Download Design - Behe Swinburne 3

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changes involved in the fime
more to
be
might
encourages the thoughtthatthere
discover.'(John Pokinghorne Belief in God in an Age
of Science p94) Furthermore he argues.that those
biologists who assert that we are nothing more than
genetic survival machines suffer an lntelleclual
inebriafion'and have succumbed to an 'illludged
reductionist triumph ali sm.' P 7 9 . T he inter p r etation of
of God' ) Hume, however, counter-argued that many
people co-operate in the design and building of a
ship but the ship itself shows no signs of this.
Swinburne maintains that God is the more probable
hypothesis because God would have reason to
create a universe with finite creatures who have the
chance to grow to knowledge of God and God has
reason to make an orderly universe that human
beings could learn from.
So Swinburne concludes:
U A priori it is very improbable that a
universe could just happen to exist, and
2l By virtue of God's postulated character, this
is the sort of universe God would have good
reason to make.
Swinburne maintains that whilst the Teleological
argument by itself does not make it probable that
God exists, the argument does serve to increase the
probability of God's existence. This is a strength of
inductive arguments
cumulative case.
-
they can build into
is
not the only
ground
from which
interpretation. 'There is no neutral
'pure reason' can come to definitive conclusions
about such ultimate matfers.'fieith Ward: God Faith
and the New Millenium P 67.) Fred Hoyle, the
scientist responsible for working out the life cycle of
a star, also supports a different interpretation of the
evidence:,. propertr'es seem to run through the
fabric of the natural world ltke a thread of happy
accidents. But there are.so many of these odd
caincidences essential to lle that some explanation
seems required to account for them'
evolution given
by
Dawkins
The scientific community is divided on the issue of
whether the universe reveals signs of design and
purpose or is simply the product of chance. Michael
J Behe and William A Dembski, who are also
scientists, have offered a modern day presentation
of what is effectively Aquinas' Fifth Way.
a
RICHARD DAWKINS
ln 'The Blind
Watchmaker' Dawkins describes
approaches like Swinburne's as 'Arguments fram
personal increduliV. He effectively says that the fact
that a Professor of Philosophy of Religion sitting in
his study at 0xford and never having studied biology
cannot off the top of his head think of a reason for
polar bears, does not entitle him to say that God is
the best explanation. Dawkins' view is that the
hypothesis of God is entirely superfluous and that
order is due to natural selection alone - a blind,
MICHAEL BEHE - lrreducible Complexity
Darwin himsetf offered the means by which the
theory of evolution might be challenged: 'lf it could
be demonstrated that any complex organ existed
which could not possibly have been formed by
numerous successive, slight modifications, my
theory would absolutely break down.' Michael Behe
argues that there are systems which numerous
successive slight modifications can not explain. He
uses the example of a living cell: the first life forrns
on earth were prokaryote cells which emerged about
3.5 billion years ago. This cell is a highly complex
living system all the internal systems of the cell
have to function together for the cell to work. lf one
piece was missing it could not function. This he calls
an irreducibly complex biological system, All parts
must function in synchrony or the sfstem breaks
down, How could such a complex system 'evolve'by
natural selection? How could such a complex system
evolve piece by piece when all the pieces had io be
unconscious, automatic process' which is
completely without purpose - hence the title of his
book.
KEITH WARD AND JOIIN POLKINGHORNE
Swinburne's arguments are developed in the light of
-
an evolutionary worldview by Keith Ward and John
Polkinghorne. They are both scientists who believe
that the evidence of evolution is compatible with the
existence of a cosmic intelligence who created with
the definite goal of achieving creatures with rational
consciousness.
'The classical nea-Darwinian explanation of the
develapment of lle on Earth, including the rapid
expansion of the hominid brain over a period of a few
hundreds of thousands of years, has been fo assrgn
in place together for the cell to work? Natural
selection only works by choosing from among
it
already working systems but does nothing to explain
totatly io the sifiing and preservation thraugh the
process af natural selection of the effects of small
randam genetic rnutations. No reasonable person
doubts that this is a component in the histary of life
but that it is the sale and totally adequate cause of
all that has happened is sfmply an article af blind
belief .lt is a scientifically interesting question fo ask
whether ihere mlght be more ta the story than has
been told. ln my own mind, the magnitude of the
the origin of the first living cells. Furthermore
a
bacteria prokaryote cell can have a flagellum. The
of bacteria are outboard rnotors that
bacterial cells can use for self propulsion, They have
flagella
a long whiplike propeller that is rotated by a
molecular motor. The propeller is attached to the
motor by a universaljoint, The motor is held in place
by proteins. 0ther proteins act as bushing material
.-1