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Syllabus
Course Description:
The course consists of the Christian worldview of human being and its
redemptive aspect.
Course Requirement:
Must be Christian or Catholic. If not and you want to take this class, please sign a statement
stating that you have registered for the class voluntarily.
Must have passed the Religion course: Survey of Old Testament and New Testament and
Christian Worldview 1 Course: Prolegomena, Bibliology, and Theology Proper.
Class Policy:
Students must come on time. Students will sign the attendance book at the start of class and,
after fifteen (15) minutes, the lecturer will call the roll. Students who do not answer the call
will be considered absent.
Students must come in proper clothing and are not allowed to wear sandals as the Program
Kasih stipulates.
Students must switch off their mobile-phones during class otherwise they will be confiscated.
Inattentive and intolerant students will be given penalty or lose 5 marks for each time they
create troubles or bring troublesome in the class.
Students must attend every class session. If a student cannot attend a class for any reason s/
he will be marked absent.
85 % of minimum attendance is strictly required before a student can sit for the Final Exam.
Attendance is counted starting from the first day of the class (not after the Drop-Add Period)
No permission letter is necessary; every absence for any reason will be counted towards the
15% maximum absences with result in a penalty applied to students final grade.
Evaluation:
Presentation and Disputation (KAT 1)
10%
15%
15%
30%
Total 100%
Execution
Presentation and Disputation (ongoing throughout the semesterBE IN CLASS
& ENGAGE IN DISCUSSION!!)
Reflection papers on Chapel Attendance must be turned in by the end of
November (sooner the better!)
Book Reviews will be turned in monthly (One in September, One in October, and
One in November). I will not accept all three book reviews at once and failure to
turn in a book review by the end of the month will result in a zero.
Exams will be ORAL and taken in groups of two or three. Questions will be
offered each class by the professor and you would be wise to record and review
the questions offered by the lecturer. You are expected to be able to integrate
lectures, reading, and experiences into your oral exams.
For worldview :
What is a Worldview
> review<
What is a Worldviewreview
WV Review (cont.)
According to David K. Naugle, worldview is a
system of narrative signs that establishes a
powerful framework within which people think
(reason), interpret (hermeneutic), and know
(epistemology).
Worldview is a semiotic phenomenon.
Culture is a communicative phenomenon
Example of a worldview
Christianity as Worldview
REDEMPTION
I-I-----------------------------I----------------------I------>
FALL
Gen 1-3
Exodus
Israel
Christ
Church
New Havens & the New Earth
CONSUMATION
Lecture 2- Biblical
Anthropology
Contemporary Images
of Humanity
Pertama
BOOK REVIEW: ONE BOOK- CREATION
REGAINED by Albert Wolters
A GOOD BOOK REVIEW
Worldview shaped by
Popular culture
MONEY!
POWER!
COMFORTABLE THINGS I CAN BUY
SIGNIFICANCE!
SECURITY!
Why? It is a closed world view with no eternal
perspective. What matters is how I look and feel and
what others think of me! SHOW ME THE MONEY!!
A Biblical Worldview
on piles of money
Money is a Monetary System Created by Humans, who were created
by God created (Ps 24:1) Money is printed & coined on materials God
has (Hag 2:8)
We are to remember the Lord who gives us wealth (Deut 8:18)
Worshipping wealth is a trap & will cause grief (1 Tim 6:9-10)
We worship God with our money (Mal 3:8-10) & we cannot serve
Jesus and money (Mt 6:4)
Money can be used for good (2 Cor 8:1-5,9:7; Gal 2:9-10, MT 25)
Wealth Builds the eternal Kingdom (Rev 21:18-21) & should be used
to build the Kingdom today as we serve the purposes of the king
Westminster Shorter
Catechism
What is the Chief end of man (purpose)?
>To Glorify God and enjoy Him forever
WHY? Because a Biblical worldview has a clear starting
point for humanity: God Created us, so in Him we find
our purpose, happiness, and satisfaction!
READ: Genesis 1:27, Colossians 1:12-17, Heb 1:1-3
Introduction to Naturalism
Copernicus (1473- 1543)
Published On the Revolutions of the Celestial
Sphere.
The first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive
heliocentric cosmology.
Introduction to Naturalism
Geocentric Universe
Heliocentric Universe
Introduction to Naturalism
Johannas Kepler (1571-1630)
Was the first important
astronomer to follow
Copernicus.
