I’m reading Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life by Alister McGrath.
It’s one of the most refreshing books I’ve ever read, I think. I studied biology at university, and I have amused myself for endless hours thinking about the tension between creationism and science. This book doesn’t address that issue directly, but does talk around it somewhat, focussing on some of the claims made by Richard Dawkins as to the validity of faith in the wake of science.
Happily, McGrath doesn’t try to settle the question as to whether evolution is true or not. That’s a far too complicated and scientific question to try to resolve in one book, and it’s one that will only really be solved given another hundred or so years of research and development. Evolution is too big and too fundamental to modern biology. Creationists treat it as though it were a sideline theory that can be done away with harmlessly, but it’s not: it’s the whole foundation of current biological thinking, with massive implications for every single discipline within biology, from animal behaviour to biochemistry.
C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Evolution has the same position in biology. The view currently is that evolution makes sense of literally everything. To question evolution is to question biology, it’s that central.
Which is why it was such a wonderful relief to find McGrath leaving the question to the scientific community. Christianity is open to such a lot of intellectual ridicule because of the noisy protestations of a few people who treat evolution like some great evil of society, like drugs. They argue that it leaves people thinking that life is pointless, and that people are worthless, the product of a series of accidents.
Well, I think that’s rot. It’s lazy thinking and bad theology. No-one got depressed because they learnt about evolution. You can’t blame post-modernist despair on science. No, post-modernist despair is the fault of post-modernism, which in turn is the fault of, you guessed it, human nature. To blame despair on evolution is exactly the same as criticising faith because fundamentalists exist. Evolution produces despair no more than faith produces narrow-mindedness.
No, the thrust of McGrath’s book is pointing out where Dawkins draws invalid conclusions about faith, and the impact that science has on faith, with focus on evolutionary thinking. I don’t want to go into too much detail, since you should just buy the book if you’re interested. But the main impact this book has had on me has been to restore my intellectual dignity. Dawkins makes some pretty offensive comments about people with faith, and reading some of the material about creationism on the internet, you begin to wonder if he isn’t right. McGrath, unlike those creationist cranks, is cool-headed, and writes with clarity, logic and authority.
If you’re a Christian and have been struggling with the question of evolution and faith, I recommend this book. If you have a perception that logic and reason are a threat to faith, I recommend this book.
Finally, if you’re an atheist, and you see Christians as people who have left their brains behind, I recommend this book. No, in fact I challenge you to read this book and really think about what it says.
