Vomiting bug

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 398.

During the centuries that separated Newton and Darwin, many of the greatest minds saw science piling up evidence for the existence of God. Such treatises celebrated the power and goodness of God as revealed through everything from the hive-making instincts of bees and the beauty of orchids, to the engineering marvels of the human hand and eye.

Today, supporters of the Intelligent Design movement find evidence of the power and goodness of God in the rotating tail or "flagellum" of the E. coli bacterium.

For some it is a surprise, perhaps, to learn that the clearest sign of God's intelligence is to be found in a nasty vomiting bug.

Traditional religious beliefs have undoubtedly come under pressure from science over the past 400 years. The findings of modern astronomy, geology, and biology have all made it quite clear that the books of Moses, if read as scientific texts, are complete failures.

But, of course, they need not be read that way. Galileo voiced a widely-held view when he said that the Bible told you how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.

Science and religion have had the kind of close and troubled relationship you would expect between siblings or even spouses. They share not only wonder at the majesty of the world we can see, but also a desire to find out what's behind it that we can't.

That emotional and intellectual hunger will endure longer than Professor Hawking's M-theory, and those wishing to take a truly scientific attitude may be better advised to follow the lead of the great Victorian agnostic Thomas Huxley who, in one of the last things that he wrote before he died asked "Is it not better to keep silence about matters which speech is incompetent to express; to be content with revolving in the deeps of the mind the infinite possibilities of the unknown?"

Dr Thomas Dixon is author of Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction and is senior lecturer in History at Queen Mary, University of London.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11380916

True or false

1. Professor Stephen Hawking's declares that supernatural spark set the cosmic fireworks of the Big Bang off.

2. Common sense, science, and the Church all used to support the view that the Earth was stationary at the centre of the cosmos.

3. In Oxford in 1860, less than a year after the publication of On The Origin of Species there was a famous spat between the Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and the biologist Charles Darwin.

4. Newton was very skilled in mechanics and geometry and proclaimed himself a God.

5. The Bible shouldn't be read as a scientific text.

6. The article credits religion with the same factual credibility as science by saying they are siblings.

Vocabulary

Set expressions

How do you understand the following expressions from the article: rub along, have a foot in both camps, be locked in a battle, rocky moments, seethe funny side, white with rage

1. A new book by American political journalist Richard Wolffe claims that the Obamas' marriage went through ­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________ as Barack began his first bid to become a politician on the national stage.

2. Mr. Smith ______________ in the parent-teacher dispute. He teaches math, but he has a son at the school.

3. She was so deeply enraged that ________________ she rose from her chair and left the room.

4. The workers seem to be _______________ with the new director.

5. This particular use of (or lack of ) manners may be frowned upon by older generations or the elderly, however, some may _______________ to it

6. This was not a friendly gentlemen's discussion, rather they _________________.

Phrasal verbs

1. Find the following words in the text: set off, blow out, pile up. What kind of verbs are they? What do they mean?

2. Complete with one of these phrasal verbs: go off, put off, see off, take off, turn off. (http://www.english-area.com/paginas/phrasalE1.pdf)

1. Let´s go to the airport to ………. them ……….

2. The plane doesn´t ………. till 5 o´clock.

3. He was sleeping soundly when the alarm clock ……….

4. The meeting has been ………. till next month.

5. Don´t forget to ………. all the lights when you leave

3. Complete with: give up, hang up, look up, wake up, wash up.

1. The kind of housework I hate most is ……….

2. If he rings back, just ……….

3. I didn´t know that word, so I ………. it ………. in a dictionary.

4. Don´t ……….. You can do it if you try hard.

5. When I ………. in the middle of the night, I had some temperature.

4. Complete the first part of the phrasal verbs. Use each verb only once: make out, drop out, get out, clear out, turn out. (http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/phrasal-verbs/exercises?13)

1. Last weekend we cleared out the shed in our garden.

2. His unbelievable story turned out to be true.

3. When Simon was little, he used to sing in a choir. But after his voice change, he dropped out.

4. I'm afraid the situation is getting out of hand.

5. I saw a shadow, but I couldn't make out what it was.

Give a definition for “religion”.

Fill the gaps with the following words. Use each word once only.