Theme 3: Significant historical development in religious thought
Challenges from science
Contrasting views
Dawkins = proponent of atheism, declares he’s passionate about scientific method
McGrath & McGrath = believe Christian faith compatible with discoveries of science
Dawkins = religion offers no real answers to questions asked – prone to anti-intellectualism
& violence
o Science about unlocking mysteries of life
McGrath’s disagree with Dawkins’ description of religion – believe there are question that
science cannot simply answer – claim religion & science need each other
Relationship between religion & science
Dawkins says when faced with something incredibly complex – humans tend to turn to
religious answer – God created these
Paley attempted to justify kind of religious answer – watch analogy
o Dawkins refers to contemporary example of this religious argument – consider
tornado could blow via scrapyard & somehow randomly throw together functioning
Boeing 747 aircraft
Claims its absurd way of arguing
God hypothesis = Dawkins’ phrase to describe claim that there’s interventionist God in universe;
should be treated with any other scientific hypothesis
Natural selection = survival of the fittest
Problems with religious answers
Dawkins says there’s 2 problems with ‘God hypothesis’ of design of natural world
1. Natural selection explains how there can be appearance of complexity
2. Saying God designed complex things isn’t answer at all because God would have
to be at least as complex as thing ‘he’ designed – brings into question, who
designed God? – natural selection avoids these religious dilemmas
‘designer himself, in order to be capable of designing, would have to be another complex entity’ –
Dawkins
Anthropic principle = universe must contain properties that allow observer to exist
Meme = coined by Dawkins, meaning element of culture that’s passed from one person to another
by imitation/other non-genetic means
Multiverse = hypothesis there are multiverses of which ours is only one
How did life originate?
Natural selection explains complexity of world – doesn’t, as Dawkins says, explain why
there’s life in universe & how life came to be on planet earth
1
, Theme 3: Significant historical development in religious thought
Challenges from science
Instead of turning to God hypothesis – use natural selection to inspire us to find explanation
that make sense of improbable existence of life
Dawkins proposes ‘anthropic approach’
o Instead of invoking God, consider multiverse theory – endless number of universes
each with different variations, ours one with variations to support life
Dawkins says there’s ‘Darwinian’ feel to kind of thinking – explaining life in terms of
development & variations>positing God
Religious as aberration
Religion doesn’t offer reasonable answers to questions of life – according to Dawkins
o Flawed from very beginning
Dawkins theory – religion originated as misfiring of brain of otherwise useful activity
o Many things that give creatures survival value but some situations lead these things
to destruction
Dawkins gives example of moth’s navigation system – oriented to celestial bodies & guides
to warmth & light – however also guide to death in flame
o Religion [death in flame] is by-product of at least 2 qualities that often provide
survival value
1. Human tendency to obey elders = good trait to save lives & increase
safety – except when elders are mistaken
2. Biologically programmed tendency to assign meaning & purpose to
animals & objects – humans assign value to all kinds of things ‘the being
that made this universe loves me’ – provides no survival
Traits explain why people have psychological disposition that favour religious belief – how
came up with actual details of religious beliefs
Dawkins uses ‘memes’ – many elements of culture [memes] that include God & have added
appeal because associated with other memes
o Can be manipulated by religious leaders in way to give rise to religion
o Therefore, inherit culturally all kinds of beliefs & values that include belief in God
The wall between religion & science
Because religious provides only unreasonable answers to deepest questions & science only
proceeds on evidence – Dawkins finds it hard to image any real scientist as true believe
o Thinks scientists who are believers – not truly Christians
Afraid of sharing real beliefs/confuse Christianity with cultural values about
beauty & goodness
McGrath’s disagree highly – not are number of scientists who are Christians
2
Challenges from science
Contrasting views
Dawkins = proponent of atheism, declares he’s passionate about scientific method
McGrath & McGrath = believe Christian faith compatible with discoveries of science
Dawkins = religion offers no real answers to questions asked – prone to anti-intellectualism
& violence
o Science about unlocking mysteries of life
McGrath’s disagree with Dawkins’ description of religion – believe there are question that
science cannot simply answer – claim religion & science need each other
Relationship between religion & science
Dawkins says when faced with something incredibly complex – humans tend to turn to
religious answer – God created these
Paley attempted to justify kind of religious answer – watch analogy
o Dawkins refers to contemporary example of this religious argument – consider
tornado could blow via scrapyard & somehow randomly throw together functioning
Boeing 747 aircraft
Claims its absurd way of arguing
God hypothesis = Dawkins’ phrase to describe claim that there’s interventionist God in universe;
should be treated with any other scientific hypothesis
Natural selection = survival of the fittest
Problems with religious answers
Dawkins says there’s 2 problems with ‘God hypothesis’ of design of natural world
1. Natural selection explains how there can be appearance of complexity
2. Saying God designed complex things isn’t answer at all because God would have
to be at least as complex as thing ‘he’ designed – brings into question, who
designed God? – natural selection avoids these religious dilemmas
‘designer himself, in order to be capable of designing, would have to be another complex entity’ –
Dawkins
Anthropic principle = universe must contain properties that allow observer to exist
Meme = coined by Dawkins, meaning element of culture that’s passed from one person to another
by imitation/other non-genetic means
Multiverse = hypothesis there are multiverses of which ours is only one
How did life originate?
Natural selection explains complexity of world – doesn’t, as Dawkins says, explain why
there’s life in universe & how life came to be on planet earth
1
, Theme 3: Significant historical development in religious thought
Challenges from science
Instead of turning to God hypothesis – use natural selection to inspire us to find explanation
that make sense of improbable existence of life
Dawkins proposes ‘anthropic approach’
o Instead of invoking God, consider multiverse theory – endless number of universes
each with different variations, ours one with variations to support life
Dawkins says there’s ‘Darwinian’ feel to kind of thinking – explaining life in terms of
development & variations>positing God
Religious as aberration
Religion doesn’t offer reasonable answers to questions of life – according to Dawkins
o Flawed from very beginning
Dawkins theory – religion originated as misfiring of brain of otherwise useful activity
o Many things that give creatures survival value but some situations lead these things
to destruction
Dawkins gives example of moth’s navigation system – oriented to celestial bodies & guides
to warmth & light – however also guide to death in flame
o Religion [death in flame] is by-product of at least 2 qualities that often provide
survival value
1. Human tendency to obey elders = good trait to save lives & increase
safety – except when elders are mistaken
2. Biologically programmed tendency to assign meaning & purpose to
animals & objects – humans assign value to all kinds of things ‘the being
that made this universe loves me’ – provides no survival
Traits explain why people have psychological disposition that favour religious belief – how
came up with actual details of religious beliefs
Dawkins uses ‘memes’ – many elements of culture [memes] that include God & have added
appeal because associated with other memes
o Can be manipulated by religious leaders in way to give rise to religion
o Therefore, inherit culturally all kinds of beliefs & values that include belief in God
The wall between religion & science
Because religious provides only unreasonable answers to deepest questions & science only
proceeds on evidence – Dawkins finds it hard to image any real scientist as true believe
o Thinks scientists who are believers – not truly Christians
Afraid of sharing real beliefs/confuse Christianity with cultural values about
beauty & goodness
McGrath’s disagree highly – not are number of scientists who are Christians
2
