Science and Religion (1/26)

Question 1

What is “Intelligent Design”?

Answer 1

The claim that organisms are too complex to have evolved by Natural Selection so there must be a higher power at work (a religious perspective)

Question 2

Why is “Intelligent Design” not scientific?

Answer 2

There is no testable hypothesis to support their claim

Question 3

What is a scientific hypothesis?

Answer 3

A proposed explanation for an observed phenomenon

Question 4

What is a scientific theory?

Answer 4

A hypothesis that has withstood extensive testing by a variety of methods and a higher degree of certainty may be placed

Question 5

What is the Clergy Letter Project?

Answer 5

An endeavor to demonstrate that science and religion can be compatible; recognizes that the theory of evolution is true

Question 6

6 Verifiable Predictions of Evolutionary Theory

Answer 6

1. ) Because there are fossil remains of ancient life, we should be able to find some evidence for evolutionary change
2. ) We should be able to find some cases of speciation in the fossil record with one line of descent dividing in to two or more.
3. ) We should be able to find examples of species that link together major groups suspected to have common ancestry.
4. ) We should expect that species show genetic variation for many traits.
5. ) We should be able to find cases of IMPERFECT adaptation.
6. ) We should be able to see natural selection occur in nature.

Question 7

Neoplatonism

Answer 7

The belief that fossils are produced in rocks by a molding force that reflects an interconnected network of hidden affinities that binds all things in the universe through the production of analogous forms.

Question 8

Aristotelianism

Answer 8

The belief that fossils are the product of spontaneous generations from non-living material and so their characteristics may develop within the rocks.

Question 9

What do neoplatonism and aristotelianism have in common?

Answer 9

Neither entertain the idea that fossils are organic material.

Question 10

Main questions debated by early scholars concerning fossils

Answer 10

1. ) Are fossils REALLY organic material?
2. ) How did they get there?
3. ) Did they form in the rock or did the rock form around them?

Question 11

Leonardo da Vinci

Answer 11

Recognized that the fossil shells in the Apennine Mountains of N. Italy represented ancient marine life; the fossils looked so similar to modern sea shells it would be impossible to deny that they are of organic origin

Question 12

Niels “Steno” Stenson

Answer 12

Used bottom-up observations and testing to conclude his answers (SCIENCE HOMIE)

Question 13

Glossopetrae

Answer 13

“tongue stones”; Steno dissected a large shark and concluded that the stones were actually shark teeth (proving that fossils were one living and therefor organic in origin)