Episode 8. Continuing with our general categories in theology, atheism features the Greek letter Alpha as a prefix. In doing so, it negates the term theism. Therefore, atheism is the belief that God does not exist. It's very important to note that it is a belief. Atheism cannot be proven scientifically. It is a belief no different than the beliefs held by religious people. The best example today of an atheist is Richard Dawkins. In quote 1 he writes, "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless, indifference." This quote perfectly summarizes the belief of atheism. It's worth noting that the key words, nothing but, are often used by atheists. For them, the world is the result of nothing but blind, natural processes. Our last general theological category is agnosticism. It comes from the Greek noun gnosis, which means knowledge and it also has the Greek letter Alpha as a prefix that negates the term. Therefore, agnosticism is the belief that there is no knowledge regarding the existence or non-existence of God. An example of an agnostic is Charles Darwin late in life. Let's now consider Christianity and introduce some general categories. We could write many blocks trying to define the term Christianity. But for our purposes, I will introduce two different approaches. The first is to define Christianity using history, and the second is to use creeds, which are major statements regarding the central beliefs of Christians. One way to define Christianity is to consider the history of the church. Please turn to page 1 in your class handouts. There are three main branches or divisions within Christianity. Roman Catholicism appearing 325, Eastern Orthodoxy in 1050, and Protestantism in 1517. When it comes to the designation of the dates that is totally up to you. CE refers to the current era and BCE, before the current era. Christians tend to use BC, which means Before Christ. AD is the Latin Anno Domini, which translated is in the year of our Lord. Another way to define Christianity is through creeds. One of the most important creeds that is accepted by all three branches of Christianity is the Apostles' Creed, which was formulated around 150 AD/CE. This Creed appears in quote 2, and notice how it begins with the words, I believe. So this is a statement of belief. To begin, "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth." Continuing, "I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, He who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary." In other words, Jesus' conception and birth was a miracle because his mother Mary was a virgin. "He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." Pontius Pilate was indeed a real person in the first century. He was a Roman governor over Judea between 26 and 36 CE or AD. Continuing, "Jesus descended to the dead and on the third day, he rose again." In other words, Jesus through a miracle, came back to life after dying on the cross. "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead." The Apostles' Creed closes, "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting." Now, you might be asking the question, "Do you need to believe this in order to be successful in this course?" Absolutely not. Students who don't believe this Creed do extremely well. But this is information you need to know in order to understand the relationship between science and religion. Just one comment regarding the Apostles' Creed. You will notice that it mentions the Father, the Son, that is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Christians term this the Holy Trinity in that they believe that there is one God in three persons. End of episode.