“For God so loved the world He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John chapter 3 verse 16, The Bible
What Christians Believe
We believe that the Bible gives the answer to three of the most fundamental questions that we ask as human beings -
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* Commentary for readers of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion on the statement made in the article above that the alternative view to a God who created the world is a world that is here by random chance:
Readers of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion will be aware of his argument that “... no of course it didn’t happen by chance ... Natural selection ... is the only workable alternative to chance that has ever been suggested.” (p145 - all references are from the Black Swan paperback edition 2007).
However I would argue that Dawkins continues to make the classic error of failing to distinguish between adaptation within species (a process which I believe God implanted in the creation) and one species transforming into a completely different one (which has never been demonstrated to occur).
It is hard to imagine how, for instance, a wingless creature might acquire wings by a process of gradual change. Dawkins’ argument is - “Half a wing is indeed not as good as a whole wing, but it is certainly better than no wing at all. Half a wing could save your life by easing your fall from a tree of a certain height. And 51 per cent of a wing could save you if you fall from a slightly taller tree.” (p149) However, a creature with a 50 per cent wing would not be able to run from a predator as swiftly as previously, and with a 51 per cent wing its chances of survival would be even lower. How would this be selected on the basis of the survival of the fittest?
Not only are creatures in such intermediate stages still missing from the fossil record but we observe no living species in transformation into a different one at this present time. Dawkins unwittingly admits this when he says “... we are surrounded by perhaps ten million species, each one of which independently displays a powerful illusion of apparent design ... It is clear that here on Earth we are dealing with a generalized process for optimizing biological species ...” (p167) But is it not strange that all ten million of these species are already optimized in their present form, and that not a single one is currently in transformation to a more optimal form? Is it not proof that God created everything perfectly optimized in the first place? I therefore disbelieve that natural selection exists in the form that Dawkins claims for it.
Dawkins claims that natural selection is unique because it - “is the only process ultimately capable of generating complexity out of simplicity.” (p180) But if natural selection is all that he claims for it, then it would not only be unique in generating complexity but it would also be unique in creating information. Seeking a better explanation from Dawkins as to why this process alone should have such unique powers I was disappointed to find him drawing a priestly veil beyond which I could not proceed further - “... perhaps you need to be steeped in natural selection, immersed in it, swim about in it, before you can truly appreciate its power.” (P143)
Fortunately God’s Word draws no such priestly veil. The origins of life on earth and our purpose as created beings is clear to all who will read the Bible.
To read the article this comment relates to from the start click here.
To read the open letters written by David Robertson, pastor of St Peter’s Free Church of Scotland in Dundee, to Richard Dawkins in response to The God Delusion, click here.
Please also feel free to read what we have to say about Science and Creation.
Finally, if you are not interested in what the Bible says because you do not believe it to be true, then please consider the following challenge - if the life, death and bodily resurrection of Jesus, as recorded in the Bible, can be proved to be true, then the whole Bible is true. We have laid out some of the evidence that the Biblical account of the life, death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is true in Why Believe in Jesus Christ?
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