In this fascinating and thorough book, the authors demonstrate how reason, science and faith are not opposed to each other but rather complimentary. Rev Nicky Gumbel (National Alpha Courses Leader).

 

This is a most useful work, written in a student-friendly style. Though readers may not agree with all the authors’ conclusions, and some may find some parts hard-going, it should interest and stimulate students and others wanting to explore and understand these science-faith topics. Prof Gordon Wenham (Professor of Old Testament and author of the ‘Word’ reference commentary on Genesis).

 

This book covers a great deal of ground, and the treatment is not superficial. The arguments are well set out, and the style of writing is clear. It is going to be a demanding read for people, but one out of which they will get a great deal. Its great strength is the clarity of thought it brings to the issues dealt with. It ought to help people sort out some of the muddled ideas that are around regarding science, Christianity and the Bible. I hope it gets well advertised and widely read. Rev Dr Ernest Lucas (PhD in Biochemistry, PhD in Hebrew Bible Studies, Lecturer at BristolBaptistCollege).

 

In an age of relativism Marston and Foster remind us of the need to rediscover the Gospel as public truth. At a time when Evangelicals and Charismatics together need to rediscover a thoughtful faith, this book will make you think. It is not a text for the intellectually lazy. Read it and grow. Dr Mark Bonnington (New Testament Tutor in St John’sCollegeDurham and a Leader in the New Churches movement).

 

In this excellent book, Marston and Forster robustly expose the intellectual and moral poverty of the scientistic atheism of a number of science popularisers inhabiting the strange world of 'Denkinsland'. They are equally devastating in their critique of so-called 'scientific creationism', which they show to be neither scientific, nor Biblical, nor to represent mainstream Christian thinking over 2 millennia. At the same time, they provide an incisively reasoned defence of their own evangelical Christian theistic position, which is non-physicalist, allows for libertarian free-will and divine action, and is true both to the Bible and Christian tradition. I can thoroughly recommend the book to all who are interested in the relationship between science, philosophy and faith. Rev Dr Rodney Holder (Oxford DPhil in Astrophysics, and Church of England Minister).

 CONTENTS

 

AUTHORS                                                                                9

FOREWORD                                                                           11

INTRODUCTION                                                                     14

 

1. Reason & Faith                                                                 15

Reason and Faith                                                                 15

Some Philosophical Background                                    18

Modernism and Post Modernism                                    21

The New Testament Views of Reason                           24

Some (Theologically) Liberal Threats                             26

Some Charismatic Threats to Reason and Truth        30

A “Post-Evangelical” Threat to Reason and Truth      33

Some ‘Reformed’ Threats to Reason and Truth          35

Defining Mainstream Christian Orthodoxy                    37

God and the Honest Questioner                                       39

 

2. ‘Big Questions’ God & Science                                     40

The Big Questions                                                                40

‘Scientific’ Atheism                                                              42

Science, Metaphysics and Religion                                 58

 

3. Personal Identity                                                              60

The “I” Data and Science                                                   60

Reductionism                                                                        62

Mind and Brain                                                                      67

Cartesian Dualism and Reactions Against It                 69

Rescue Attempts for Physicalism                                   76

Freewill and Determinism                                                  79

Current Options                                                                    83

Christian Responses                                                           86

Questions Arising from Personal Identity                      99

 

4. Nature & Theism                                                             100

The Meaning of God                                                            100

Design and Chance                                                             107

Science and Our Universe                                                114

Weighing the Evidence: the Improbable Universe      116

Design and God                                                                    126

 

5. Divine Acts & Miracles                                                  128

Introduction                                                                          128

Theistic Belief and the Possibility of Miracles             133

Attacks on Miracles                                                           137

Hume’s Philosophical Offspring                                      140

Faith and Type-ii Miracles                                                  142

The Actions of God                                                              146

Chance₂ and Chance₃                                                        148

Process Theology                                                                151

Design Theory                                                                       151

Omnipotence, Impossibility and Christian Theism      159

 

6. God & Jesus                                                                      162

Has God Communicated?                                                   162

Looking for a Coherent Pattern                                         165

Assessing the History                                                          168

The Resurrection: Alternatives                                          177

The Resurrection: Reconstruction                                    182

 

7. Genesis Through History                                                 188

Jesus and the Bible                                                               188

