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What the Church Has Done

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... Chinese are famous for their scientific accomplishments; paper, calendar, ... affirm that it was the Christian worldview that gave birth to modern science. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: What the Church Has Done


1
What the Church Has Done
  • How the Church Has Affected Bioethics and
    Biotechnology

2
Objectives
  • Look at cultural worldviews and their effect on
    the progress of science
  • Carry this idea to the field of bioethics
  • Application What can the Church do now?

3
Problems with the Past
  • Attempts at Science in the Past have failed not
    because of poor data or methodology but because
    of an inadequate worldview.
  • See the ID blog for Johns Presentation from
    Intelligent Design Class

4
Origins of Modern Science
  • The modern caricature of science states that
    Christianity is its enemy.
  • In truth, Christianity and science are tied
    together, both historically and philosophically.
  • The Christian worldview was the foundation upon
    which men first began to see and understand
    themselves and their world scientifically.

5
The Roots of Modern ScienceCultures
  • The Ancient Chinese
  • The Ancient Greeks
  • Islam
  • Medieval Christianity

6
The Ancient Chinese
  • The Chinese are famous for their scientific
    accomplishments paper, calendar, printing press,
    gunpowder and the compass.
  • But scientific progress halted until Western
    influence flourished.

7
The Ancient Chinese
  • The Chinese pantheistic worldview saw the world
    as a vast unknowable enigma to be worshipped but
    not understood.
  • Mathematicians, surveyors, physicians, and
    magicians were charlatans. The sages did not
    regard them as educated.
  • Science could not flourish in ancient China,
    because to its people, nature was unknowable.
  • The progress of science is dependent upon its
    faith in the knowability of reality.

8
The Ancient Greeks
  • Emphasis on reason.
  • Example Socrates
  • Geometry and astronomy
  • Plato believed that the physical world is real
    and knowable to a degree, but to Plato it was not
    worth knowing compared to the world of ideas.

9
The Ancient Greeks
  • If science is to flourish people must not only
    see the universe as knowable, they must see it as
    worth knowing.
  • Aristarchus (300 BC)
  • Heliocentric model
  • Copernicus adopted (1540)
  • Accepted when Newtons model of gravitation was
    accepted (1670)

10
Islam
  • Early Islamic cultures made significant
    contributions in algebra, trigonometry, and
    astronomy.
  • Islam teaches that Allah determines everything
    that occurs, everything from the natural events
    of our world to the thoughts in our heads.
  • Islamic fatalism renders mans dominion
    meaningless. Within such a worldview human
    freedom and significance disappear.

Allah will send the rain when Allah wills. Who
am I to try and thwart the will of Allah.
11
Medieval Christianity
  • Christianity during the Middle Ages hindered the
    development of modern science
  • Influence of Greek thought
  • Distortion of Pauls teaching on spirituality and
    carnality.
  • "Spiritual" activities came to be equated with
    religious activities, such as serving the church
    or going to mass. Activities like science that
    brought one into contact with the physical world
    were by definition unspiritual and of less value.

12
Modern Science
  • The beginnings of modern science are found within
    the period of 1550-1700.
  • Examples
  • Andrea Vesalius Father of modern anatomy
    (1514-1564)
  • William Harvey Blood circulation (1578-1657)
  • Descartes (1596-1650)
  • Newtons The Mathematical Principles of Natural
    Philosophy in 1687 marked a turning point in
    scientific pursuits.
  • This most beautiful system of sun, planets, and
    comets could only proceed from the counsel
    dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.

13
Modern Science
  • Scholars affirm that it was the Christian
    worldview that gave birth to modern science.
  • Specifically the views of God, man and nature
    from the Reformation and Renaissance made modern
    science possible.
  • The Earth is Real, Knowable and Worth Knowing
  • Orderly
  • Man made in the image of God

14
The Birth of BioethicsBook by Albert R. Jonsen
  • Roman Catholic Contributions
  • Writing about medical ethics since 15th century
  • Medical issues what the doctor is and is not
    permitted to do
  • Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) Addressed specific
    issues
  • Distinguishing between ordinary and
    extraordinary medical intervention first
    appeared in 16th century writings
  • Dialog between Catholic and Protestant in 1960s

15
The Birth of BioethicsBook by Albert R. Jonsen
  • The Catholic and the Protestant traditions
    entered the era of bioethics with a rich heritage
    of theoretical reflection and practical
    admonition about the moral life. Both traditions
    brought an indelible conviction that all humans
    are uniquely valued by their Creator and
    Redeemer, that each person is responsible for his
    or her life and choices, and that human choices
    can be designated as right and wrong, according
    to certain norms (41).

16
The Birth of BioethicsBook by Albert R. Jonsen
  • Paul Ramsey (1913 1988)
  • Ramsey was the first ethicist to enter the debate
    on genetic engineering, challenging Hermann
    Muller about positive eugenics and sperm banking.
    He also challenged Joshua Lederberg on the issue
    of human cloning.
  • When human cloning again leapt into the
    headlines in the 1990s, the debate echoed
    Ramseys thoughts of almost 30 years before.
    Until Ramsey turned his attention to the genetic
    debate, no theologian or philosopher had
    carefully examined its moral premises. After he
    did so, many theologians began to attend to
    questions on genetics, realizing that these
    questions on genetics, as scientifically daunting
    as they were, touched the essence of the human
    condition. (49)

17
The Birth of BioethicsBook by Albert R. Jonsen
  • Under the covenant of faithful love God offers
    to humankind, human individuals are a sacredness
    in bodily lifeThe sanctity of human life
    prevents ultimate trespass upon him even for the
    sake of treating his bodily life, or for the sake
    of others who are also only a sacredness in their
    bodily lives. Ramsey makes clear that for him
    as a Christian ethicist, the good of the
    individual ought never be dominated by the good
    of society. (50)
  • Paul Ramsey, even though he admired the humanity
    of physicians and scientists, worried always that
    what can be done will be done, often leading to
    transgressions of the sanctity of the individual
    created and redeemed by God (55).

18
Conclusion
  • Theologians have engaged in the debate since the
    beginning of bioethics.
  • Theologians, in contrast to philosophers, speak
    about morality not in the abstract, but within
    particular communities seeking the right way to
    live.
  • As we saw from Ramsey, it is the Christian
    worldview (sanctity of human life) that ignited
    the debate and helped bioethicists to define
    their terms and hold scientists accountable.

19
Christians in Bioethics
  • Many other people to consider (Francis Schaeffer,
    C. Everett Koop, Leon R. Kass, etc.).
  • PCA Position Paper on Heroic Measures (1988)
  • www.pcahistory.org/pca/2-378.html
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