Science and Religion

PREFLIGHT

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The following questions refer to the material you were to read in preparation for the lesson.

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Creation Then and Now

Davies argues that Augustine's first two theses are supported by the new physics: the necessity of a creation, and creation ex nihilo. He's not so sure about the third, contingency. Organize his (rather unorganized) topics as to which one (or more) of Augustine's 3 points he is addressing:

3 degree blackbody radiation
Helium/Hydrogen ratio
Increasing Red Shift of distant galaxies
Dirac's prediction of anti-matter
Alan Guth's inflationary theory
Hermann Bondi's steady state theory
The second law of thermodynamics and the universe
The singularity of the Big Bang

Finally, summarize these examples by stating what stand Paul Davies takes on each of Augustine's three statements.

honors extra

In Davies chapter 5, (you can pick up copies of chap 5-8 in the CAO library) he promotes "holism" as a better alternative to "reductionism". Does holism answer the contingency question better than reductionism? That is, which of these two views better answers the question "Why does life exist rather than not?".

Below is a space for your thoughts, including general comments about today's assignment (what seemed impossible, what reading didn't make sense, what we should spend class time on, what was "cool", etc.):

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I received no help from anyone on this assignment.