Deeply influenced by
Pythagorean philosophy,
Kepler developed a model of
the universe that was
mathematical in nature.
Introduction to Naturalism
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Descartes set the stage for naturalism by conceiving of
the universe as a giant mechanism.
Introduction to Naturalism
Introduction to Naturalism
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) & The Origin of Species
He established that all species of life have descended
over time from common ancestry, and proposed the
scientific theory that this branching pattern of
evolution resulted from a process that he called
natural selection.
Naturalism
Question : What is the nature of the world around
us?
Answer: The universe exists as a uniformity of
cause and effect in a closed system.
Naturalism
Question : What is a
human being?
Answer: Human beings
are complex machines;
personality is an
interrelation of chemical
and physical properties
we do not yet fully
understand.
Naturalism
Question: What happens to a person at death?
Naturalism
Question : How do we know what is right and
wrong (ETHICS)?
Answer: Human experience in cultural
frameworks.
God
Right
and
Wrong
Naturalism
Question: What is the meaning of history?
Answer: History is a linear stream of events
linked by cause and effect but without an
overarching purpose.
IS NATURALISM
COMPATIBLE WITH A
BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW?
IS NATURALISM
COMPATIBLE WITH A
BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW?
Implications of contemporary
views of humanity
We need a Copernican
Revolution of our SOUL!
When we make the spiritual discovery that God is sovereign
over all of creation, the maker of all that exists, the sustainer of
every atom and molecule, the architect of human history, and
the planner of our very own lives as well, a similar revolution
takes place in the human heart. Our discovery of the theocentric state of the universe-- that God reigns in every sphere of
life through the radiance of His Son Jesus Christ-- is no
accident. This new manner of thinking is nothing less than the
drawing, prompting, and confirmation of Gods Holy Spirit
Himself.
BE TRANSFORMED! (Romans 12:1-2)
Theology/CWIILECTURE 3
Opening our system with a Biblical
worldview to better integrate our faith.
Study Questions
1) What is the importance of having an eternal
perspective on our fields of study and vocations?
How is our life, studies, and fields of vocations a
chasing after the wind if we do not live our of a
Biblical World View?
2) How does understanding the complexity of
creation (particularly humans in this lecture) help
us embrace the reality of a loving Creator and,
through that knowledge, an eternal perspective?
Ecc Chapter 2
Wild living (1)
Wine (3)
Wisdom (3)
Work(s) (4)
Woman & workers (7)
Want (10)
Weariness = result (2:11, 17 ), wrangling the wind
Psalm 139:14
I will praise thee; for I
am fearfully and
wonderfully made:
marvelous are thy
works; and that my soul
knoweth right well.
Cellular Complexity
Cellular Information
Nucleus
Cellular Complexity
To grasp the reality of life as it has been
revealed by molecular biology, we must
magnify a cell a thousand million times
until it is twenty kilometers in diameter
and resembles a giant airship large
enough to cover a great city like London
or New York. What we would then see
would be an object of unparalleled
complexity andDenton,
adaptive
design
.
M,. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,
Adler and Adler, Maryland, p328, 1986
Body Systems
Circulatory
Respiratory
Digestive
Excretory
Skeletal
Muscular
Nervous
Endocrine
Immune
Integument
Reproductive
Irreducibly
Complex
Immune System
Interaction
Multiple systems are
involved in providing
protection from
infectious organisms.
Circulatory system
Lymphatic system
Skeletal system
Nervous
System
The nervous system connect
the sensory systems with
the response systems.
There are nearly 45 miles of
nerves running through
our bodies.
Nerve Cells
(neurons)
Longest is more
than a meter long
100 billion neurons
in human body
1 billion in the
spinal cord alone.
Nerve Cells
(neurons)
1,000 to 10,000
synapses
(connections) for a
"typical" neuron.
100 trillion
synapses minimum.
Our Amazing
Brain
The Eye
Photoreceptors
Retina
10 billion calculations occur every second in the
retina before the image even gets to the brain.
Respiratory System
Our lungs inhale over two
million liters of air every
day to bring in O2 and
discard CO2
Skeletal System
There are 206 bones in the adult
human body - more than half are
in the hands and feet.
The skeletal system is also
responsible for making new cells
for the circulatory system and
immune system. In the adult, the
marrow of flat bones makes 2.5
million RBCs/second.
