Genesis 1 and Science

Scope

• What does “harmonisation” mean?
• What are the scientific developments that forced Christians to do harmonisation?
• How do they do harmonisation?
• What are the results and consequences of their harmonisation?
• What does the author suggest the way forward?
• What lessons have you learnt from this discussion?

1. So what is "harmonisation"?

Darwinism | Creationism

A. Darwinian Evolution Theory

• Charles Robert Darwin (1809 – 1882)
• Public debate about origin of humankind
• Richard Dawkins and Evolutionary Biology: 6,000-year-old universe?
• Work of Buffon, Curvier, and Lamarck on fossil record
• “God at work in the process of evolution”

B. Science vs Six-Day Creationism

• Adopts minimalistic method
• Earth's age: 200-340 million years old?
• Flood geology: missing transitional species?, random mutations, "old-state" Earth
• Philip Johnson: Random mutations
• "Old-state" Earth: fossils put back to mislead human beings?

What the biblical agenda is not

• The "missing link": linguistic gap, unidentified audience and cultural gap
• Development of science

harmonisation?

A. Read modern science in light of Gen 1-3

• 6-day theory
• Genesis as a scientific truth?
• Creation as instantaneous?
• Evolution: one of God's tools?

B. Read Gen 1-3 in light of modern science

• Gap Theory
• Days as Ages
• Days of Revelation

C. Read Gen 1-3 with scientific questions

• Give respect to both science and Genesis
• ANE Concept: "The cosmos is a temple"

4. Results and consequences

• Not allowing the text to speak for itself
• Scripture lays the foundations for science
• Scripture is important to the growth of science
• Genesis gives value of what it means to be human

5. How should we move forward?

• Don't dismiss Genesis 1-3 as worthless
• Address issue seriously and not over-simplify
• Be courageous in dialoguing between science and Scripture
• Adopt elimination process to alleviate tensions between science and Scripture

6. Lessons learnt and implications

• Issue with science and Scripture is not contradiction but interpretation
• Not always conflicting with but can complement each other
• Unresolved issues in Scripture that science can neither prove nor disprove
• Science can address the "How" but Scripture will address the "Why"

Fin.