Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life The perspective of a scientist and Christian

1
Dawkins' God Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of
LifeThe perspectiveof a scientist and Christian

• Ross McKenzie

2
Outline

• Some personal history
• What can and cannot science do?
• Key scientific ideas concerning evolution
• Four misconceptions about evolution
• Key claims of Dawkins
• Randomness vs. purpose?
• What is Genesis 1-3 really about?

3
Some personal history

• Scientist
• Christian

4
The amazing world we live in
5
The unchanging GospelJesus Christ, creator and
redeemer

• Jesus Christs death on the cross paid the
  penalty for our sin, so we can have a
  relationship with the LORD, the creator of the
  universe.

He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation. For by him all
things were created things in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones of
powers or rulers or authorities all things were
created by him and for him.For God was pleased
to have all his fullness dwell in him, and
through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, by
making peace through his blood, shed on the
cross. Colossians 115-20
6
The view of one graduate of UQ and Indooroopilly
High School

• Professor Peter Doherty
• 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• He said it continued to surprise him that there
  remained "a lot of confusion" about science and
  religion. "Scientists can be very arrogant, and
  religious people don't often get what science is.
  But being a committed Christian and being a
  scientist is not mutually exclusive."
• The Australian, August 27, 2005

7
Richard Dawkins

• "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually
  fulfilled atheist...
• "In a universe of electrons and selfish genes
  ,blind physical forces and genetic replication,
  some people are going to get hurt, other people
  are going to get lucky, and you won't find any
  rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice.....The
  universe that we observe has precisely the
  properties we should expect if there is, at
  bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no
  good, nothing but pitiless indifference.'
• River out of Eden A Darwinian view of life,
• 1995, p.33

8

• Not all scientists ( atheists) agree that human
  affairs can be understood in terms of molecular
  biology.
• Phillip Anderson, 1977 Physics Nobel Prize
• we have yet to recover from that arrogance of
  some molecular biologists, who seem determined to
  try to reduce everything about the human organism
  to only'' chemistry, from the common cold and
  all mental disease to the religious instinct.''
• More is Different, Science (1972)

9
What is science?

• Science is a fairly systematic procedure for
  obtaining reliable and reproducible (but
  approximate) knowledge about the material world.
• The best theories are QUANTITATIVE and have
  PREDICTIVE power.
• Science is NOT philosophy. It can say little
  about meaning and purpose.

10
An example of the power and limitations of science

• Theory of Quantum Electrodynamics (Feynman,
  Schwinger, Tomonaga, 1950s)
• The power
• Predicts value of magnetic moment of
  electron.
• Experimental value is 2.0023193043766(8)
• The limitations
• Yet the philosophical interpretation of
  quantum theory is highly contentious,
  particularly with regard to the role of
  probability and randomness.

11
The limitations of science

• Science cannot explain why it works.
• Science cannot explain the purpose or meaning of
  things.
• Science cannot tell us what is ethical, of value,
  or just.

12
Indooroopilly shopping mall

• There are different levels of
• activity, description, and explanation
• psychological
• social, behavioral
• economic, political
• biological
• Does the mall have purpose meaning?
• Is the mall anti-Christian?

13
Important distinctions about evolution

• 1. Microevolution
• Small changes occur over time within a species
• Directly observable in the lab.
• 2. Macroevolution
• New species arise over long periods of time.
• Cannot be observed directly, but substantial
  indirect evidence.
• 3. Philosophical Darwinism
• Life arose as an accident and has no purpose.
• Scientific validity of 1. or 2. does not imply 3.
  is valid.

14
Key scientific ideas in evolution

• Diversity and similarity of life can be explained
  by common origins.
• Species change over generations to adapt to
  environment
• Separation in space or time leads to changes in
  individual species
• Genetics genes determine inherited
  characteristics.
• Genetic information is encoded in DNA molecules
• Changes can require times as long as millions of
  years
• A population contains a distribution of gene
  types
• Natural selection (survival of fittest)
  determines change
• Random mutations of genes are one mechanism for
  change
• Evolutionary change can be seen at the molecular
  level

15
Four common misconceptions about evolution

• 1. Evolutionary science and the Bible contradict
  each other
• 2. Evolutionary change is random
• 3. Evolution implies Gods creation was not
  perfect and death entered creation before the
  fall
• 4. It is just a theory

16
Key claims of Dawkins

• Atheism is the logical consequence of evolution
• No purpose
• Apparent design of biological systems is an
  illusion
• Faith is irrational and ignores evidence, whereas
  science is rational and based on evidence.
• In spite of the selfish gene altruism is
  possible.
• Genetic determinism
• Social information transfer occurs via memes

17
Caveats and subtleties glossed over by Dawkins

• Design, purpose, explanation, mechanism and
  meaning are cultural, historical, and subjective.
• Problem of radical theory change
• Controversy of mechanism of evolution
• Random vs. deterministic motion

18
Role of randomness in evolution

• Variation occurs in the duplication of DNA
  sometimes proteins make a mistake in copying
  genes

19
Random vs. deterministic motion

• Apparently random motion does not imply that the
  underlying laws are themselves probabilistic
• e.g., Brownian motion (the random motion of a
  particle in a liquid) can be derived from
  deterministic laws.
• Many random motions can combine to produce
  deterministic behaviour, e.g,. ideal gas law.

20

• As a scientist, I can say that we do not have
  (and probably cannot have) any evidence to show
  that nature is just a set of laws operating
  without purpose or goal.'
• Leo Kadanoff, Professor of Physics, University of
  Chicago
• Physics Today, 2002

21
What is Genesis 1-3 about?

• Dont impose your own questions on the text. It
  is not a scientific or historical account.
• Needs to be read in context of salvation history
  and with regard to its literary form.
• The LORD is the sovereign creator of the
  universe.
• This is the same LORD who made promises to
  Abraham and delivered Israel from Egypt.
• We are accountable to God.
• We have rebelled against God.
• As a result the creation is not what God intended
  it to be. A redeemer will come.

22
Conclusions

• McGrath rightly shows Dawkins makes contentious
  extrapolations from science to philosophy.

23
Some take home points

• I see no real intellectual conflict between
  science and the Bible
• But there is certainly a social, political, and
  historical conflict
• Christians should not be scared of science be
  secure in faith in LORD
• Be humble
• Enjoy the beauty and wonder of creation
• The Gospel is timeless and trans-cultural

24
Further reading

• K. Birkett, Unnatural enemies an introduction to
  science and Christianity, (Matthias Media)
• A. McGrath, Dawkins God
• M.A. Jeeves R.J. Berry, Science, Life, and
  Christian Belief (Apollos)
• A. McGrath, The Science of God

25
Intelligent design

• Scientific weakness
• it cannot explain or predict anything
• Theological weaknesses
• is it natural theology?
• Is it God of the gaps?
• God reveals himself and finds us. We do not
  discover God.