Circulatory System
Smell
Human olfactory
receptors 40 mill.
Dog olfactory
receptors - ???
True Science
CW2/ Theology 2
lecture 4
Psychological & sociological
understanding of a human being
CW2/ Theology 2
lecture 4
A GOOD BOOK REVIEW
Human Development
After briefly looking at the amazing
complexity of the Human body, lets take
a moment to learn about the process of
development from conception to birth:
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/03/
mathematician_a057741.html
The math of human life: Essay- The Sword of Solomon (From Ravi
talk 1) There is a sense in which two and two are four,The plane of
ledgers and cashbooks on which these propositions are
approximately sound, But if you rise from that plane to a loftier
one, You will find at once that they are untenable it is obviously
untrue that half-a-baby and half-a-baby make a baby, Let the
sword do its deadly work The two halves of a baby make no
baby at all, "On this higher plane of human sentiment and
experience, the laws of mathematics collapse completely
In the Christianity itself, there are several theories about humanity. The key point of difference
between these theories is about the nature of Gods work to create all things. Is Gods work
characterised by a process or by immediacy and discontinuity ? This question is answered
differently by Christian scientific theories about the origin. Firstly, there is fiat creationism. This
view believes that God has brought everything out from nothing. There are two features of this
theory. Firstly, the brevity of the time envolved. While there are various stages in the creation, but there
is not substantial amount of time elapsed from beginning to the end of the process. Secondly, God
created everything by His direct or immediate actions and by discontinuities. Therefore, creation was
brought out not from ever existing organism but from nothing. Instead of that, every species was
created by God too. This view is built upon the literal reading of the Bible. So there is no difficulty to
reconcile this view with what the Bible said about the origin.
Secondly, deistic evolution. According to this view, God just created the first living matter and
implanted the laws that will govern the matters development. After that, God withdrew from His own
creation and give way to that creature, through the process of evolution, to become what it is now by
itself. In this view, God is the ultimate cause of everything but evolution is the proximate cause. This
view contradicts the Bible because the Bible told us that God never created just first living matter but
He was involved in all the process of creation, including in the creation of man. Beside that, this view
contradicts the Biblical teaching of Gods providence, which is define as God is personally and
intimately concerned with and involved in what is going on the specific events within his entire
creatuion.
Question 1
How does a Biblical worldview
differ from a secular worldview on
the question of ethics in regards to
human development in the womb?
WHY!?! And please give specific
examples
(From NPR)
Human relationships
What was not good
before the fall?
Human Relationships
It is not good for man to be alone
Gen 1:28
Wisdom from above the sun points
us to the value of relationships:
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Human relationships
We are created in Gods image:
Genesis 1:27
Why does this matter?
Human Relationships
COMMUNITY OF GOD FATHER
God exists in relationship
within Himself- Father, Son,
& Holy Spirit
SON
HOLY SPIRIT
Human relationships
GOD
Loving
Communicating
imaging
Humanity
Loving
Communicating
Ruling
ruling
Giving
Giving
Sharing
Sharing
Knowing
Knowing
Human Relationships
Kuypers Sphere of Society: the family, business, science, the arts
and so son. It stands in antithesis to the State. Society, he declares,
is not one whole, but a number of diverse parts. Each part has
"sovereignty in the individual social spheres and these different
developments of social life have nothing above themselves but
God, and the state cannot intrude here" (p. 116). The family is the
basis of all human social relations, and as such is based upon the
primal blood relationship. Thus society functions organically and
may be compared at this level to a plant. In society "the chief aim
of all human effort remains what it was by virtue of our creation
and before the fall - namely, domination over nature" (p. 117).
(SPHERE OF STATE WILL BE COVERED LATER)
Human Relationships
THE FAMILY: How our families shape us
(nature or nurture?)
