Exam One (Philosophy):
Science and Religion
Good and Evil

Lots of people have asked me for Part E statements to practise with – try some of these. If you bring them in I’ll mark them and give you feedback.

Science and Religion:
“Science and Religion are in conflict.”
“Science has proven that God doesn’t exist.”
“The earth is ours to do as we want with.”
“Animals have no souls so we can treat them as we wish.”

Good and Evil:
“Evil is no-one’s fault but our own.”
“There can’t be an all-loving, all-powerful God with all the evil in the world.”
“Without religion we wouldn’t know right from wrong.”
“Religion provides the best way to cope with suffering.”

In order to help you practise you might want to use Eddie the Evaluator to structure your answers. Make sure you’re doing the right things by comparing your answers to the marking guidelines.

You might also find the BBC Bitesize Good and Evil or Science and Religion pages.

Please leave a comment or email me if you want further advice.

• What they do
• How their Christian beliefs influence their work

You might also include pictures and logos, as well as information on the charity’s history etc.

Please don’t just copy and paste from the websites – try to use the information to make the link between what the charity believes and what the charity does.

Suggested charities:

• A Rocha (see particularly here or here)
• Operation Noah (click the About Us link)
• Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals (Click the About link)
• Christian Ecology Link

At the time God made Earth and Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground—God hadn’t yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the whole Earth was watered by underground springs)—God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul! (Genesis 2:5-7 [Message])

This is often understood as meaning that humans are in some way more important than animals, in some way different. Some Christians argue that it is the “soul” that qualifies someone to go to heaven – if something doesn’t have a soul it can’t go to heaven.

Also, Christians have a responsibility to be stewards over creation.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
(Genesis 1:26-28 [Message])

The idea of stewardship is that human beings are looking after God’s creation for him. They don’t own creation, it does not belong to them, but they look after it for him. There are lots of verses in the Bible that talk about “stewardship”: see here. You can find the PowerPoint from the lesson here.

• BBC Religion and Ethics

• God and The Big Bang
• Christianity vs. Science

Having done this we’ve also considered Christian responses to these ideas. A full handout is here, but in summary:

• More conservative Christians tend to take the Bible literally, so will interpret the story in Genesis 1 as historical.
• Liberal Christians don’t take the Bible so literally. They look more at the “genre” or “type” of story found in the Bible and say that Genesis 1 clearly isn’t history. It has elements of poetry and so isn’t supposed to be describing exactly what happened, but instead is more about the relationship between God and creation.

For homework I’d like a paragraph attempting to answer the following question: “Is it possible to be a Christian scientist?”

Try to get across an answer from both a conservative and liberal point of view. How might the way a Christian reads the Bible affect their answer to such a question? This is due a week after I set it in class.

If you want some more information on the three models check the handout here.