Religion og videnskab

Artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated such advancement that people ask if it should be granted the moral status of personhood. This book argues that this view assumes that personhood corresponds to how well one's thinking mirrors the biases, worldview, and intelligence of the middle class, relegating the poor to the status of "nonhuman."

Secular science demands we accept the philosophical dogma of scientific materialism-that only material entities exist. Yet recent science has discovered the immaterial! Also mandated is the assumption that all things must be explained by natural causes. But we now are certain that the universe had a beginning. There was a time when "nature" didn't exist-and yet we must attribute the origin of the universe to nature! And what about Darwin's theory of evolution-taken as fact that every plant and animal owe its origin to a common ancestor and naturalistic causes. At the time of Darwin, over a century and a half ago, no one knew the true complexity of the cell. We now know the simplest of living organisms has 159,662 base pairs of DNA and 182 protein-coding genes. What naturalistic cause put all of this together? Could this be assembled by blind, purposeless accident? What does recent science have to say? And what about recent discoveries in origin-of-life research? Do we now know enough to suggest life could not have created itself? A lot is happening in today's science that is best explained through the Christian worldview. Let's see what some of today's scientists are now saying.

This book provides an original and challenging perspective of religions as abstract complex adaptive systems, using an interdisciplinary approach to try to understand what religions are and how they function, two fundamental issues which, despite an intense struggle from several fields, have not yet been resolved. What is the source of religious belief? How do religions work and what are they made of? Why is religion so important for us that it has survived centuries of scientific progress and secularization? Why are people religious even outside religion? The book addresses these questions using an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to untangle the Gordian knot of defining religion. In short, they can be considered entropy-reducing technologies. What differentiates them from other meaning-producing systems is their configuration which employs specific building blocks as tools for mitigating entropy, which are also subsystems and combine in various ways to build a unique configuration: rituals, myths, taboos, supernatural agents, authority, identity, superstitions, moral obligations, afterlife beliefs and the sacred. As a reaction to perturbances or pressure, systems can collapse. Inspired by Nicholas Nassim Taleb, it is, in this book, referred to as fragility¿the negative reaction of systems to random events, and four parameters can be used to evaluate it in religious systems: monotonicity (the inability to learn from past mistakes), coupling (linking with other systems: such as political or economic), centralization and stress starvation. Several case studies are provided in order to test the theoretical claims made in this book, based on the author's field research in Romania, Japan, North Korea and Mongolia, and offering details that could be of interest to casual readers, students and researchers of religion.

Drugs are Adam's Sin is a contemporary interpretation of the sin committed by Adam, peace be upon him.The author believes that contrary to what many believe-that Adam's sin was biting into an apple from a forbidden tree-his crime really was abusing drugs, resulting in the poisoning of his nervous system and unhappiness in paradise.The author contends that the tree in the Garden of Eden was not tall but rather short and charming-it was the poppy tree, which produces opium, morphine, and heroin.The toxins Adam ingested were genetically passed to his children, resulting in dreadful consequences that continue to this day and that have affected all of humanity. In examining Adam's crime, the author seeks to answer questions such as:¿ How should we look at the criminal nature of man?¿ What can we do to correct our daily behaviors?¿ Why is understanding the true nature of Adam's sin so important?Get a new perspective on events from the Bible, the nature of sin, and how humanity can solve what ails it in this groundbreaking book.

Jesus of Nazareth was the most influential person to ever walk the earth, so why do we have no record of him for nearly two decades of his short life? Or have we just not looked in the right places?Narratives have long trickled out of the British Isles pointing to a significant connection with Jesus and with some of His most prominent disciples. Evidence reveals that Britain was not only the epicenter of an ancient global religion but became the first light of Christianity after the crucifixion.Was the royal lineage of King David preserved in the ancient British Isles?Did the ancient Druids hold beliefs in common with Judeo-Christianity?Was Joseph of Arimathea more than a wealthy disciple of Jesus?Did a young Jesus walk the shores of Britain, and if so, why? What was he doing in that remote corner of the world?If the answer to any of these questions is yes, why have these accounts not been more widely shared?These hidden stories out of Celtic Britain abound in heroism, sacrifice, and faith. The rise and ultimate fall of these noble people is a story for the ages. A battle for transparency continues today as this book reveals ancient manuscripts and other evidence that shed needed light on Britain and on the life of Jesus prior to His final ministry in Palestine.

