Cosmology as a Science and a Worldview
George L. Murphy, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Akron OH and
Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus OH
Introduction
“The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.”
Many people will recognize Carl Sagan’s introduction to his
Cosmos television series. Cosmology is now understood to be
the branch of science that studies the universe as a whole,
and Sagan’s program was an introduction to this discipline.
But those words were also an implicit statement of a
worldview in which there is nothing beyond the physical
universe. [Read
article]
"The Masked Work of God's Healing Hand"
Rev. Ronald W. Duty"Texts for the 20th Sunday after
Pentecost:
2nd Kings 5:1-3, 7-15
Psalm 111
Luke 17: 11-19
If the universe is just right for life, as Paul Davies argues [1], we humans
tend to see this from our own point of view. How we see the universe may
vary. Some see how the world is through the lenses of our own immediate
interests or our own religious traditions. We tend to see ourselves as
the point of it all, as the reason why God created the world, the solar
system, or the cosmos. A few find thinking of the universe in such
anthropocentric terms absurd and go to the opposite extreme of seeing
ourselves as irrelevant accidents in the cosmic scheme of things. In the
Bible, however, we find examples of people seeing through the cosmos
with the eyes of faith, wonder, imagination, and gratitude to the One
who creates, sustains the cosmos.
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The Creation by E.O. Wilson: A Review
written by Janet Cooper
Science and religion are often considered antagonistic or
warring factions. E.O. Wilson’s book, The Creation,
is an attempt to engage the evangelical and scientific
communities on the subject of saving life on earth.
Although Wilson does not dismiss the philosophical
differences between science and religion, he attempts to
find common ground between them by examining the health of
the planet and the necessity to protect, teach and sustain
biodiversity. He argues that “each species is a
masterpiece” with characteristics and genes that allow it to
fit precisely into its environment. It follows then that
the defense of creation is a universal value common to both
science and religion, whether you believe that organisms
were designed or “tested in the crucible of natural
selection.”
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