Friday, March 8, 2019

Why Religion Matters in the Age of Science

Here’s why a wise Darwinian need find no conflict between religious faith and pursuit of scientific truth. Indeed, it is a statement of why a wise evolutionist can be, and perhaps always should be, an exponent of religious faith:

Without a religious dimension, a commitment to human freedom is likely to be attenuated, too weak to make sacrifices in its name.

Europe’s political elites especially, but its citizens as well, believe in freedom and democracy of course, but they are reluctant to put the “good life” on hold and put lives on the line when freedom is in need of a champion — in the Balkans, the Sudan, Darfur or, in the Middle East.

The good of human freedom, by European lights, must be weighed against the risk and cost of actually fighting for it.

It is no longer transcendent, absolute.

In such a world, governed by a narrow utilitarian calculus, sacrifice is rare, churches go unattended and over time the spiritual capital that brought forth all that we know as the West is at risk of being lost.

Let me name five things that might turn the tables and perhaps, even begin to, if I was so bold to suggest, revive Europe.

First, coming to grips with its unique place in world history and renewing the importance and source of those original ideals.

Second, some comprehension that culture matters and Europe’s culture has been the most formative for Western-Christian civilization, what used to be termed, Christendom.

Third, accepting the social, political, economic and especially military responsibility of a great continent, now more and more united.

Fourth, realizing the too evident demographic realities and Islamization and stepping up to reverse them so as to avoid an eventual Eurabia.

And finally, and most critically in my estimation as a Christian, sparking the second great Reformation, spiritually such that there is a wider recognition of transcendence and a moving of the spirit of God across the whole continent from the western most shores of Portugal, Ireland and Britain to the eastern most steppes of Russia.

I pray every day for such transformation and reawakening.

Ted Malloch: The New Dark Age of European Progressivism

This statement draws urgent attention to the role of religion in determining the fate of civilizations. What it asserts is that religious faith, where it exists, through its influence on the behavior of both individuals and organizations alters the prospects for survival of human groups, whether they be families, tribes, or nations.

Evolutionists such as Richard Dawkins who deride religion because it is based on propositions that are inconsistent with scientific truth make a mockery of their own claimed scientific expertise. There is no reason why a religious faith should be based on literal scientific truth any more than nursery rhymes, fairy tales or epic poetry should be based on literal scientific truth. In fact, religion, like  nursery rhymes, fairy tales or epic poetry, would have little appeal without an element of the supernatural. What matters, from a Darwinian perspective, is how faith, or for that matter nursery rhymes, fairy tales, or epic poetry, serves to shape individual and group behavior.

In abandoning Christianity, the West has abandoned belief in absolute values of right and wrong for the Humean proposition that "honesty is the best policy but the wise knave will take advantage of every exception." In fact, the condition of the post-Christian West, indeed the anti-Christian West, is even worse than that. Today, far from considering it knavish to be relentlessly self-serving, many consider it stupid to be otherwise. We know where that led the Soviet Union, but benighted rulers in the West unhesitatingly lead in the same direction.

That is not to say that all religions are equal. Some religious beliefs can no doubt be highly detrimental to human group survival, the Ebionite heresy, for example, which eschewed marriaged and child raising. There is little reason to doubt, however, that much of what has been best in Western civilization was the work of Christians and often inspired by religious ideals.

2 comments:

  1. Right, and the Orthodox Christians for some reason have a talent for thinking outside the box.

    Theodosius Dobzhansky was Orthodox (Ukrainian who became an American) and believed evolution was part of God's fulfillment plan from Genesis. His beliefs moved hither and yon a bit, but he never doubted God or the fact that evolution had Divine origins. Creation began but has not yet ended.

    His book "Genetics and the Origin of Species" was a long-time topper and the early thirties original edition brought me an excellent price when I was still an Amazon seller.

    I was not surprised he was Orthodox. An odd movie called "Noah" came out five years ago and did badly where biblical inerrancy is the law. But in Orthodox Christian nations like Russia it did fine, incorporating the book of Enoch as it did, and being creative with it like people do with Greek myths. To each his own.

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    1. Thanks for the info. Half a century ago, I read Dobzhansky's Principles of Genetics, one of those massive and very dry McGraw Hill textbooks. Genetics and the Origin of Species sounds more interesting. Must find a copy.

      That the Orthodox are more flexible in religious thought than their Western counterparts is, perhaps, because in Russia at least, Orthodoxy has always been intimately connected with the state — a component of the state machinery — and thus has been viewed as something that can, and should quite properly, be adapted to changing circumstances in order to continue serving its function effectively.

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