In Faith Embodied, scientist, physician, and pastor Stephen Ko makes the connection between spiritual and physical health. Weaving together insights from faith, science, and medicine, Ko explains how to live and worship incarnationally and glorify God with our bodies.

A thought-provoking and eye-opening work in the vein of Sapiens, Walking the Bible, and The Language of God that offers a compelling argument for how science is not only compatible with faith, but can enrich it. For more than a century, philosophers and scientists have wrestled with reconciling evolution and religion, a debate that continues today. James Stump, the Vice President at BioLogos?a nonprofit started by Francis Collins, the scientist who led the international Human Genome Project and later served as Director of the National Institutes of Health?is both a man of science and a man of faith. In this moving and deeply thoughtful book, he shows Christians a hopeful way forward out of the morass.The Sacred Chain seeks to open the dialogue between theology and science, to be a bridge to understanding and a view of God and nature that encompasses both. Stump draws on philosophy, theology, and the latest scientific research to tackle some of the biggest questions facing humanity and people of faith today, involving issues such as:How to consider the BibleHow to understand the long history of the universeHow a mind or soul could have evolvedHow evolution factors into faithHow a species is definedHow a good and loving God could create a world rife with painDeeply researched, wonderfully accessible, and both intellectually and emotionally engaging, The Sacred Chain provides clarity in our uncertain times, revealing a bigger picture of our world and our place within it. It is a panorama consistent with the scientific findings about who we are and where we come from that can actually bolster our faith as it engages our curiosity about ourselves, our universe, and the nature of existence itself.The Sacred Chain is illustrated with 30 black-and-white line drawings.

Saving Gaia dives into the insights developed over eighty-four years by Gilbert J. Borsa on a wide range of topics, from the creation of our universe, our planet and its species, democratic and non-democratic governments, the economy, taxation, education, war, and even married life. It gives advice to desperate young people on how to climb out of the depths of hell. It describes the existence of the human soul and the moral code embedded in the human brain which governs our actions and creates our sense of self-worth. It encourages organized religious institutions to enhance their moral codes to include behaviours we individually and collectively need to, as the title implies, save our planet, Gaia.

Science and religion have always been at each other’s throats, right?Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half-truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century and remain widespread today. The true history of science and religion is a human one. It’s about the role of religion in inspiring, and strangling, science before the scientific revolution. It’s about the sincere but eccentric faith and the quiet, creeping doubts of the most brilliant scientists in history – Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Darwin, Maxwell, Einstein. Above all it’s about the question of what it means to be human and who gets to say – a question that is more urgent in the twenty-first century than ever before. From eighth-century Baghdad to the frontiers of AI today, via medieval Europe, nineteenth-century India and Soviet Russia, Magisteria sheds new light on this complex historical landscape. Rejecting the thesis that science and religion are inevitably at war, Nicholas Spencer illuminates a compelling and troubled relationship that has definitively shaped human history.

This book explains clearly and comprehensively why conventional science and the Bible conflict over the origin of the universe and life on planet Earth. Applying universally accepted laws of science to the creation of the universe, and Darwin's four requirements for new species to develop, Arnold V Page shows that the Bible's teaching on these subjects is true, and how scentific facts support it. The book also covers the historical evidence for Jesus Christ's resurrection, and it includes fascinating accounts of events in the author's life which have convinced him that the God of the Bible is real.With full Bible references and footnoted references to all the cited literature, God, Science and the Bible provides a valuable resource for Christian ministers, teachers, and the ordinary lay person who wants to know whether to believe in the Big Bang theory, the Theory of Evolution, or the Holy Bible, and why it is so important to get it right.Arnold V Page has been an ordained Christian minister for twenty-five years, and a structural research engineer for a further twenty-one years, retiring as senior engineer for TRADA Technology Ltd. He is a professional member of the Institute of Wood Science, and of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Anchored in God! The Light of Hope Within this book, we will explore unique gifts, both natural and spiritual, and how they determine where we fit in the Body of Christ. We will also master the aspects of our unique personality and look at behavior analysis from a biblical perspective. We will take a hard look at the character flaws and sins in our lives that are potentially blocking the effective use of our God-given gifts. I am going to be transparent about my personal struggle with faith and overcoming my addiction to pornography.How?I will primarily address identifying our spiritual gifts and purpose, and the steps of growing in spiritual maturity to Magnify God. However, I also address the areas that might be blocking us from using our gifts -struggles with relationships or parenting or even worse addictions like pornography-because until we are released from these strongholds, we cannot use our gifts effectively! We must learn to release to receive I designed this book to:Learn how to raise children in a Christ-centered way.Learn Biblical Behavior TechniquesLearn about distinct personalities and how each type can affect our daily interactions with others. Learn about how pornography is invading the church and the need for spiritual intervention and spiritual warfare.When we combine behavioral, spiritual, and each person's unique personality; we are better able to engage in positive interactions and with less confrontation. We will be able to ultimately live a true Christ-centered life and serve God in the way in which He created us.

