Dan+M+Week7

= Darwin’s God =

In his book “Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution”, Author Kenneth Miller discusses one of the most controversial topics in scientific discussion today. Is there a God? And, if so, how does God coexist with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution? While the first question is difficult to answer because its nature is dependent on whoever answers it, Miller suggests a couple of very intelligent arguments that show how God is able to coexist with evolution.

One of Miller’s most compelling arguments is that a “//lack// of scientific evidence” is not in fact “proof for God’s existence”. When a person uses this logic, “[they] have to regard a successful scientific explanation as an argument //against// God.” Miller continues on and states that this “reasoning, ultimately, is much more dangerous to religion than to science.” Instead Miller suggests finding God elsewhere “in the bright light of human knowledge, spiritual and scientific.” Miller also discusses how nature is self-sufficient and proposes a different interpretation of God’s hand in our world.

If it was the result of God that every time something reproduced or changed (for better or worse), thus calling everything a “miracle”, God would constantly be changing and effecting our world. Miller suggests that instead, God let all of us evolve from a common ancestor. This theory enables one to accept both religion and science hand-in-hand. Miller also goes on to say that this explains “behaviors that protected, nurtured, defended, and ensured the reproductive successes of the individuals that bore them”. Even the Bible “gives ample documentation of such human tendencies, including pride, selfishness, lust, anger, aggression, and murder.”

All of Miller’s arguments are intelligent, make sense, and he gives examples to explain them. The presence or absence of a God may never be proven or disproven. Whether a God exists or not, is irrelevant. What is important, what Kenneth Miller //is// trying to explain, is that Evolution does not disprove a God, but it //can// in fact be used to enhance an understanding with a higher power.