Human Relationships
The casualties of family destruction:
Human Relationships
God chooses a family to redeem
families and give us a new family
Genesis 12:1-3;
We can come from anywhere into
Gods family by faith: Joshua 2:1-14
We are apart of the same family by
faith (Galatians 4:1-7)
Human relationships
Stage 1
Life-Changing
Awareness of God
Stage 6
Transformed into Love
Stage 2
Discipleship
(Learning)
Stages of
Faith
Stage 3
The Active Life
(Serving)
Stage 5
Journey Outward
(From my inner life)
adapted from
Janet Hagberg/ Robert Guelich
Stage 4
Journey Inward
THE WALL
Human Relationships
God Grieves (Jn 11) and can be grieved (Eph 4:30)
God has anger (Jn 2:12-16; Deut 1:37)
God rejoices (Isa 62:5; Zeph 3:17)
God gets a broken heart (Gen 6:6)
God meets us in our brokenness (Isaiah 63:7-9) to heal us
(Psalm 147:3). God entered into our brokenness Phil to make
everything sad become untrue (Revelation 21:1-4)
Human Relationships
It was said to Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God doesnt understand my
suffering, to which he replied, Only
the suffering God can help. It is said,
God doesnt care about my emotions
to which I reply, Only an emotional
God can help you understand what it
means to be created in His image.
Human Relationships
The New Order of God in the here and now:
Control Vulnerability
Dread Faith & trust
Self will Surrender
Hopeless apathy hope filled compassion
Resignation acceptance
Management Mystery
Lust passion
Helpless powerless
Defensive security
Worry faith
Judgment discernment
Pride confession
repentance
Self-justification humble
Penance transformation
Survive thrive
Human
relationships
The benefits of emotions
VS
IMPAIRMENT
HURT
Feel your feelings, name your wounds, begin healing
Resentment
SADNESS
LONLINESS
FEAR
Self Pity
Apathy
Toxic
Happiness/ Entertainmen
Human Relationships
The Psalms mirror the human soul.
We look into them & we see
ourselves- TCOTS
The Psalms- Language for Life
(Example Ps 6)
Human Relationships
Sociology aid us in our understanding of group attitudes
cultural values, behaviors , political processes of workers,
families, organizations, consumers, and governments. Major
perspectives include structural/ functional models, Social
conflict models, Symbolic interactive models, knowledge
based models, interpretive, critical, and empathetic models,
as well as scientific models all helping us have a systematic
study of human society.
Our societies are broken and twisted by sin. What is the
problem?
Human relationships
According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to
poverty. And they die quietly in some of the poorest villages
on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of
the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying
multitudes even more invisible in death.
Number of children in the world2.2 billion; Number in poverty1 billion
(every second child)Shelter, safe water and health. For the 1.9 billion
children from the developing world, there are:
640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Children out of education worldwide121 million
Human Relationships
Human Relationships
The reason for this broad range is that those people being
counted are largely a hidden population.5 (CNN
Freedom Project)
Human Relationships
The victims most vulnerable are women and children. Children in particular
are sold, bonded, trafficked, subjected to commercial sexual exploitation,
recruited into armed conflicts and forced to work as domestic workers.9
(antislavery.org)
Several factors contribute to the persistence of slavery practices despite it
being illegal in most countries, most significantly, poverty, the lack
of enforcement of anti-slavery laws, and crime and corruption, including at
the state level.10 (Free the Slaves)
Slavery has various forms today including human trafficking, forced labour,
descent-based slavery, bonded labour and child labour.11 (antislavery. org)
Other less known forms of slavery include domestic servitude, forced
marriage and those traded for the purpose of organ removal.12 (United
Nations Offi ce on Drugs and Crime)
Human Relationships
The sum total of our daily interactions lead to a
grand picture showing us that there is a problem!!!
What is the solution??
Human Relationships
Outside of the issue of slavery, does Scripture speak
to social responsibility for the people of God?
Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Jeremiahs call for shalom (Jer
29), Jesus call for Salt & Light, vision of the New
heavens
What this looks like practically: Luther on Mt 6:11Give us our daily bread (FARM TO TABLE!!)
Planter-> farmer->reaper-> milker-> city planner-> grocery> baker-> shop keeper
Human Relationships
What is missing from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Ze_wpS_o0
The declaration that the market is God's greatest gift to help His people serve others.
The suburban setting, with two innocent American girls celebrating the fruits of laborers
never really seen from around the world. The total ignoring of any of the accusation of
exploitation coming from the Majority World. The total ignoring of any of the dangers
implicit in putting technologies like Smart Phones in the hands of 6 year oldswho are,
apparently, needing to talk to friends across the country "face-to-face" (with no irony) and
check the stock market.The baptizing of the market as "magical," with the disturbing
image of the iPhone blazing with light and almost sucking the young girls in as it
educates them in the way the world works. And most disturbingly of all, the clear
statement at the end, implicit throughout, that the invisible hand which turns our selfinterest into everyone's benefit is truly the Hand of God.Michael Rhodes
A Biblical Worsldview calls us to use the market as a vehicle for the Lords work and not
salvation for the Lords world.
