Here’s a swatch from Lee Strobel’s interview with philosopher Douglas Groothuis who, we are told, spent more than 8 years producing Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith.
Q. What’s the strongest argument in the arsenal of atheists these days? And why does it fall short?
A. That’s a big question. Different atheists will use different arguments, but they often confront Christians with two things: (1) Darwinism has refuted the idea of Designer and so defeats Christianity (and every other form of theism). They claim that undirected, purely material causes and entities can explain all of biology. (2) The existence of the amount of evil in the world destroys the idea that there is a God who is all-good and all-powerful. No such God would allow this to happen. This is called the problem of evil.
I address (1) in chapters 13 and 14 of Christian Apologetics. To put it into a nutshell: Darwinism is terribly overrated scientifically. Darwinists usually presupposes a materialistic worldview—this is their philosophy, not something derived from science itself—and then interpret everything in biology according to those categories. In other words, “What my net don’t catch, ain’t fish.”
But once we admit intelligent design as a legitimate category of explanation, we find that Darwinism loses its persuasive power as a comprehensive explanation of the biosphere. In fact, Darwinism cannot explain the existence of molecular machines (such as the bacterial flagellum) or the information in DNA code. Nor can it even present a compelling case that all life evolved from a common ancestor.
This is all useful for Christians to keep in mind when we hear Christian Darwinists claim we can be just as good Christians if we believe what Darwin believed about life. If you’re anywhere near them, look out for the flying sandals.
Hat tip: Wintery Knight