I stumbled upon a Nova program entitled “What About God?” on Google Video which details students from conservative Christian backgrounds encountering evolutionary theory at Wheaton College, a conservative Christian university in the Midwest: watch it here [PBS/Nova | 54 min]. If you watch this program with very human eyes, it will give some keen insight into the issues at stake for Christians concerning evolutionary theory.

Continue reading Faith Struggling with Evolution

Since we began this blog, some key differences in worldview have been emerging between myself an others.  That is a good thing, not because we disagree, but because I am truly learning about myself and others.  This difference is becoming foremost in my mind: I am not a reductionist.  I find holism [wiki] attractive and emergence [wiki] convincing, but not reductionism [wiki] (though when I say that I might mean "greedy reductionsim").

In The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins coins the term "hierarchical reductionism" in which he says everything can be explained by simplier things just one order lower than a particular thing and it's related components.  Humans, and all things human, like culture and psychology, can be explained by the things one order lower — namely as the sum of aspects of animal biology. Continue reading My Doubts on Reductionism

I. Intro…

(This is going to be a long one, so you might want to grab a snack and a cup of coffee now.) 

Drunkentune has given a great explanation of one theory on where religion comes from in his post The Evolution of Religion: Is Religion Natural?.  Avid commentor, beepbeepitsme has also written much on this blog about the natural origins of religion.

To summarize this view in my own words: Biologists agree that humans evolve in both physiology and psychology (some would argue primarily psychologically, and as an extension technologically, in our recent history). Our behaviors and thought patterns are just as much a part of how our species survives as are adaptations in our bodies, such as our leg-hips-spine configuration and upright locomotion. At some point in our specie's evolutionary history, we developed the thought pattrerns and behaviors associated with religion as a survival mechanism. Humans that believed in something beyond the material world were accessing certain social cues, memes [wiki], and powerful psychological structures, leading to more successful outcomes, evolutionarily speaking. For some people, it then follows from this theory that religion is not of divine origin in any sense, and that it is possible that the evolution of our species will one day outgrow religion if it no longer fulfills its evolutionary role.

Continue reading Is Naturalistic Religion Biblical?

I. Introduction: Evolution, you say?

As the first real issue I examine, I think it fair to analyze the two most popular theories for the evolution of religion. You, the believer, must understand: to an atheist [specifically, a naturalist such as I], religion can be explained without resorting to God or the supernatural. In fact, it is necessary for the atheist to do so, since if I were to use Occam’s razor in atheism’s favor, it would be in the atheist’s interest to definitively show that religion is not a construct separate from the natural world. If all the evidence pointed in the direction of religion being a construct separate from the natural world, one would beg the question: Did something unnatural create it? Atheism would be on shaky ground, and I recognize this possibility.
Continue reading The Evolution of Religion: Is Religion Natural?