The problem with this [dominant] theological economics is that it is soeasilyused,
soreadilyrelevant. It will not create martyrs. It will only legitimize the dominant social practices
of the ruling powers, even when it seeks to reform them with religio-moral values. . .The
economicssupportedby these theological doctrines actually does not need them . . This theology
does not matter to the economy, and this results not from the lack of theological work in this area,
but because of it. - D. Stephen Long, Divine Economy
Question 2
Does a Biblical Worldview call us to retreat from the
brokenness of our families and society or call us to
engage the brokenness? What examples do you see
of this in Scripture? Please prove your point with
practical application for your chosen field
Lecture 5
MAN
AS THE
IMAGE OF GOD
Questions
1) What is the significance of understanding the
Biblical picture of the Image of God to better
understand why we are the Crown of Creation?
Please give three examples
2) What is the Old Testament picture of the image of
God and how it was affected by sin? How does the
sin of idolatry interact with the disorder of the
image of God brought by humanities rebellion
against God?
God Created
The Lord is INTIMATELY INVOLVED with his
creation
Psalm. 139:13
Exodus 4:11
Matthew 6:26
Psalm 104:21, 27-30
2- man, just like priest or Levite, must serve God in serving and
keeping the sanctity of the earth in order to glorify God. To serve
and to keep mean to cultivate the earth and to keep its sanctity in
in a godly way.
Theology 2, Lecture 6
The image of God
In the NT
&
A Historical Survey of discourse
Exam Questions
1) Offer insight on the Bibles teaching of the Image of
God from the new testament, particularly relating
to the incarnation of Christ. How does the teaching
of the NT help you understand what it means to be
created in the image of God? How does creation/
fall/ redemption inform your understanding too?
2) What are the three main historical understandings
of the Image of God? And how do they work
together to form a more complete understanding of
Scriptures teaching of the Image of God?
Incarnation &
the Imago Dei
In response to Gods grace we are to live out the Image of God as
made possible and modeled in the New Testament claim that
Jesus is God-with-us (Matthew 1:22-23), the Word made flesh
(John 1:14), the paradigmatic imago Dei (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews
1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6). Humans as Gods image had failed in
their priestly roles to mediate the blessings between heaven and
earth (Exodus 19:6). This role was faithfully fulfilled by Jesus, the
second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 25), the one who completely
manifested Gods character and presence in his life (John 14:9).
Through the obedience of Jesus, even to death on a cross,
humanitys tragic failure has been reversed (Romans 5:17-19); and
those who share in Christs death will also share in his
resurrection and rule (2Timothy2:11-12a).
Gods Covenant
Faithfulness
Security of the New Covenant (not replacing old) Jer 31:1-6, 31:31-34)
Major Take-a-ways
1- The image of God is the essence of man, male and female. This means that he cant be called man without the image
of God. In other words, it is mans essence that He is in the likeness and image of God.
2- As an image of God, man is assigned a mandate from God to multiply, to subdue, to have dominion, to work, and to
keep the earth. This is the implication of the image of God in the sense of representation and likeness. Man belongs to
God and because he belongs to God, he represents and like God in the realization of His mandate. To multiply, to
subdue, to have dominion, to work, and to keep the earth is mans mandate and in the realization of this mandate he
represents and like God.
3- There are two aspects of the image of God according to the meaning of its terms. Like and represent God mean
some poor reflections of Gods attributes is in man and man can do what God does in some poor ways. Man as the
image of God means the attributes and the works.
4- There are three relations in which God had put man, that is relation with Himself, with their neighbor, and with earth.
In relation to God, they must devote themselves to Him absolutely, in relation to their neighbor, they must love each
other, and in relation to the earth, they must subdue, have dominion, to work and to keep it.
5- Christ is the perfect human being so that He is the model, the pattern, and the goal of the image of God.
6- There is a four states of the image of God that correspond to the four states of man in the light of salvation history:
Creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. The image before the fall, the image after the fall, the image after the
redemption, and the image after the consummation.
