From Robert H. Nelson at the Conversation:
The question of whether a god exists is heating up in the 21st century. According to a Pew survey, the percent of Americans having no religious affiliation reached 23 percent in 2014. Among such “nones,” 33 percent said that they do not believe in God – an 11 percent increase since only 2007.
Such trends have ironically been taking place even as, I would argue, the probability for the existence of a supernatural god have been rising.
He offers five reasons God probably exists, but that’s not new. This is:
As I say in my book, I should emphasize that I am not questioning the reality of natural biological evolution. What is interesting to me, however, are the fierce arguments that have taken place between professional evolutionary biologists. A number of developments in evolutionary theory have challenged traditional Darwinist – and later neo-Darwinist – views that emphasize random genetic mutations and gradual evolutionary selection by the process of survival of the fittest. More.
Yes., for sure. But there might be quarrels with some of the evidence he cites. For example,
In 2011, the University of Chicago evolutionary biologist James Shapiro argued that, remarkably enough, many micro-evolutionary processes worked as though guided by a purposeful “sentience” of the evolving plant and animal organisms themselves. “The capacity of living organisms to alter their own heredity is undeniable,” he wrote. “Our current ideas about evolution have to incorporate this basic fact of life.”
A number of scientists, such as Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, “see no conflict between believing in God and accepting the contemporary theory of evolution,” as the American Association for the Advancement of Science points out.
For my part, the most recent developments in evolutionary biology have increased the probability of a god.
We have reasons for thinking Shapiro would dissent from Nelson’s interpretation of his work as promoting theism. And, as for Francis Collins, please read this before you decide about any type of theistic evolution that looks to the BioLogos founder as a patron.
Most of Nelson’s observations are timely and useful. We sometimes wonder why that’s still even allowed in the age of marchin’, marchin’ for science.
See also: Philip Cunningham: Everything IS information
and
How naturalism rots science from the head down
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