Jesus and Paul in Jewish Context                                    190

Jewish Exegesis of Genesis 1-3.                                       192

Early Christian Views on Creation                                     198

Later but Pre-Geology Views                                               205

Interpreting Genesis 1-3 in the Age of Geology               218

Interpretation in an Evolutionary age                                 223

The Rise of Young-earthism                                                 230

Conclusion                                                                                240

 

8. Interpreting Genesis Today                                              242

The Challenge of Literalism Today                                     242

The ‘Days’                                                                                 244

Is Complete Literality an Option?                                       248

The Young-Earth Theology                                                   255

Approaching Genesis 1-3                                                     263

Literality and the Relationship of Chapters 1& 2            267

Conclusions on the Form and Nature of Gen 1-3.           270

Mechanisms of Creation                                                      275

Details of the Accounts - Mainly Chapter One                 276

 

Of Trees, Snakes and Gardens                                           279

Of Adam and Eve                                                                     283

Paul and Adam                                                                         285

The Early Church and Augustinianism                               291

Back to Beginnings                                                                 293

The Flood                                                                                   295

Summary                                                                                  304

 

9. Belief & the Rise of Science                                            305

The Issues                                                                               305

Scientific and Religious Minds?                                         305

The Conflict Thesis                                                                308

Science & Theologians: Suggestions & Beginnings     311

Cosmology and the Rise of Science                                  314

Science: Biblical or Empirical?                                           318

The Origins of Geology                                                          323

Geology and the Lyell Myths                                                335

Darwin’s Theory - Introduction and History                     343

‘The Church’ and Darwin                                                      346

Christians Doing Science in the Nineteenth Century    347

Scientist-Christians and Evolution                                    351

Darwin and Religion                                                              356

Neal Gillespie and The Problem of Creation                    359

Conclusion                                                                               364

 

10. Nature of Science & Belief                                            365

The Issues                                                                               365

Logical Empiricism                                                                365

Post Empiricism: Popper, Kuhn. Lakatos & Feyerabend     369

Critical Realism and Instrumentalism                               373

Probability and Bayesianism                                               381

Belief and Knowledge                                                            386

Conclusions on the Nature of Science                              390

Science and Theology as Disciplines                                392

Mixing Theology and Science                                              395

Approaches to Science-Theology                                      395

Young-Earth Creationism                                                     398

‘Design Theory’ and J P Moreland                                     402

The Fruitfulness of ‘Theistic Science’                              413

Intelligent Design                                                                   415

‘

God of the Gaps’ Revisited                                                  417

 

11. Genesis & Science Today                                            420

Synthesising Paradigms                                                     420

Scientific Evidence: The Big Bang                                     422

Scientific Evidence: the Age and Nature of Strata        424

Scientific Evidence: Evolution                                            430

Scientific Evidence: Human Origins                                 434

Adam and Anthropology                                                      440

So What?                                                                                 446

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                                       448

GLOSSARY                                                                              465

SUBJECT INDEX                                                                     470

PEOPLE & PLACES INDEX                                          

We demolish arguments and every pretension

that sets itself up against knowledge of God,

and we take captive every thought

to make it obedient to Christ.

 

(2 Corinthians 10:5)

 

Usually even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world… and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an unbeliever to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics, and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.         

Augustine of Hippo

 

Two rules are to be observed, as Augustine teaches. The first is, to hold the truth of Scripture without wavering. The second is that since Holy Scripture can be explained in a multiplicity of senses, one should not adhere to a particular explanation, only in such measure as to be ready to abandon it if it be proved with certainty to be false; lest Holy Scripture be exposed to the ridicule of unbelievers, and obstacles be placed to their believing.

Thomas Aquinas.

 

In this vanity some of the moderns have with extreme levity indulged so far as to attempt to found a system of natural philosophy (science) on the first chapter of Genesis, on the book of Job, and other parts of sacred writings; and repression of it the more important, because from this unwholesome mixture of things human and divine there arises not only a fantastic philosophy but also an heretical religion.

        Sir Francis Bacon

 

After the revival of learning, as all other branches of philosophy, so this in particular received new light. And none was more serviceable therein than Lord Bacon: who… incited all lovers of natural philosophy to a diligent search into natural history… Proofs of a wise, a good and powerful Being are indeed deducible from everything around us.

John Wesley