What were the world's ancestral stories before they became viewed as fiction and fable? What was the Bible before it became a book about God? And if the Bible was not about God, what was it our ancestors wanted us to know?The Eden Conspiracy reveals evidence of ancient ET contact in the Bible's deep past, along with forgotten secrets about human progress, political power, emotional intelligence and human potential. This book will take you around the world from Australia to Brazil, Guatemala, Ghana, Kenya, Italy, Scotland, England, Israel, Palestine, and ancient Sumeria. The Eden Conspiracy visits archeological sites in the Levant which hold clues of ancient experiences of close encounters, and sits at the feet of world-class scholars and senior figures in military intelligence, whose privileged information concerns the hidden layers of covert government in the deep past and in the present day.The Eden Conspiracy reveals how we can recover our ancestors' wisdom and build a better future. It lifts the lid on why this layer of information was edited and translated out of the Bible? Who made these changes, how, when, and with what agenda? And what does any of this have to do with ETs?

Mit der Geschichte des Rechts der Shar¿¿a von Fikret Kar¿i¿ liegt eine erste innerislamische Gesamtdarstellung der islamischen Rechtsgeschichte in deutscher Sprache vor. Nach einer methodologischen Einführung und einem Überblick über das Recht der vorislamischen Araber schließt sich eine Geschichte des Rechts der Shar¿¿a an, die durch einen Abriss der islamischen Rechtsgeschichte auf dem Westbalkan ergänzt wird. In jedem Kapitel wird zunächst der geschichtliche und gesellschaftliche Rahmen umrissen, an dessen Darstellung sich Abschnitte zu den Rechtsquellen sowie zu Rechtswissenschaft und Rechtspraxis anschließen.

David O. Brown demonstrates how it is possible to embrace deism, without that leading to those problems deism presents to the Christian, namely, the denial of providence, and rejection of the incarnation.

"Since the beginning of time, humankind has looked upon nature and seen the divine. In the writings of the great thinkers across religions, the natural world inspires everything from fear, to awe, to tranquil contemplation; God, or however one defined the sublime, was present in everything. Yet today, even as we admire a tree or take in a striking landscape, we rarely see nature as sacred. In this short but deeply powerful book, the best-selling historian of religion Karen Armstrong re-sacralizes nature for modern times. Drawing on her vast knowledge of the world's religious traditions, she vividly describes nature's central place in spirituality across the centuries. In bringing this age-old wisdom to life, Armstrong shows modern readers how to rediscover nature's potency and form a connection to something greater than ourselves." --Publisher's website.

All women and men of faith, whether they realize it or not, exist inside a paradox. Each night they pray to a God who they know to be in control of all things and perfectly good. It would not be unreasonable to fall asleep with the hope the night would bring no further blight upon His creation. Yet each morning they wake to find evil's scars anew. Once again, the paradox of pain has reared its ugly head. Is there a way to bring understanding to this paradox? Join the author and travel the only route possible. Traversing as through a maze, we will confront eight seemingly unsolvable quandaries that suffering presents. The path these problems force us upon will become our guide to uncovering God's purpose in allowing pain. And when we emerge from the maze, God's goodness will be fully vindicated as well as His wisdom in directing us to the sure refuge of faith when suffering becomes our portion. The author has spent the last 40 plus years in the medical field working as an intern, medical resident and then private practice as an internist. Paralleling this career has been a longstanding interest in the problem of suffering which was sparked by reading When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold Kushner. Being neither a philosopher or theologian has allowed the author to discover certain truths previously unrecognized. He presently resides in New York City with his wife, daughter, a Himalayan and two new knees.

The Scribes of Sleep analyzes the dream journals of seven remarkable people - Aelius Aristides, Myoe Shonin, Lucrecia de León, Emanuel Swedenborg, Benjamin Banneker, Anna Bonus Kingsford, and Wolfgang Pauli - and employs an interdisciplinary approach to shed light on their meanings, drawing on data science, depth psychology, and religious studies.

