Loving Wisdom Christian Philosophy of Religion by Paul Copan

Author:Paul Copan [Copan, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Youth, Religion, Education, Christian Ministry, Christian
ISBN: 9780827221659
Publisher: Chalice Press
Published: 2011-10-15T01:54:22+00:00

So remarkable is this "integrated complexity" that former atheist philosopher Antony Flew has come to believe that an intelligent God explains this.34 PhysicistJohn Wheeler summarizes his own thinking: "When I first started studying, I saw the world as composed of particles. Looking more deeply I discovered waves. Now after a lifetime of study, it appears that all existence is the expression of information."35 Even two outspoken atheists admit the world shows every indication of design and purpose, but they add this qualification: it only looks that way. Again, Richard Dawkins says biology is "the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose."36 Francis Crick advises biologists to "constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved."37

Despite Dawkins' claim that Darwin made it possible to be an "intellectually fulfilled atheist,"" we've seen that Darwinism didn't do away with design. Darwin's Origin ofSpecies assumes a Creator got the evolutionary ball rolling: "To my mind, it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes." Again, "There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one.... [F]rom so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."39 If anything, Darwin made design appear less immediate. So let's grant evolution and then ask: "What if God utilized the evolutionary process to bring about his purposes?" In the end, the issue isn't so much "creation vs. evolution" but "God vs. no God." If evolution is true, then it's a great argument for God's existence!

Contrary to Dawkins, the "evolution-did-it-all" blanket explanation for the existence of various animal and plant species is inadequate. It involves huge assumptions. That is, before the evolutionary process can get going, certain crucial conditions must be in place:

a. the universe came into existence (out of nothing)

b. it is precisely tuned for life

c. it actually produces life

d. life continues to be sustained despite harsh conditions.

These items must firstbe in place for evolution to have any chance of success-and they happen to point us in the direction of God.

When it comes to organisms, we readily think of the complex human brain or the human body with all of its remarkable inter-working systems-circulatory, muscular, nervous, digestive, reproductive, respiratory, excretory, skeletal, endocrine, lymphatic. We're not surprised when the psalmist says we're "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps. 139:14).

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