"In the beginning was an explosion in the cosmos, followed by evolution and natural selection, followed by the survival and extinction of certain races”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made”
I was an atheist for about five minutes when I was younger. I then realised that I believed in the non existence of God because some really "cool" people around me held these beliefs, not because I had ever truly thought through whether this way of looking at things made any sense or whether another viewpoint might be more logical and explain more of the world or my experiences. Among other things, it left out experiences that I knew to be real; ignored the power of spirituality; and failed to explain the limits of what my human mind was capable of grasping.
Years later, after becoming a Christian, I held an interesting conversation with a Russian atheist colleague on the subject of science and religion. We got along well as colleagues, don’t get me wrong, but when I told her I was a Christian, she looked at me as if I believed that it is the stork that brings babies. I asked her how it is possible for dead matter to suddenly become dynamic organisms. “It’s not possible”, she replied “but no new evidence suggests otherwise so that’s what we believe” “The existence of God cannot be proven either”, she added, and so the conversation kept going around in circles.
I was talking ‘religion’, and she was talking ‘science’.
Any questioning was seen as negative argument and would not be accepted by her unless new evidence proved otherwise. It was like a criminal defendant not allowed to present an alibi unless he or she could also prove who committed the crime.
Darwinist literature is full of anti-theistic ideas such as that the universe has no intelligent creator and that human beings are the product of a blind natural process. Richard Dawkins, an Oxford Zoologist, is very explicit about the religious side of Darwinism. His 1986 book “The blind Watchmaker” is at one level about biology, but at a more fundamental level it is an argument for atheism. In it he writes “Darwin made it intellectually possible to be a fulfilled atheist (...) it is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane”.
Charles Darwin published his first major literary work in 1859 called “On the origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle of life”. Now more than 150 years later its contents are being taught in schools and is still widely controversial. Darwin was also described as “the man who killed God”. His theory suggests that all living species are the result of an explosion in the cosmos, followed by evolution and natural selection, which in turn determined the survival and extinction of certain races. For example, if a small population of birds happen to migrate to an island the inbreeding might cause this population to develop different characteristics than those left behind on the mainland.
Do we really know for certain that there exists some natural process by which human beings and all other beings could have evolved from microbial ancestors or from non living matter? Science seems to be understood in two ways. As a discipline based on observable data, and as a naturalistic philosophy that attempts to explain the reason for our existence.
I think the problem lies in this polarised perception. The idea of an intelligent creator suggests supernatural and religious subject matter, typically the point at which Darwinists lose interest. Christianity is perceived as sentimental because no one can see and measure God, and if it cannot be measured then it doesn’t exist. Yet, our conscience exists even though we cannot see it. The scientist Gould argued “Darwin himself exclaimed that science could not touch the problem of evil and similar conundrums. He himself stated, a dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can”.
Why does it matter? It matters because our beliefs determine our outlook toward our world, ourselves, other people and God. I am writing as one participating in the debate, sorting out of bits of knowledge, ideas, and while I am quite certain of what I believe in, I am also open to learning from others of varying beliefs. I believe that the complexity of our planet points to an intelligent designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it right now. I'm no scientist, but I think it takes a lot of faith to believe that 'something' can come from 'nothing'. The universe has not always existed. It had a beginning...and something must have caused that beginning. Think about it.
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