Christians believe that God created the earth along with civilization in seven days and some scientist believe that the earth has always been here and that everything just has evolved over time. Being a Christian in this world and taking any sort of science class will test your faith, because all of these different things such as evolution and our bodies being powered by chemical reactions, while depending on the laws of chemistry operating in a uniform fashion. Chemistry seeks to model, understand, tailor and make use of everything in the natural world, from the atomic building blocks of matter to the complex metabolic pathways of living organisms. It is a fascinating subject which has the potential to impact the world in which we live for either good or ill. As Christians in chemistry, the interaction of our complementary scientific and Christian worldviews is vitally important, allowing us to grow in our own faith and enabling us to be effective contributors, participants and witnesses in our classes and …show more content…
laboratories.
(bethinking.org) Life demands a certain chemistry. The information that makes up any living being is stored on a long molecule called DNA. (answeringenesis.org) If the laws of chemistry were different life as we know it would not be possible. The question of how the universe came to be as it is and how we as humans came about often resonates deeply, particularly with scientists. Many conversations between scientist Christians and other scientists about God and Christ end up considering biological evolution or the Big Bang. Chemistry’s contribution to the story of our origins the transformation of inanimate matter into the first living organisms is much less well understood than other areas of our origins. However, many parts of the process are increasingly understood and we may eventually know the molecular details of the origin of life. As Christians, we need to think through how we would respond to a developed theory in this area.
(bethinking.org) The laws of chemistry give different properties to the various elements and compounds in the universe. For instance, when given ample of activation energy, hydrogen will react with oxygen to form water. Water itself has some intriguing properties, such as the ability to hold an awfully large amount of heat energy. When frozen, water forms crystals with six-sided symmetry (which is why snowflakes are generally six-sided). Contrast this with salt (sodium chloride) crystals, which tend to form cubes. It is the six-fold symmetry of water ice that causes “holes” in its crystal, making it less dense than its own liquid. That’s why ice floats in water (whereas essentially all other frozen compounds sink in their own liquid). The properties of compounds and elements are not erratic. In fact, the elements can be logically organized into a periodic table based on their physical properties. Elements in the same column on the table tend to have similar properties. This follows because substances in a vertical column have the same outer electron structures. These outermost electrons determine the physical characteristics of the atom. The periodic table did not happen by chance. Atoms and molecules have their various properties because their electrons are bound by the laws of quantum physics. In other words, chemistry is based on physics. If the laws of quantum physics were just a bit different, atoms might not even be possible. God designed the laws of physics just right so that the laws of chemistry would come out the way he wanted them to.
Science and faith are generally viewed as two topics that do not intermingle. However, Andy Crouch’s work, Delight in Creation, suggests that there is an approach to both faith and science that allows support of scientists in the church community. There is an approach that can regard science as a career that can reflect the nature of God.
The book Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Dr. Paul Brand & Philips Yancey gives a whole new meaning on what is studying biology. He starts by describing the very first time he saw a cell. He was amazed and from there on he learn how to be a biology student, while still having strong beliefs. He compares the human body as a community. Since each individual cell can live for itself. All cells come together to sustain the larger organism and properly function the way it should be.The analogy in 1 Corinthians 12, compares the human body to the church, where he states how god put each individual cell in its place for a reason. We all are made up of many cells but, we can not function if there are not together as a whole.
Chapter 3, The Bible, Creation, and Science by Robert Branson, PhD presented some interesting aspects of biblical interpretations relative to science. “With the rapid changes and developments that all areas of modern science produce, it is a general belief that if an informed person is made to choose between science or the Bible, science will be chosen.” (loc 647 Kindle, Branson) Dr. Branson tries and explain the three positions people take with biblical studies. The three positions examined by Dr. Branson are 1. Concordance, 2. Young-Earth Creati...
The next theory that he disproved was the “Primordial Soup Theory”. Sir Fred Hoyle scoffed at the ridiculous atheistic notion when he said, “The notion that a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.” “There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet, nor on any other, and if the beginning of life were not random, life must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence” (Donyes
Genetics relies on chemistry to explain phenomena related to the field. The structure of DNA relies on chemistry. In fact, when James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA, they did so by building models based on the laws of chemistry. Chemistry also relates heavily to the structure and function of one of the main products of DNA: protein.
Christian Science is a new religious movement that was founded by a lady named Mary Baker Eddy, born Mary Baker Rose on July 16, 1821 and sadly left this world December 3, 1821. Eddy continuously studied the Bible throughout her life and took a great liking to reading and understanding the sacred text. Growing up, she frequently stayed ill and highly emotional until one day she grew so very life-threatening sick that she simply asked for her Bible. After reading two of Jesus' healings, Eddy miraculously recovered from a severe fall on an icy sidewalk and became well again. After doing this...
