Tutorial Questions

Contents

• Tutorial 2: Historical Interactions
• Tutorial 3: Is the Bible true?
• Tutorial 4: Creation
• Tutorial 5: Chaos and Uncertainty
• Tutorial 6: Evolution
• Tutorial 7: Providence and Suffering
• Tutorial 8: Prayer
• Tutorial 9: Miracles
• Tutorial 10: Mind and Consciousness
• Tutorial 11: The Environment
• Tutorial 12: Bioethics
• Tutorial 13: The End of the Universe
• Further Information

Tutorial 2: Historical Interactions

Reading: Extract from Cross-Currents - C.A. Russell.

1. How is people's thinking today influenced by relations between the Church and science in the past?
2. How do you think people who are not part of a church view the church's attitude to science today?
3. When people talk about Mother Nature, what do they really believe? Is this the same as what people believed in mediaeval times?
4. "..the principle of relying chiefly on experiment ... is indissolubly linked to the growing conviction that nature is the creation of an all-powerful God acting of his own free will". Why is (or isn't) this so?

Tutorial 3: Is the Bible true?

Reading: Extract from He walked Among Us by Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson.

1. J.B. Phillips has suggested that the New Testament has the "Ring of Truth". What elements might you look for in a piece of writing which might convey a 'feeling' of truth or falsehood?
2. The Gnostics taught that secret special knowledge was necessary for salvation. What elements of such gnosticism can you detect in modern religious and scientific life? How do these affect the lay person's perception of religion or science?
3. Why do people question the authority of the Bible more than that of other historical documents describing events at similar times to Biblical events?
4. Visions and prophecy occur in the Bible and in the coming of the gospel to the Gedeo people (in the reading). What might be the attitude of Science to such things?

Tutorial 4: Creation

Readings: Extracts from The Mind of God - Paul Davies
Readings: The Biblical Basis for Modern Science - Morris (presents the "creationist" viewpoint)
Readings: Creation and Time - Hugh Ross
Readings: Science and Creation - John Polkinghorne.

1. How do (or do not) the scripture verses quoted rule out the possibility of creation taking place over a (very long) period of time either by evolutionary processes or by several creative acts of God?
2. How can the scripture "things which are seen were not made out of things which appear" be reconciled with modern cosmological ideas?
3. Discuss the merits of Morris's and Ross's arguments about the six days of creation.
4. What do you say to the question "Why did God create the world?"?
5. Morris and Polkinghorne disagree about whether creation is completed or continuing. In what senses might we say it is completed and in what senses is it continuing?

Tutorial 5: Chaos and Uncertainty

Reading: Extract from Science and Providence - Polkinghorne.

1. If God is not somehow in control of every microscopic detail in the cosmos, what are the consequences?
2. Why is the arrow of time not determined in a small system of particles but it is determined in a larger more complex system of particles? 
3. If God is at work within the world, is it reasonable to suppose He does so through the openness of chaotic systems? Try working through a scenario of how God might organise for a particular person to obtain a certain job or get sent to a particular mission field.
4. Or can Houghton's flatland analogy of another dimension help us see how God works in the world?

Tutorial 6: Evolution

Readings: God's Utility Function - Richard Dawkins, Scientific American, November, 1995.
Readings: Extract from When Faith and Reason Clash: Evolution and the Bible - Alvin Plantinga (Pascal Centre, Occasional Paper)

1. Dawkins says the "Why" question should not be asked. Yet humankind continues to ask it! Why?
2. What implications does Dawkin's theory have for human behaviour and aspirations?
3. Why do some religious people still balk at accepting the theory of evolution?
4. What intellectually respectable rules might one draw up for interpreting the Bible or other holy book?
5. The author describes theistic evolution as "semi-deistic". What does he mean?
6. What do you think of the author's argument that God has often intervened in the cosmos by way of miracles, so it is probable that He has intervened by special creation?
7. The eye is often cited as an organ which one might find difficulty in tracing its evolutionary development. Discuss.

Tutorial 7: Providence and Suffering

Readings: Extracts from Science and Providence by Polkinghorne.
Readings: Suffering by Alistair McGrath.