Herman Bavinck, the prominent, Dutch Neo-Calvinist theologian wrote The Christian Philosophy of Science in 1904, at the pinnacle of his career. However, the emphasis of this work sets it apart from Bavinck's other writings. Even though Bavinck is best known as a systematic theologian, he wrote this work to contribute to a comprehensive Christian philosophy. A century ago, in the Netherlands, a renewed desire to participate in scientific research in accordance with Christian principles inspired Bavinck's work on the philosophy of science. At the time, many Christian scientists and researchers were disillusioned with the methodological positivism that dominated science for much of the nineteenth century. Thus, Bavinck was ahead of his time, having written this work approximately 60 years before positivism was largely abandoned in Western academic studies. According to Bavinck, all scientific research must assume the presence of a logical order within, and consistently acting upon, Creation. This can only be the handiwork of a Sovereign Creator. He describes science as the understanding of the divine mind in various divine works. Therefore, authentic science should always lead to a further understanding and respect for God. He also argues that, given the reality of human nature, the Christian philosophy of science is essential for scientific research. People are corrupt and prone to distorting the truth for their own benefit, therefore only through the self-evaluation mandated by the gospel of Jesus Christ can we truly be scientific truth-seekers. True science, according to Bavinck, is Christocentric, as all scientific inquiry is centered on Jesus Christ. There has never been a greater need for a thorough Christian Philosophy of Science to engage in modern scientific challenges. While much work remains in this area, it is hoped that this translation of Bavinck's most complete work on the subject might help steer future efforts in a positive direction.

That the world is undergoing tremendous change there can be no doubt. Just take a look at the long list below: Aerospace industry, air conditioner, aircraft carrier, artificial intelligence (AI), astronaut, Big Bang theory, biometric details, bionic limbs, bullet train, carbon trading, CCTV, cinematography, cloning, crypto-currency, Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Digital Age, drones, DVD, DNA profiling, eBook, electronic microscope, email, eye surgery, face recognition technology, fax machine, fluorescent lamp, flying car prototype, FM radio, gender parity index, genetic engineering, helicopter, hologram video call, Human Genome Project, hypersonic missile, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), infrared photography, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, International Criminal Court, International Monetary Fund (IMF), internet search engine, Interpol, jet airliner, laser beam, lunar landing, Mars rover lander, messaging app, microchip, microwave oven, Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), nanotechnology, neon lights, night vision goggles, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Olympic Games, online shopping, orbiting space station, organ transplant, particle accelerator, plastic surgery, podcast, planned settlement of men on Mars, radio telescope, refrigerator, remote control, robotics, satellite communication, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), smartphone, social media, radar-evading stealth bomber, submarine, supercomputer, surrogacy, 3D printing, Taser, television, test tube babies, Theory of Relativity, thermal imaging camera, thermonuclear bomb, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, unmanned space explorer, video conference, video streaming service, vlogging, weapons of mass destruction, Wi-Fi, Women's World Cup, World Bank, World Health Organization, World Heritage sites, World Trade Organization, World War, World Wide Web, X-ray.What do the items have in common? One obvious commonality is that they have all come to exist since the mid-19th century. In spite of all the amazing prophecies to be found in the Bible concerning the Last Day, a question that needs asking, though, is how come these very extraordinary inventions, processes and developments (extraordinary by the standards of pre-modern times, no doubt) have no mention whatsoever in these prophecies, while mundane, every-day scourges like wars, earthquakes, famine, and diseases are prominently foreshadowed?Beyond that, what is the impulse behind these phenomenal technologies, events, and developments? What is the source of man's newfound energy, creativity, this unbridled burst of knowledge? Do these items presage the "end" of time (as long foreshadowed in scripture) or they rather signalize the "beginning" of a new day - an era of unprecedented change and renewal characterized by the explosion of knowledge, an ongoing technological revolution, and an ever-deepening globalizing process?Why is the contemporary world showing unmistakable signs of disintegration and decay while also engaged in a far-reaching integration of new concepts, designs, discoveries, inventions, technologies, organizations, institutions, and endeavours? What is behind man's ability to travel to and from the moon, to easily connect to his kind no matter in which part of the world he lives, while also equipped with the wherewithal to instantly obliterate all life on the planet if he so chooses? Are these and other developments leading us to heaven on earth, or we are rather being driven along a blind alley, on the dreaded Day of Judgment, into the fire of hell?Finally, the list speaks to a remarkable efflorescence, in the past century or two, in the realm of mind and thought; but does it offer the prospect of a revolution in the sphere of religion?It is questions such as these that "The Raging Signs of the Times" attempts to answer.