Historical views
Substantive:
the imago Dei can be described by any one or more of its essential
parts, but particular human rationality. Church fathers such as
Irenaeus (d. 202) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) fashioned their
theological views around Gods creating humankind in his image
with the ability to reason and think over the non-human creation.
Influenced by Plato and Aristotle, Irenaeus is acknowledged as
distinguishing between the image of God and the likeness of God (i.e.,
Gen. 1:26: Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our
likeness and let them rule). He maintained that humans retained
Gods image after the fall but lost Gods likeness because of
disobedience. Drawing from his magnum opus, Summa Theologica
(Summary of Theology) Aquinas, a theologian of the medieval
church, also regarded the imago Dei as mans intellectual and
reasoning capacity.
Functional
Gen. 1:26b, 28: let them rule . . . Be fruitful, increase in
number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that
moves on the ground. The functional view asserts that being
created in the imago Dei means to have stewardship, dominion,
and oversight over Gods creation. This view directly ties to
these three areas: vocational, physical/wellness, and economic/
resource formation. As Anthony Hoekema argues in his book,
Created in Gods Image, If it is true that the whole person is the
image of God, we must also include the body as part of the
image (p. 68). God created us with potential to steward the
resources He has given us.
Relational
-male and female collectively reflect Gods image through their
relationality with each other and with God. Emil Brunner, Martin
Buber, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Karl Barth all affirm this perspective. To
Brunner, the imago Dei is clearly possible because of humanitys
relationship and fellowship with God. For Buber, the I-Thou
relationship between the individual and God should inform and enact
all other human relationships. Dietrich Bonhoeffer depended on Bubers
I-Thou perspectives, while Karl Barth drew on the work of Bonhoeffer
in defining his position. This connects to emotional and relational
formation. God has given us relational capacity to relate to Him and to
others.
Together all views cover spiritual, emotional intellectual, relational,
vocational, physical health/wellness, and economic/resource
stewardship are evidenced in the creation narrative and supported by
an historical discussion of the imago Dei but none are perfect
God has created man in His own image with all his
structural capacities whether soul, psychical power, or
body, which manifested his likeness with God, so that he
can be enabled to realize his God-given mandate
functionally in true knowledge, righteousness, and
holiness toward all of his relationship whether God, his
neighbor, or nature.
Pak Hendra
Lecture 7, 8, & 9
Review of Theological views of the Imago Dei through group
discussion.
Group
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Topic Summaries
Functional View
Substantive View
Relational View
Imago Dei in OT
Imago Dei in Incarnation
Imago Dei in Eschatology
5 reasons why we should care
Study Question 1
How does Science depend on God? And
how can we know God more through
studying Science? Please offer specific
examples
The God-centerdness of
scientific methodology
Scientific theory builds upon PREDICTIBLE EVENTS,
REPEATED PATTERNS, & Sometimes MATHMATICAL
DESCRIPTIONS
These are sometimes called, Natural Law, Scientific Law, or
a theory of some sort.
these laws, if it really is a law and is cor-rectly formulated and
qualified, holds for all times and all places. Is God involved in
these laws? And Can we know Him through them?
SEE Genesis 8:22; Psalm 147 15-18, Colossians 1:15-17
Attributes of God in
scientific laws
Omnipresence (Jeremiah 23:24, Psalm 139)
Eternality (Revelation 1:8, 1 Tim 1:17)
Omnipotent (Mt 1:19-26; Ephesians 1:19-22)
READ Romans 1:18-23
Order, beauty, predictability, & simplicity: snorkeling off
Komodo Island
Laws imply a law-giver: So what came first, God or The laws of
science? With this, do we invent laws or discover laws that
already exist?
Question 2
Please list three of the six ways
Science and Faith are not only
compatible but also need one
another:
2. Science can both falsify and verify claims of religion. When religions make claims
about the natural world, they intersect the domain of science and are, in effect,
making predictions which scientific investigation can either verify or falsify.
The Medieval Churchs condemnation of Galileo for his holding that the
Earth moves around the sun rather than vice versa. On the basis of their
misinterpretation of certain Bible passages like Ps. 93.1: The Lord has
established the world; it shall never be moved, medieval theologians
denied that the Earth moved. Scientific evidence eventually falsified this
hypothesis, and the Church belatedly finally came to admit its mistake.
claim of several Eastern religions like Taoism and certain forms of Hinduism
that the world is divine and therefore eternal. The discovery during this
century of the expansion of the universe reveals that far from being eternal,
all matter and energy, even physical space and time themselves, came into
existence at a point in the finite past before which nothing existed. As
Stephen Hawking says in his 1996 book The Nature of Space and Time, almost
everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning at
the big bang. But if the universe came into being at the Big Bang, then it is
temporally finite and contingent in its existence and therefore neither eternal
nor divine, as pantheistic religions had claimed
(ALL INFORMATION IS FROM WILLIAM LANE CRAIG)
But I want to argue that if God exists, then Lorentz was right.
