I previously posted some blogs on the topic of “Is There a God?”. Part of my examination of this subject concerns the issue of how we go about explaining complexity and design that we find in the universe and the world and especially in living organisms.
Here is the link: Is There a God? (part 2) – How Do We Explain Complexity and Design?
In that blog I review both the theistic (those who believe in a supernatural origin to the physical realm) and reductionist materialist (those who believe there is no God and only the matter or stuff of the universe) positions.
A quote from that blog:
The third theistic design argument is that the evolutionary process itself has limitations that prevent it in principle from explaining the progression from the simplest life we just talked about to all the forms of life on the planet. This is an argument against macroevolution, an evolution that results in new species creation – a fish eventually evolving into a lizard or a primate evolving into a human being. They would assert that evolution as a process can produce limited changes in an organism and can explain things like bacterial resistance or finch beaks or the results of dog breeding. But larger body “design” changes are another matter.
Now, many atheists would take such a criticism of Darwinian theory as the ramblings of simpleminded fundamentalist Christians and that Darwinian explanations for the origins of species are ironclad proven science that any credible scientist would and should accept.
Well… not so fast. There is quite a community of evolution critics that are very accomplished scientists that do not accept evolution on the pure grounds of science and without any belief in God. One of the most outspoken and articulate is David Berlinski.
From Wikipedia:
Berlinski was born in the United States in 1942 to German-born Jewishrefugees who had immigrated to New York City after escaping from France as the Vichy government was collaborating with the Germans. His father was Herman Berlinski, a composer, organist, pianist, musicologist and choirconductor, and his mother was Sina Berlinski (née Goldfein), a pianist, piano teacher and voice coach. Both were born and raised in Leipzig where they studied at the Conservatory, before fleeing to Paris where they were married and undertook further studies. German was David Berlinski’s first spoken language. He received his PhD in philosophy from Princeton University.
What I love about Berlinski is that even if you reject his assertions, he is one brilliant dude who is fascinating to listen to. Well worth the time. He certainly presents some very sharp, reasoned, and informed critiques of evolutionary theory.
– Will
