Set 15—Biblical and Traditional

Views of the Cosmos

TH01

Introduction to TheologySpring Term 2009

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Online Resources on evolution and religion  

http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/Evolution/index.html Catholic:

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm Episcopal:

http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/19021_58397_ENG_HTM.htm http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/documents/CreationCatechism.pdf

Presbyterian: http://www.pcusa.org/theologyandworship/science/evolution.htm

Or search www.counterbalance.org

Transition: Doctrine of God to Doctrine of Creation

• All that follows is implied in the phrase, “I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”

• Notice the centrality of RELATIONSHIP– Relationships between distinctive identities

within the very being of God– Relationship between God and creation (or

all that is not God): this relationship is multifaceted

What’s Included in “Creation”?

• All that is not God• All things that Are Made, Visible and

“Invisible”• Nature and Supernatural (Angels, Powers,

Elemental Forces, Energy…)• Time• Space• Sin, Rebellion? Nature as it was, is, and shall

be?• Does science have access to all of creation?

Three ways of focusing on the question ofthe God-cosmos relationship…

Creatio ex nihilo: God creates out of nothing; everything depends upon God

Creatio continua: God continues to create; emerging creativity and intermediary processes

Creatio nova: God will bring about a new creation; transformation and consummation of this creation

NOTE: these “3 ways” are not in conflict

Creatio ex nihilo

• What are the alternatives?– Out of pre-existent matter

– Out of the being of God

• Creatio ex nihilo asserts the strongest possible ontological distinction between God and the world

Creatio ex nihilo—con’t

• Without analogy: no human creatio ex nihilo

• Without material constraint– Can’t blame evil on matter– Matter is not a rival force or god– Process Philosophy/Theology as Alternative

• ex nihilo w/o continua: static creation (continua w/o ex nihilo: a dependent God)

• ex nihilo faces a real problem of THEODICY

Creatio continua

• God’s ongoing creative presence and power• Sustains the creation in existence and form• Guides or draws it toward its fulfillment and

destiny• In theology before 1800s, mostly understood

as preservation• Now understood as on-going creativity in

which the creation itself plays some role. How does creation create? Do human beings add to this (i.e. as “co-creation”)?

Creatio nova…New Creation

• New Testament focuses here, not on creation per se.

• Transformation of all things

• Resurrection of the body

• Destiny of this creation: Not merely preserved forever, nor utterly replaced, but transfigured or transformed

Theological Challenges: Contexts

• Creation of the Cosmos: Big bang cosmology, cosmic evolution, “anthropic principle”

• Biological Evolution: Challenge and Response

• Humanity; uniqueness? Image of God. Fallenness (event? By-product of evolution?)

• Neuroscience and the “soul”

Theological Questions

• Does science change our view of God?• Do evolution and neuroscience change

our view of humanity, and does this affect our view of salvation and the human future?

• Does science change our explanation of evil?

• Does technology transform the human role in nature and change the meaning of humanity itself?

Cosmos—Classic View

• Genesis 1:1-2:4

• Six days

• Creation is completed (God rested).

• No transitional forms (e.g. stars are not created in order to form planets; no dinosaurs)

• Recent: 6,000-10,000 years

• Small: 6,000-10,000 miles

Jumping Ahead: Recent Reconsiderations

• Vast expansion of the cosmos in time and space

Recent Reconsiderations• Vast expansion of the cosmos in time

and space• God active in establishing the initial

conditions• God creates through cosmic processes

that arise out of those initial conditions– Cosmic evolution– Biological evolution– Cultural evolution

• Lingering question: Does God act directly on the creation, and if so, how?

• This map of variations in the cosmic background radiation, the faint heat remaining from the Big Bang, was compiled from data gathered by the COBE satellite. The subtle irregularities present in the first moments after the Big Bang ultimately led to the condensation of matter into galaxies and other large structures. The map has been described as a "baby picture" of the universe.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

(1881-1955)

• Revd Dr John Polkinghorne

• KBE FRS• 1930-• http://

www.polkinghorne.org/

George F.R. Ellis

South African cosmologist

• The Crab Nebula pulsar is the remnant of the exploded star – a neutron star the size of Manhattan composed of highly compressed matter weighing approximately a billion tons per teaspoon, spinning around 30 times a second and generating a trillion-gauss magnetic field. This stellar dynamo, Hester says “acts a lot like a kid’s sling, except instead of throwing rocks, it spews out a stream of electrons and positrons (the antimatter version of electrons)” in rapid pulses (hence the name “pulsar”). The high-speed stream of matter becomes visible when it slams into fields of surrounding matter and emits light radiation, including high-energy x-rays.

• WASHINGTON (AP) — The black of space is slashed with silvered streaks of stars as two fiery galaxies merge in a collision of giants. A massive pillar of dust glows in crimson in the glare of hot stars, and another nebula smolders in blues, pinks and reds from the light of stellar birth. These views, never before seen in such detail, are among the first captured by a new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope, an instrument experts say may radically change what is known about the early and very distant universe.

Remember this?

                                                                     

http://exoplanets.org/almanacframe.html

Previous Slide: Landing site on Mars.

This Slide: “Spirit” rover

Mars

                                                  

                    

Artist’s impression of newly discovered planet, April 2007

• How big is God?• How close is God to the physical

details of our lives? – Brain events? – Genetic mutations?

• Where is God when we suffer through the actions of other people?– or through our own failures– or at the hands of nature?