Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Coffee!!: Should we reject Darwinism due to its obvious support for new atheism?

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

Recently, a group of friends was mulling over coffee whether one should reject Darwinism in principle because it is the creation story of atheism. One friend argued that we should not reject it just because its staunchest proponents are mostly atheists.

I am not so sure. Consider this: Approximately 80 percent of evolutionary biologists (= Darwinists) are pure naturalists (no God and no free will, according to William Provine’s recent study). Welcome to the world of Minority Report, where social engineering seems completely reasonable, even “humane.” As in the “Humane Society.”

Now let me put a case to you:

Assume that 80% of the members of a social group also hold memberships in a Communist or other type of Fascist political party. But I, as it happens, am a free speech journalist who supports an open society. Should I continue to hang around with them, or distance myself from them, repent, and then feel free to denounce them when they eventually perpetrate some fraud or evil?

In my humble opinion, it is NOT irrelevant that the new atheists are overwhelmingly Darwinists. That guides the way they interpret data, and the way they behave toward scientists who dissent from their orthodoxy, based on failure to replicate their results or legitimate suspicion as to how they were obtained.

The Darwinists’ certainty that they are right is based on occult knowledge (= natural selection, in reality an important conservative force in nature, has unbelievable creative powers.) They need to believe that, so they do.

Madam Xerxa, our local psychic, is just as certain that she is right, based on occult knowledge, but on a much humbler level. In her dirty, ramshackle walkup, she can predict only the future, not the past. But, hey, she doesn’t charge as much for her nonsense.*

Classic unbelievable beliefs, both. But unbelievable beliefs have consequences. So I would argue that a high level of acceptance by atheists is a good reason for a high level of suspicion on the part of others.

The new atheists have the right to be atheists on their own time, but not to front a system dedicated to that purpose at tax expense – and call it science.

* The Darwinist claims to know what Stone Age man was thinking about religion or about shopping. Madam Xerxa can merely inform you that you will soon meet a tall, dark, and attractive-looking stranger.

Yes, of course, that traffic plod who caught you doing 50 km in a 40 km zone! $120 later in fines, Madam Xerxa is still right.

If either of these propositions is science, I am an apple pie.

Comments
I don't reject Darwinism because a few of the shrill new atheists support it. I reject it because, at its core, it's not a scientific theory at all but rather a philosophy that states that nothing in this universe really matters because it's all random and undirected.Barb
December 14, 2009
December
12
Dec
14
14
2009
07:54 PM
7
07
54
PM
PDT
Sev: "It would be helpful if they explained what they mean by “Darwinism” apart from a catch-all label for what they don’t like about anyone who isn’t a conservative Christian." There are plenty of people who consider themselves "conservative Christians" who are Darwinists. It isn't just leftists or center-leftists that populate the theistic evolutionist camp (George Will is a perfect example).riddick
December 14, 2009
December
12
Dec
14
14
2009
07:10 PM
7
07
10
PM
PDT
It would be helpful if they explained what they mean by "Darwinism" apart from a catch-all label for what they don't like about anyone who isn't a conservative Christian.Seversky
December 14, 2009
December
12
Dec
14
14
2009
06:27 PM
6
06
27
PM
PDT
Retroman, I don't think new atheist beliefs about how society should be run are incidental to their philosophical assumptions in general - that humans are accidental outcroppings of random evolution. Same with traditional Christians who believe that humans are made in the image of God. I know which group has the stronger commitment to the sanctity of human life and, as an older person with many much older friends, I know which group I more trust with our lives. No prizes for guessing.O'Leary
December 14, 2009
December
12
Dec
14
14
2009
06:06 PM
6
06
06
PM
PDT
1. You compare New Atheists to communists and fascists. Guilt by association is a dirty, fallacious trick. 2. You claim we should reject Darwinism because of the incidental beliefs of Darwinists. Does the same argument not apply then to Intelligent Design, the vast majority of the adherents of which are conservative Protestant Christians?Retroman
December 14, 2009
December
12
Dec
14
14
2009
05:07 PM
5
05
07
PM
PDT
1 2

Leave a Reply