Week 5 - 'Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary thought and natural theology'.

A brief summary of a book called 'Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary though and natural theology'. I am looking at chapter 8: 'The concept of creation: reflections and reconsiderations'.

- Christianity insists that god is involved in the creation and evolution of the earth.

- 'How can the agency of creative action be transferred from God to the created order itself, without implying the conceptual redundancy of God?' (McGarth, AE 2011, p.233)

- Theists generally believe that God is the primary cause for any event.

- God is also understood to work through nature/natural causes in what is defined as a secondary matter.

- Debates whether God is violating the laws of nature by interfering with the process.

- Charles Darwin uncovered the laws of evolutionary biology.

- 'Either God is everywhere present in nature, or He is nowhere' ( McGarth, AE 2011, p.235). This is basically saying, the view is either black or white on whether God exists, not whether he exists but in no ways interferes in the progress of nature,

Reference:

McGrath, AE 2011, Darwinism and the divine. evolutionary thought and natural theology, Oxford ; Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell.

Week 4 - Evolution vs. Creationism (research assignment topic draft)

This week I was able to hone in on my topic and extract some questions for this stage. So far I am feeling good about what I currently have. Hopefully I can stick to these questions and methods. 

My primary question is: 

-How does theism and atheism influence one's outlook on existence?

My sub questions are: 

- What are people's perceptions of their beliefs? 

- Are we judged through our faith or lack of faith?

I am planning to employ two methods into my research, one of which is interviews, and the other is surveys. I have a few interviewees in mind, which fall under the individuals I am focussing on - Young adults, mature adults, atheists, and theists. 

Some key words that link to my research topic are: Beliefs, Knowledge, Circumstances, Difficulties, Influences, Worldview

Worldview is a very important key term within my research. When referencing this notion, it is primarily talking about how one perceives the world through their religious or scientific beliefs. This can encompass the idea of the reasons or constraints for peoples' decisions based on how they can make sense of the world, through questioning and reasoning. 

To me, this image depicts a material world created by our thoughts. This relates to my topic because truth is subjective to the individual and one will view our world differently to another, based on how they understand our existence. 

Week 3 - Basing my research around Creationism versus Evolution.

I've decided to tackle the life-long controversial dispute between creationism and evolution. I suppose this would come from a philosophical and sociological approach. I'm a little nervous about researching this topic because of the small scale intense debates I have been involved in, not ending too well. I have grown up in an Orthodox family, never understanding or believing in what my family believes in. I am interested to see how one is influenced by their beliefs and how both atheists and theists view our existence based on how they believe we have come to be. I intend to interview younger and older audiences. I'm targeting these individuals because I believe there would be an element of differentiation of influences within the different spectrum of time - as most people may know that science is becoming more and more influential in this day and age.

Below is a book I have skimmed over, 'Defending evolution':
 https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1NrssPvr7CwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=creation+evolution&ots=8fUKiUmSAi&sig=__I8NHUgj19RO7h4AzTBVez-08Q#v=onepage&q=creation%20evolution&f=false

You might enjoy this intense debate between Richard Dawkins and Wendy Wright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AekFGksvuDU