Scientific Ideas

Scientific Ideas

1. Evolution - Charles Darwin's Theory

   • Challenges to the Bible
     • Genesis 1 states that God created sea creatures and birds on the fifth day. He then created land animals and human beings on the sixth day. Darwin's theory means there is no distinction between fish, birds and animals - they all have developed and evolved from one another over time
     • Genesis 1 states that the world in all its variety was created in six days however must have taken place over many millions of years
     • Genesis 1 states that God created human beings 'in his own image' and with responsibility for the rest of creation. Darwin says One species comes from another, natural selection - only the strongest survive. Over millions of years species have changed and evolved, some species failed to evolve and become extinct. human beings evolved from animals. Fossils are evidence. Therefore there is no need for a designer because species can evolve

2. Big Bang Theory

   • The scientific view of how the Earth began - First Cause. Happened 13.7 billion years ago. All the material which makes up the universe must have been compacted together in one dense mass resulting in a hot big bang. The universe expanded out in an explosion of heat and energy. As the material formed the stars and planets

3. William Smith

   • He realised that rocks underneath the earth's surface were older and some animals which used to exist (fossils) no longer did. He therefore suggested that instead of six days of creation that there might have been six geological periods

4. Charles Lyell

   • He went further than Smith saying that erosional processes he saw would take millions of years to happen so how could the world only be 6000 years old