The beginning of all things: science and religion

Let there be light!

I. unified theory of everything?

1. riddle of reality

2. physical description of the beginning

3. What holds the world together in its innermost being?

4. dispute about the foundations of mathematics

5. inadequacies of positivism

6. questionability of reality

7. Science and theology : different perspectives

II. God as beginning?

1. question of the beginning of beginnings

2. Science blocked by the critique of religion?

3. Where do the constants in nature come from?

4. Reactions to the cosmic fine-tuning

5. Why isn't there nothing?

III. Creation of the world or evolution?

1. beginning as the beginning of a becoming

2. Theological defense

3. Evolution with or without God?

4. How are we to think of God?

5. Bible and creation

6. testimony of faith to the ultimate origin

IV. Life in the cosmos?

1. How long has there been life?

2. How did life arise?

3. Chance or necessity?

4. Why a universe that is friendly to life?

5. Miracle

6. How are we to think of God's activity?

V. beginning of humankind

1. physical development of human beings

2. psychological development of human beings

3. Brain and mind

4. limits of brain research

5. beginnings of the human ethic

Epilogue : the end of all things.