Louisville Process Theology Network

From the Newspaper

Some perspectives from the LEXINGTON HERALD LEADER  website yesterday. The various arguments presented by the writer and the bloggers follow the conventional wisdom of the subject for the most part.

Faith Goes Beyond Science By Larry Thompson

--------------- At issue | July 24 Los Angeles Times commentary, "We have gods because we needed them; faith in the supernatural is another adaptation to help humans survive"

 

Imagine a world without religion. That's what the writers of a recent commentary ask us to do. Then they point to several radical, negative examples, such as Osama bin Laden, in an attempt to write off all religion. OK, let's imagine life with no religion. Most hospitals, many of the best universities in the world, many charities wouldn't exist. Perhaps even the United States itself. All these institutions and many more were founded in the name of religion, namely Christianity. If this kind of selective thinking is the basis of the so-called scientific research that the authors offer as evidence that man created God, then I put little credibility in their conclusions.

 

There's nothing wrong with their scientific methods and observations. It's the conclusions that are wrong, because they filter their results through the assumptions of the theory of evolution. For example, some of their research found that humans have an innate need for attachment and for protectors. Since the writers begin with the assumption of evolution, they interpret this as evidence that humans created "super parents" ” gods ” to help them cope.

 

But if you begin with an assumption that the Bible is true, the same experiments would support the scriptures' truth that man was created in the image of God. God wants fellowship. That's why he created us. He wired us with the need to live in community and in families. And He built into each one of us a God-shaped vacuum that only He can fill. Take another one of their findings: that even infants have a built-in sense of morality, an "evolved" trait, they assume. Yet the Bible tells us in Romans and other places that God built into each of us a sense of right and wrong ” a conscience ” that points us to God.

 

It's one of the ways he has revealed Himself to us. There's nothing wrong with their empirical evidence. It's their interpretation that's wrong. They come to erroneous conclusions because their presuppositions come from their authority: the unproven theory of evolution. Christians come to different conclusions because our presuppositions come from our authority: God's word. Even their overarching proposition fails to pass the logic test. On one hand, they say faith is a bad thing for the human race. On the other hand, they argue: Evolved traits make creatures more fit to survive.

 

Faith evolved. So the only logical conclusion is that faith is something that makes us more fit, a good thing for humans. It's beyond the scope of this column to debate the shortcomings of the theory of evolution, but my point is that all science, properly interpreted, supports God's word. There are limits to what knowledge can be obtained and proved using reason and empirical evidence. History can't be proved this way. And supernatural truth cannot be proved this way. Therefore, the man who says he will believe only what passes the judgment bar of human reason and empirical science is selling himself short.

 

There is much more to God's universe than that. Of course, I could rehearse all the classic philosophical arguments for the existence of God ” the cosmological argument that says there must be a first cause: God. Evolution and science don't explain the existence of matter. Faith in God does. There's the teleological argument: The world is highly complex and organized. Take the human eyeball, for example. Like a fine watch, something that intricate argues for a designer, not something that fell together in time as the result of a series of birth defects and mutations.

 

Again, there's not space to go through all the arguments for God. And there's really little point. God has revealed Himself clearly to us through the Bible, through creation, through our conscience, through history and supremely through his son, Jesus Christ. In fact, no man can, with intellectual integrity, truly claim to be an absolute atheist. What man would claim to possess 100 percent of all possible knowledge? You would still have to admit that God might exist in the portion of knowledge you do not have. Therefore, there are no true atheists, only agnostics, who can truthfully only say, "I'm not sure if God exists." If you're not sure, then you should look in places in which reason and empirical evidence do not shed light. That is faith. Science has limits.

 

 -------Larry Thompson of Lexington is an ordained Baptist minister and ad agency owner who has taught Christian apologetics classes.

 

Comments Posted:

 

First comment  · This is article is so wrong at so many levels, that I don't know where to start.

 

(1) Faith is not the revealed word of God. Faith is just the misinterpretations of our intuitions. Some intuitions are right, most of the time, they're wrong. That's why we say: if faith is right about something, is by coincidence. Faith is the worst truth-seeking method ever devised and as such it doesn't work. Just try to find out the content of a blind box by using faith alone. If you use faith to believe in X, you find yourself believing in X, but that doesn't make X real.

 

The Bible might be right about some facts, but it's wrong about most of them. Bats are not birds, the Earth isn't flat and isn't the center of the universe. And it's definitely not 6000 years old, among some things. Science is the best and most reliable method mankind has to understand the universe we inhabit. Might make some mistakes once in a while, but science it's a self-correcting discipline that is intellectually honest after the truth. So still very reliable. And it works. Its results can be predicted, reproduced and proven true again and again by detached groups of scientists.

 

(2) Evolution is not an assumption. It's scientific theory and as such, is considered a proven fact. There's as much debate about whether evolution is true or not as there is about whether the Earth revolves around the Sun.

 

(3) Faith evolved? Maybe. Does that make us fit? Wrong question. The common cold also evolved and is evolving. Does it serve any purpose? No. Faith is itself an independent entity that evolved to efficiently pirate cognitive architecture in our brains and exploit our cognitive systems to perpetuate itself. Faith co-evolved with us in some sort of symbiosis. Does it make us fitter? Some times it does, most of the time it doesn't. But faith isn't there for our wellbeing, but for its own wellbeing and because it can. But it's still a mind virus that takes over our brains without our consent.

 

(4) God is not a explanation to anything. Just the door to another infinite number of questions. Science doesn't come up with fables as answers, and they say "I don't know" when they don't know. This is known as the argument from one's incredulity: I don't know how X came about naturally, therefore X came about supernaturally. End of story. Or the "goddidit" argument.

 

(5) An atheist, is not someone who explicitly or positively claims there are no gods, but someone who lacks the belief in any gods because of the absence of solid evidence. So anybody can actually claim they are an atheist.

 

Second Comment

 

America was not founded in the name of Christianity. Actually, a world without religion would still have these. People would organize charities, universities, hospitals, etc. without religion. There are atheist charities and secular hospitals and universities. This is a variation of the "no morals without god" argumentum ad nauseum. Basically, a world/history full of godless, immoral heathens that live in a dog-eat-dog society would not try to help each other out. It's only love of god that drives us to help others. *Groan* Now let's flip the coin. Without religion the crusades, jihads, inquisition, slave trade, witch hunts, sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. would not exist. All of these examples were done in the name of religion WITH "holy scriptures" to back them up!

 

Third Comment There is no God. Show me the evidence. And not some antiquated book...

 

Fourth comment

 

 I believe in God. This issue is not God or Science the issue is Religion. God as Larry Thompson says speaks to each of us giving us an innate sense of right and wrong. God is the common ground of all religions. Religions are man'D perversion of God's will. Religions call for death to infidels, tell us of a God who kills first born to punish Pharos, and destroys whole cities to teach a few a lesson. Religion also tells us that God punishes the sons for the sins of the father.

 

Once again religion is man's perversion of God's will. God speaks to us and all of the religions have the same message that he puts in us naturally. Love life, love and do for others, be happy despite the pain and suffering you will endure. I pray to see an end to man's religions one day and to see God's will rule.

 

Fifth comment

 

You cannot argue with a fanatic about their one true religion. "It's beyond the scope of this column to debate the shortcomings of the theory of evolution, but my point is that all science, properly interpreted, supports God's word." That is the biggest bunch of crap laid out in a sentence this year. Faith and fact are different. I will die to support your freedom to practice whatever religion you choose but please understand I will also die fighting to keep YOUR religion out of my government. I don't even want to see your cults pompous blathering in my newspaper either. Put them in your bulletin.