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One of the distinguishing features of humans is our amazing curiosity. We have a need to understand the world we inhabit; at about three years of age children begin to ask questions why? and how? As a species we never lose this curiosity and when our basic needs for food and shelter are met we expand our energies thinking about and exploring the universe. The really big questions have always intrigued us. We want to know where and how the universe originated, what it is made of, how it all works and, most importantly, what is the place of humanity in the overall scheme of things. In the western tradition, the biblical account of creation was the generally accepted orthodoxy until the enlightenment. Of course there are still seemingly intelligent people who argue on behalf of its truth but we won’t concern ourselves with them today. The Bible account of creation is remarkably similar to other accounts of creation. Most accounts of creation have in common the theme that God created the world by establishing order out of seeming chaos. In all religious traditions humans are accorded a different status than all other living creatures. In Western belief systems humans alone are destined to survive physical death in some form or other to have a judgement made of how they lived their lives and to be rewarded or punished in accordance with the judgment. In eastern traditions human life is accorded a unique status - enlightenment can only be achieved in the course of a human life. Great thinkers of all ages have proposed explanations about the nature and origin of the earth and the heavens. Many of these explanations have survived: Aristotle, Ptolemy, Galileo, Copernicus etc. With the benefit of hindsight we can see the flaws in these theories, but at their time they did offer a reasonable and acceptable description of the world and the place of humans in it. Despite the differences in scientific theories, until relatively recently, few if any ordinary people questioned the actual existence of God – whether the Universe had the earth or the sun at its centre was a matter to be questioned; whether the earth and the heavens were of similar materials could be questioned- but that God instigated and oversaw the Universe was not seriously questioned; certainly not by the ordinary citizen. Philosophers and writers made many attempts to provide proof of the existence of God. Some of these arguments used to prove the existence of God fall into the category called “Argument from Design”. Humans looking at the universe are called to wonder at its physical beauty; they are amazed at its complexity, and stunned by the beauty of a starlit night. With the development of the telescope and the microscope the world was shown to be more complex and varied than previously appreciated. Science showed that instead of the heavenly bodies being fixed, some of them moved. The microscope showed the existence of an infinity of minute living creatures. Simply looking at the world calls us to wonder; and science in the enlightenment told us that our world was in fact more amazing than humans had thought. One writer who supported the idea that the existence of God could be proved by the argument from Design was William Paley. In 1802 he published his book “Natural Theology” which would have been required reading for Charles Darwin when he was a student of Theology at Cambridge. In his book Paley uses a watch as an analogy to argue for the existence of God as the creator or designer of the Universe. Readers are invited to imagine finding a watch; in 1802 the watch would be mechanical; all the parts of the watch must fit together with precision and to work together in order to fulfil its function of telling the time. For Paley is it inconceivable that something as complicated as a watch could accidently fit its parts together and then begin to work correctly. The watch must have had a designer, this designer would need a mind of great intelligence and creative imagination to conceive the idea and to bring it to fruition. In comparison with the Universe a watch is a relatively simple mechanism. When we consider the amazing size, complexity, variety of life forms and beauty of the Universe, we can see that it is infinitely more complex than a watch. So argues Paley the Universe must also have had a designer/creator and this creator must have a mind of infinite intelligence and creativity; and a creator with such extraordinary power is indeed God. William Paley’s argument for the existence of God is intuitive, simple and appealing. The natural world does seem to provide abundant evidence of a wise and benign designer; many people gaze at the beauty of the earth and are drawn to awe and wonder; for some people the beauty of nature confirms their belief in God . Darwin himself was persuaded by Paley’s argument until he developed his theory of survival by means of natural selection. In his autobiography Darwin wrote: “The old argument from design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered” (Charles Darwin in de Beer (1974), p50) Darwin’s theory was often summed up or dismissed as saying at that “humans are descended from the apes”, but it is much much more subtle than that. It denies one of humanities oldest myths about God. “God” did not need to impose order on a chaotic universe, the reverse is if fact true. Out of the simplest life forms our complex, amazing universe developed. But there can be no doubting the truth of Darwin’s theory; one hundred and fifty years of scientific research and the discovery of DNA confirms the truth of Darwin’s theory, and rather than being the pinnacle of God’s creation we know that humans are also part of this evolutionary process. Modern science confirms Darwin’s theory; human and animal genes are very closely related. So have we lost one of the planks we have used in constructing an argument for the existence of God? Richard Dawkins writing of William Paley is very blunt: A true watchmaker has foresight, he designs his cogs and springs, and plans their interconnections, with a future purpose in his mind’s eyes. Natural selection, the blind unconscious automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation of the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker. What a put down for the gentle Mr Paley!
Scientists have still not provided a convincing theory of how the initial process of life on earth began. How or what caused inanimate objects to come to life and to be able to reproduce? I can accept that something we call “God” provides the explanation. I find no contradiction between Darwin’s theory and the idea that God instigated the process and that it is developing according to God’s design. This explanation is accepted by most Churches. I may find it difficult to let go of the idea of the existence of what we call “God”.
Rev.Bridget Spain
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