Minnesota Public Radio, March 4, 2009
Since I realized I was an atheist, I have welcomed all efforts to persuade me that the God of the Bible exists. Truly there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to arguments in favor of his existence, but the one that forms the basis of such efforts is this: We don't know, so it must have been God.
Much is made of the fact that science does not have an explanation for the existence of the universe, or of the origins of life. So it must have been God.
By this same logic, there must be aliens flying around, since science cannot explain every UFO sighting. Seemingly, it's not acceptable to admit ignorance, one must have an answer, and one must have it right now. By contrast, science admits its ignorance and diligently seeks answers.
Here's one way science and religion can get in sync... Let's all agree that we don't yet know the answers. Let's admit that "God did it" is not an explanation.
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Blogger's Note: Today I heard a snippet of a radio sermon. "If there is no God, then life is without meaning and the existentialists are right," said the preacher. But doesn't that logic (or lack of) just indulging in wishful thinking? The question shouldn't be which way would make life seem more bearable, but if something represents reality or not. Hence this article...
NewScientist - March 2, 2009, by Ewen Callaway
Religion might not be the only reason people buy into creationism and intelligent design, psychological experiments suggest.
No matter what their religious beliefs, college-educated adults frequently agree with purpose-seeking yet false explanations of natural phenomena - finches diversified in order to survive, for instance.
"The very fact of belief in purpose itself might lead you to favour intelligent design," says Deborah Kelemen, a psychologist at Boston University, who led the study
Kelemen has documented the same kind of erroneous thinking - called promiscuous teleology - in young children. Seven and eight-year olds agree with teleological statements such as "Rocks are jagged so animals can scratch themselves" and "Birds exist to make nice music". These mistakes diminish as kids take more science classes and learn causal explanations for natural events.
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Guardian - February 22, 2009, by Colin Blakemore
When I was a medical student at Cambridge in the Sixties, I walked to lectures past the forbidding exterior of the Cavendish Laboratory, as famous for Crick and Watson's unravelling of DNA as for Rutherford's splitting of the atom. One day, scrawled on the wall, was a supreme example of Cambridge graffiti: "CRICK FOR GOD".
The process of Christian accommodation is a bit like the fate of fieldmice confronted by a combine harvester, continuously retreating into the shrinking patch of uncut wheat.
