine intervention. How? With Newton's mechanical laws, as he had explained them.

3. The theory of evolution combats and challenges the Church imposed creationism every step of the way, starting with the way Earth and man were created to the way the individual actually evolved to the physical characteristics it has today.

First of all, Darwin challenges the initial creation myth, as presented in the Bible. For him, creationism is a chemical rather than a miraculously theological process. According to this process, the initial creation was the result of a chemical reaction that gave birth to the initial bacteria.

On the other hand, creationism had always promoted the idea that the Earth, together with humanity and life in general, was created through the direct intervention of a supreme being, whose existence preceded the Creation act. Darwin's challenge to the creation process was obviously also a direct challenge to the role of the Divinity in the creation process and, potentially further more, in the subsequent development of the world.

Second, Darwin's theory of evolution sustains the argument according to which all organisms on Earth have evolved from a common ancestor by diversification, evolution, mutation etc. This, in turn led to the creation, at a certain point along… READ MORE

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