Here is my (William Lane Craigs) argument:
1. If God exists, then God is in time.
This is true because God is really related to the world as cause
to effect. But a cause of a temporal effect must exist either
before or at the same time as its effect. So God must be in time.
2. If God is in time, then a privileged observer exists.
Since God transcends the world and is the cause of the
existence of everything in the world, His perspective on the
world is the true perspective.
3. If a privileged observer exists, then an absolute now exists.
Question 3
Please articulate the relationship
between the domain of humanity and
technology. When does the use of
technology become idolatrous and
why? What is the proper use of
technology? Please give specific
examples from Scripture & life
Domain advances as
technology develops
Domain- Adam names animals
Genesis 411 gives at least some hints as to how mans dominion devel-ops..
Abel was a keeper of sheep, thereby exercising dominion over some of the
animal world. Cain was a worker of the ground, exercising dominion over
some of the plant world. Cain built a city, which he named after his son
Enoch (4:17). He expressed dominion in architecture. Jabal his descendant
was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock (4:20), which
suggests an expan-sion of animal husbandry on a much larger scale than
Abels. Jubal was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe (4:21),
which implies not only development of music but development of musical
instruments, which take some technical skill. Dominion is leading to skills in
manufacture. Tubal-cain was the forger of all instruments of bronze and
iron (4:22), indicating a growth in metallurgy. Genesis 2:12 mentions gold
and bdellium and onyx stone in Havilah, near Eden, which already shows
Gods provision for man and hints at a possible later development in which
man will use these provi-sions. Under Tubal-cain such development begins
to take place.
The New BMW & resources from the earth as advertisedNatural, tanned leather, certified wood from responsible
resources, textile materials with recycled resources & what
else?
curse
Blessing post-fall
3:14-19
Fruitfulness, domain
& rest
brokenness
saved from________
saved to __________
Technology for
the glory of God
Gods chosen people saved FROM what?
Gods chosen people saved TO what?
Where is the first place after the fall someone is told to be filled
with the Spirit of God?
Realism vs anti-realism
"Realism" can be thought of as a philosophical theory
answering the old question which we called the
"Problem of Authority": how can we justify the claim that
it is rational to believe scientific explanations? The realist
answers by saying the ultimate authority which justifies
the rationality of scientific beliefs is simply that they are
true in the sense of "truth as a relation of
correspondence between what we believe to be the case
and what in reality is the case.
Alternatively realism can be thought of as a theory about
the aim of science: scientific theories aspire to tells us the
truth about the world. Thus it is an Axiological theory
about science which holds that all science has one fixed
goal: finding out the truth about the nature of reality
Realism vs anti-realism
Scientific methodology -the realist claims- is
adopted to the extent that it proves an effective
method of attaining the truth, and all other goals to
which scientific knowledge may aspire are
ultimately dependent upon how things really are.
Realism vs anti-realism
It is typical of some philosophers who hold this sociological
outlook to speak of "Philosophy" as having been terminated
with the end of the "modern" period, so these "postmodern"
thinkers disown the label "Philosopher." Their viewpoint might
be labeled a "non-philosophical anti-realism" or, more
descriptively, a "social constructivist anti-realism." This outlook
is most commonly found in programs or departments which
are typically called "Science Studies" programs, by which is
intended a cluster of different social sciences applied to the
study of scientists and their activities, including not only
"sociology" but also psychology, economics, linguistics,
cognitive science, gender and ethnic studies, etc.
Realism vs anti-realism
The philosophical anti-realists are today's descendants of older
empiricists. Their empiricism makes them wary of
"metaphysical" claims about the "nature of reality" and
enthusiastic for "observational claims" which can be terminated
in an actual experiential state in which some piece of data is
recorded. Only this latter class of observational statements need
be accorded "truth" and their truth is settled directly by an
appeal to experience. They are said to be "directly verified" by
experience. All other statements which scientists make about
what is not directly observed need not be thought of as
"true" (or "false") but only as "successful" as a means for
predicting or deducing "observation statements.