1. Why is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle of little importance in our daily lives?
2. Polkinghorne suggests that God may act by influencing the development in time of complex chaotic systems. How satisfactory or unsatisfactory is this idea? In what other ways might God work out His will in the physical world or answer our prayers?
3. "...if God is really on the inside of creation, we must find him in the process, not in the gaps". What does this mean?
4. Why might it be reasonable to pray for rain but not reasonable to pray for a solar eclipse?
5. How does the claim that the Christian's God has experienced pain, sorrow and sadness help the Christian endure his own suffering? 

Tutorial 8: Prayer

Reading: The Meaning of Prayer - H.E. Fosdick.
Reading (Question 3): Prayer and Providence - P.R. Baelz
Reading (Question 4): Prayer - J. Polkinghorne in Science and Providence.

1. Many of the prayers one hears today are childlike. Discuss.
2. What are various possible motives for praying?
3. If we were called to pray for David Smith, who is to undergo a critical operation in hospital, what would we pray? What is the effect of our prayer, if any?
4. Why does God want us to pray? What sort of prayer pleases Him? How would a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Christian etc. answer these questions?
5. How do you trust God when a loved one, for whom you have earnestly prayed, has just died of cancer?

Tutorial 9: Miracles

Reading: Natural or Supernatural? - John Houghton.

1. Give examples of miracles of the first and second kind (a) in religious writings such as the Bible or the Q'uran, (b) which you have experienced or read about in modern times.
2. The Christians' vision "is rooted in Christians' experience of God here and now" and humanity's "unimaginable future has a present anchorage in our hearts". What do these quotations mean?
3. Why do some people believe in Jesus' resurrection and some don't?
4. What should be our attitude to reports of miracle healings (i) in churches around Sydney, and (ii) at places like Lourdes? Discuss the relation between spiritual healing and physical healing.

Tutorial 10: Mind and Consciousness

Reading: God's Freedom and Ours - John Houghton.

1. Suppose you could build a computer which mimicked all the functions of the human brain. If you couldn't see them, how could you tell whether you were talking to the computer or a real person?
2. At what level in nature would you say that an organ has "consciousness"? A bacterium, a plant, a worm, a bird, a dog, a dolphin, a human? What sorts of criteria would you use for this? Which of these have "an I story"?
3. If humans are "in the image of God", what difference does this imply that they have to the rest of creation? Is the difference physical or spiritual (or supra-dimensional?)?

Tutorial 11: The Environment

Reading: The Christian view: Creation - Schaeffer:
Reading (Question 4): Ecology and Economics - Keeping a Tidy House - Preece

1. Schaeffer says "Nature is there ... because God created it". Discuss whether this is a satisfactory answer to the question 'Why is nature there?'
2. Then discuss how our treatment of nature might be influenced if we accept the truth of Schaeffer's statement.
3. What are the arguments for preserving things in nature such as wilderness areas or rare animals? How should we deal with conflicts between the survival needs of a group of people and the preservation of a natural environment?
4. In the reading Preece suggests that "global gluttony" exists because we are unable to satisfy our need for transcendence. Discuss how this relationship comes about.

Tutorial 12: Bioethics

Reading: Bioethical issues at the beginning of human life - Gareth Jones

1. What are the arguments in favour of abortion and foetal experimentation?
2. What are the Christian's reasons for opposing abortion and the destruction of embryos?
3. Why is this issue important for society as a whole and not just for the Christian community?
4. Recently a single Episcopalian female priest had a child by artificial insemination. Some people accused her of adultery. Discuss.

Tutorial 13: The End of the Universe

Reading: Life in the Slow Lane - Paul Davies

1. How does it affect one's thinking about life to know that humanity is eventually doomed, albeit a billion years hence? Compare your feelings with Bertrand Russell's.
2. How do we feel about designing our descendants by biotechnological means? Or replacing them by genetically engineered organic robots? What do religions have to say about these ideas?
3. Davies suggests that the passing down of our culture, values etc. is important. Why?
4. Living forever "would mean that the same thoughts are entertained over and over again. Such an existence seems as pointless as that of a doomed species." How might life in heaven overcome this problem?

Further Information

Contact

• Associate Professor Robert J. Stening