There are different viewpoints on the question “what is the universe made of?” I think that both science and religion offer their own explanation to this topic and they sometimes overlap, which creates contradictions. Therefore, I do not agree with Stephen Jay Gould’s non-overlapping magisterial, which claims that there is a fine line separating science from religion. That being said, I think the conflict between science and religion is only in the study of evolution. It is possible for a scientist to be religious if he is not studying evolution, because science is very broad and it has various studies. In this essay, I will talk about the conflict between religion and science by comparing the arguments from Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins. I argue that science and religion do overlap but only in some area concerning evolution and the cosmic design. Furthermore, when these overlaps are present it means that there are conflicts and one must choose between science and religion.
“Life is an empirical concept whose various definitions and phenomenological characterizations depend on historical frameworks.”2 In general, life is the energy that keeps organisms going on this earth and can be traced back through the history of the world. This would be the theoretic definition of life, but there is also a biological view of life that suggests that life is based around Darwinian evolution and the presence of genetic material. Life is an entity that is very much capable of evolution as it is shown in the organisms on earth. The type of Darwinian evolution that it is also exposed to is natural selection since it has needed to continuously find new ways in order to grow more complex and survive on this earth.2 (9) Life also needed the presence of genetic material, like DNA and RNA, in order to occur in this world. DNA and RNA are absolutely necessary to the ...
Religion and science are complementary elements to our society. The notion that religion and science should not be merged together, does not mean neglecting to understand the parallel relation between these two concepts and will result in a better understanding of our surroundings. This will put an end to our scientific research and advancement because we will be relying on answers provided by religious books to answer our questions. If we don’t argue whether these answers are right or wrong, we would never have studied space stars or the universe or even our environment and earthly animals. These studies have always provided us with breakthroughs, inventions and discoveries that made our lives better.
“The greatest mystery of existence is existence itself” (Chopra). Chopra, a world-renowned author, perceives the existence of life as a truly mystifying cerebration. The pending question that many scientist, and even theists, attempt to answer is how life ultimately began. Currently, the mystery is left with two propositions, evolution and creation. While both approaches attempt to answer the origins of life, evolution and creation are two contrasting concepts. Evolution views life to be a process by which organisms diversified from earlier forms whereas creation illustrates that life was created by a supernatural being. Creation and evolution both agree on the existence of microevolution and the resemblance of apes and humans but vary in terms of interpreting the origins of the life through a historical standpoint. A concept known as Faith Vs Fact comprehensively summarizes the tone of this debate, which leads the question of how life began.
At first glance, many facets of science and religion seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Because of this, I have generally kept them confined to separate spheres in my life. I have always thought that science is based on reason and cold, hard facts and is, therefore, objective. New ideas have to be proven many times by different people to be accepted by the wider scientific community, data and observations are taken with extreme precision, and through journal publications and papers, scientists are held accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their work. All of these factors contributed to my view of science as objective and completely truthful. Religion, on the other hand, always seems fairly subjective. Each person has their own personal relationship with God, and even though people often worship as a larger community with common core beliefs, it is fine for one person’s understanding of the Bible and God to be different from another’s. Another reason that Christianity seems so subjective is that it is centered around God, but we cannot rationally prove that He actually exists (nor is obtaining this proof of great interest to most Christians). There are also more concrete clashes, such as Genesis versus the big bang theory, evolution versus creationism, and the finality of death versus the Resurrection that led me to separate science and religion in my life. Upon closer examination, though, many of these apparent differences between science and Christianity disappeared or could at least be reconciled. After studying them more in depth, science and Christianity both seem less rigid and inflexible. It is now clear that intertwined with the data, logic, and laws of scien...
Though many people fail to realize it, chemistry is a subject essential to everyday life, due to the fact that it is the branch of science that deals with the identification of the substances of which matter is composed. But what we must understand is that everything in the universe is composed of matter, hence chemistry is necessary in learning more about the world and universe that we live in. There are many careers and fields affiliated with chemistry that people pursue to learn more about the composition of the universe, but for now, let us examine the logistics of three of these careers. These three careers involving chemistry are geochemistry, environmental chemistry, and chemical engineering.
This hypothesis emerged when scientists found organic molecules in meteorites from the universe. Some investigators wondered if the abiotic production of organic materials in the soil was absolutely basic to the origin of life. Maybe some organic materials from elsewhere in the universe had arrived in the early earth.
Only a few things can be explained without chemistry. Otherwise, it is everywhere, both visible and invisible to the naked eye, from the chemical reactions in our bodies to the atmospheric conditions on inhabitable planets. I feel drawn to chemistry because I have a desire to learn how things come into being. It impresses me how scientists, before the advancement of technology, helped uncover mysteries in the world without the help of complicated machinery.
The relationship between science and religion has been debated for many years. With strong personal opinions and beliefs, it is not surprising that no progress has been made in this argument. In my opinion, I feel as though religion and science have to be related in some way. There is no possible way people can separate two things that attempt to prove the same facts. My belief is that a metaphorical bridge has to be formed to connect the two. Personally, I feel as though science can be a compliment to religion, and that the scientific discoveries can and should be used to prove that God exists, not disprove it. If science did this, then the relationship between science and religion could be a friendly one. If that happened, people could stop debating and fighting over the two, allowing priests and scientists to talk and work together peacefully.