Chp 4 – The God Delusion – Why there almost certainly is no God – my initial thoughts

Chp 4 – The God Delusion – Why there almost certainly is no God – my initial thoughts

A very interesting chapter in which Professor Dawkins puts the case why there almost certainly is no God. What I find amusing is the element of doubt in the chapter title – “almost certainly” – so not completely certain?

Professor Dawkins notes the complexity and improbability of life and the universe itself and states that it is tempting to attribute the appearance of design to actual design itself. As I understand it, Professor Dawkins’ rejection of God in this context is that to assume God created life and the universe is to actually pose a bigger question in the sense that surely God must be more complicated than life and the universe and therefore it logically follows that God is more complex and therefore more improbable.

The argument of who made God is certainly an old one and was mentioned by Prophet Muhammed – peace and blessings upon him.  It maybe that this is a question mankind may never be able to answer but let’s see how Professor Dawkins handles this….

Professor Dawkins refers to Darwinian evolution by natural selection and states that this shows how living creatures with their statistical improbability and appearance of design have evolved (very) slowly from simple beginnings. Note that Professor Dawkins’ refers to the illusion of design. By this I sense an appreciation (of sorts) of how people can believe in design and indeed Professor Dawkins accepts this as a more acceptable belief before Darwin.  Indeed, Professor Dawkins acknowledges that you can almost be forgiven for not accepting evolution by natural selection unless you are steeped in it. From this I would say that anyone who hasn’t studied evolution so thoroughly should not then be labeled as delusional for believing in God. Indeed, if the illusion is so powerful and if we can be tricked into believing the illusions of entertainers such as Penn & Teller (whom Dawkins refers to) isn’t it understandable that we can believe in the illusion of design? So let’s see where evolution by natural selection gets us….

Professor Dawkins essentially says that evolution by natural selection shatters the illusion of design as this shows how complex life has evolved gradually over time – how a cumulative process breaks down the problem of improbability into small pieces. At this point, I do have a question. How can evolution by natural selection not be a random process itself IF it occurs by random mutation? Perhaps my understanding of evolution isn’t good enough to fully follow Professor Dawkins’ thinking here. Also, how did life and therefore the evolution process start? I couldn’t find a clear answer to this.   

I am still not clear on the supposed overwhelming evidence that life evolved by natural selection.  It seems that the scientific method cannot prove this because of the incredibly slow rate of evolution and the inadequacy of the fossil record. So how can we be sure this is correct?  How can an eye or the ability to fly evolve? As Professor Dawkins puts it, these evolve very gradually (by random mutation) and by natural selection the relevant ability improves. There are arguments against this (which Professor Dawkins dismisses) one of which is the bacterial flagellar motor which was argued by Behe as incapable of gradually evolving and must simply have come into being.

Professor Dawkins applies the logic of evolution to the creation of the universe and acknowledges that physics does not have a Darwinian like theory to explain how the universe came about but refers to the anthropic principle which allows us to imagine greater chances of life appearing when we consider the vastness of the universe (or perhaps universes) so if there are billions and billions and billions of planets, a portion of which could sustain life (such as the Earth). But, I find this very unsatisfying and it doesn’t allow me to discount God. Therefore we cannot be certain that there is no God and it seems the science (at the moment) provides no such certainty.

After pondering on what I have read so far, I do feel that belief in God isn’t an academic exercise. It isn’t based on what text books you read or how well you understand biology.  Indeed, some see the wonders of nature as evidence of an all powerful creator whereas some who feel they understand some of the aspects of creation feel this is a mechanical process devoid of God and that one day all processes will be explained scientifically. So how come some of us believe and others don’t? Is it like Islam says that the life we are leading is a test and our belief comes from ourselves i.e. “good” people will be inclined to believe and “bad” ones will not? What do we mean by “good” and “bad”? All interesting points that I will cover in future.

When I think of why do I believe I must resort to the Quran. From my reading of the Quran I have found this book to be incapable of being disproved and also personally satisfying when I read it.  The trouble is though how to impart my feeling of belief onto others? Certainly, I will attempt to do this in the course of this blog. My intention is not to convert but at least to show why I (and many others) believe and to show that we should not be considered delusional for such belief, at least when there seems to be no science to disprove such belief.

At this point I would like to introduce to the reader to one reference in the Quran on this topic:

Quran – Surah 35 (Fatir – The Originator) – Ayat 3

“O mankind, remember the favor of Allah upon you. Is there any creator other than Allah who provides for you from the heaven and earth? There is no deity except Him, so how are you deluded?”

I like the reference to deluded but will need to examine the translation further as to its accuracy.

I will discuss in another post the integrity of the Quran as a evidential document as to how and when it was compiled but what I find extremely interesting is just how relevant it is today – even in a discussion about the creation of man and the universe.