7. Rodney Holder, Big Bang, Big God: A Universe Designed for Life? Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2013. Holder explains the fine tuning in the universe and compares the Christian doctrine of creation with steady state and multiverse theories. Throughout the book he shows problems with current proposals, particularly those of Stephen Hawking. He relies significantly on the use of Bayes’s probability theorem as a way to argue for the reasonableness of the Christian doctrine of creation from nothing.
8. Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee. Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe. New York: Springer, 2007. Two experts in geology and astronomy join forces in showing just how special earth is. From earth’s position in the habitable zone to early life on earth, plate tectonics, and the solar system, the authors describe a readable structure of the world that emphasizes its uniqueness.
9. Trinh X. Thuan, Chaos and Harmony: Perspectives on Scientific Revolutions of the Twentieth Century. Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation, 2006. Combining his expertise in astrophysics with his Buddhist beliefs, Trinh draws out the world’s beauty and elegance recently discovered by science. The style is engaging and poetic, readily accessible, and captures the depth and meaning in the human experience of interacting with the world.
10. Christopher Southgate, ed., God, Humanity, and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion. New York: Trinity, 1999. A definitive work that is an excellent resource designed for reference rather than a continuous read.
11. Ian Barbour, When Science Meets Religion. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. Ian Barbour, one of the leaders in science and religion, provides an accessible book summarizing the key ideas in the field that is suited for academically inclined readers. The focus lies in showing the progression of science and religion from conflict, through independence, to dialogue, and now to integration.
12. Christopher Baglow, Faith, Science, and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge. Chicago: Midwest Theological Forum, 2009. Baglow deftly focuses on the philosophical issues emanating from the intersection of science and religion. He writes from a Catholic perspective and quotes liberally from church figures with an emphasis on Catholic writers.
1. Hoyle, “The Universe,” 12.
2. Gen 1:1–5
3. Einstein, quoted in Chandrasekhar, “General Theory of Relativity,” 4.
4. Gingerich, God’s Universe, 30.
5. Overbye, “Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe,” A1.
6. Einstein, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 392.
7. Einstein,quoted in Stockwood, Religion and the Scientists, 54.
8. Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, cover.
9. Einstein, letter to Besso Family, quoted in Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, 193.
10. Jensen, Divine Providence and Human Agency, 39.
11. Augustine, Confessions.
12. Einstein, translated in Holton, The Scientific Imagination, xii.
13. Paley, The Works of William Paley, IV.2.
14. McGrath, The Science of God.
2. The Origin of Life: Who or What Creates Life?
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” wrote Einstein.15 Pope John-Paul II refocuses Einstein’s idea to show how together the two disciplines work to uncover truth: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”16 Nowhere is the intersection of science and religion more divisive than the origin of life and yet this area is where insight is most needed to guide thinking through knotty issues of genetic engineering, cloning, and stem-cell research.
Evolution is probably the greatest source of antagonism between science and religion. For religious people, God made all things. In contrast, biological evolution provides an account of life’s development from inorganic matter without the necessity for any external agent. Evidence from many scientific fields, biology, geology, anthropology, paleontology, and chemistry, provides a highly plausible evolutionary sequence from Big Bang to man. Evolution is not yet supported by seamless evidence from amoeba to zebra, as there are several very significant points awaiting evidence. Nevertheless, scientific advances have been very effective in filling in many details, raising the issue of where God’s influence might be.
An alternative to the explanations of a divinely created young earth or naturalistic biological evolution is an evolutionary process directed by God. Various forms of guided evolution have been proposed, ranging from direct intervention at strategic points, to God being only the initiator of the universe’s evolution. Evaluating the competing theories of earth’s evolution requires objectively examining the fundamental claims of each.
Divine Creation
The opening lines of the Bible set the stage for Christianity’s claim that the Bible’s purpose is to reveal God’s love and desire for all people to live in relationship with him. Sometimes called a hymn, Genesis 1 appears to be a unique blend of prose and poetry. As poetry, the passage uses figurative language to describe God’s activity by using human counterparts: speaking and seeing, working and resting. In reading the first chapter of Genesis, the question to consider is whether a poetic description of the universe’s beginning could provide an accurate description of God’s actions.
Genesis 1: The opening lines of the most published book in the world’s history.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to