Monday, October 3, 2011

Logical Reason #3: Science is slowly explaining away the likelihood of a creator.

   Recently, I went to a community discussion about religion and science.  The event had a panel made up of a biologist, an anthropologist, and a pastor.  The discussion centered around the theories of Natural Selection and Intelligent Design.  After each member of the panel gave a little speech/lecture, the audience was encouraged to discuss certain questions.  One question was this, "Why do you think Darwin's theory has been so controversial within the religious community?" or something along those lines.  My answer went something like this, "First of all, natural selection goes a long way in explaining away the need to believe in a creator, and believers, understandably, don't like that."  Sure, we don't yet know how the origin of life first happened, but scientific knowledge is constantly expanding, and I'm guessing we'll have a viable scientific answer in my lifetime.  "Secondly, if there was a creator, why set in motion a process that takes billions of years and includes the complete eradication of species.  Why not just create a perfect world with perfect species that don't need to 'evolve'?"  I'm guessing that unless you are a total literal and fundamentalist Bible thumper, you can't argue that species have evolved and continue to do so.  I'm guessing you believe that dinosaurs did exist.  I'm also guessing that you see how the argument for a creator has "evolved" from a literal interpretation of the world being created in a week, to the softened, science-friendly (if only pseudo-science), politically-huggable theory of intelligent design.  Yes, things look designed.  They look designed because over many years nature has selected for the most perfect design within each species.

   If you want to see both sides of the argument, check out this website to see an elaborate argument for Intelligent Design (ID).  Here's another interesting series of articles from National Geographic that gives voice to ID's best arguments against Darwin's theory with a short but convincing counter-argument from evolutionists.  Finally, here's an article that states, plain and simple, that intelligent design, while interesting philosophical debate fodder, is not science and shouldn't be taught in schools because it is wrong.

   Throughout history, and especially recent history, science has slowly explained away god.  People used to think lightning and thunder was the work of the gods.  They used to think that gods moved the planets across the skies.  They used to think a sneeze was our soul trying to exit or a demon trying to enter.  Science has given us logical explanations for these common occurrences.  God is still used to explain many of the gaps in our knowledge.  So, with each scientific advance, isn't god simply getting smaller?
 

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