Realism vs anti-realism
Any terms in theories which appear to refer to "unobservable"
entities, states, or processes, should not be understood as
referring to real events behind the screen of phenomena which
we observe. Such "putatively referring terms" (appear to
refer but don't) are constructs of our theories, the
acceptance of which is solely a function of their empirical
adequacy (getting the numbers right), with the usual
pragmatic virtues providing further back up when there's
a choice to be made between empirically equivalent
theories.
Realism vs anit-realism
Realists see scientific inquiry as discovery while anti-realists sees it as
invention. For the realist there is a "way things really are" and
science is trying to find out what it is; it endeavors to discover the
"truth." For the anti-realist there is no way things are apart from how
our theories construct them. All "worlds" are constructions of how we
view the world, of our theories. Therefore there is no "way things
are" to discover the truth about. To think of theoreis as "true" or
"false" descriptions of an unseen world "beneath" or "behind" the
phenomena we observe is to mistake what theories are. Scientific
theories are not attempts to describe what is (allegedly) the real cause
of phenomena by "representing" or "mirroring" an independent
"reality" as it exists apart from the phenomena we experience. They
are invented by theoreticians to serve as tools for making
observational predictions about empirical phenomena.
Question Four
How does the RealismAnti-realism debate
affirm our understanding
of truth AND reinforce
the Biblical proposition of
Transcendent truth?
Lecture 9
The Constitution
of Humanity
The Constitution
of Humanity
The Bible teaches us that man is composed by material and
immaterial elements. Gen 2:7 clearly explains that God formed
man from dust (material element) and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life (immaterial element) and man
became a living being (unity of material and immaterial
being).
Scripture uses the phrase living being, so we can say that man is
the unity of material and immaterial element.
The Constitution
of Humanity
The Bible also clearly teaches us that the material element
of man is body and the immaterial element is soul or
spirit. In the church history there was a long time debate
between dichotomy and trichotomy view of humanity.
The trichotomists say man can be divided into three
elements i.e. the body, the soul, and the spirit but the
dichotomists say there are just two elements in man i.e. the
body and he soul OR the spirit.
The Constitution
of Humanity
Monism claims that we are indivisible, and thus, are not made up
of any parts. When we die that is the end of usthere is no
separable soul or spirit. This is the view of modern philosophy
and theology for the most part.
The Constitution
of Humanity
1- the Bible clearly teaches us that soul and spirit
is interchangeably used (Jn 12:27 and 13:21;
Luke 1:46-47; Heb. 12:23; Rev. 6:9).
2- Scripture says either that in death the soul
departs or the spirit departs (Gen. 35:18; 1
King 17:21; Ecc. 12:7; Luke 12:20; Ps. 31:5;
Luke 23:46; John 19:30; acts 7:59).
The Constitution
of Humanity
3-Man is said to be either body and soul or body and
spirit (Mat. 10:28; 1 Cor. 5:5; James 2:26; 1 Cor. 7:34; 2
Cor. 7:1).
4- everything that the soul is said to do, the spirit is also said
to do (Act. 17:16; John 13:21; Mark. 2:8; 1 Cor. 2:11), and
everything that the spirit is said to do the soul is also said to
do (Ps. 25:1; 62:1; 103:1; 146:1; Luke 1:46). The whole
person, the unity of body and soul or spirit, worshipping God
(Ps. 63:1; 84:2; 47:1; 150:3-5)
The Constitution
of Humanity
The arguments for trichotomy based on
biblical verses like 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb.
4:12; 1 Cor. 14:14, from personal
experiences where we can feel the
difference between our spirit and our
thought or emotions.
Argument in favor of
traducianism.
1- to reproduce children is just one
aspect of image of God, that is to create.
2- able to explained the inherited sin.
3- Heb. 7:10.
Argument in favor of
creationism
Psalm. 127:3; Is. 42:5; Zach. 12:1; Heb. 12:9. But we
must be careful that God sometimes, in His wise
providence, works by the second cause.
God uses the male and female, through conception,
to create the soul of man, but the mode of Gods
work is hidden from us and Scripture doesnt teach it
clearly. In the creation of Adam, the soul is from God
but the body is from the earthly material.