My last post on Darwin V God reminded me of an anecdote - which I have since read elsewhere but I first heard it at a week-long Christian convention in Toronto in 2000. There were various lectures one could go to and one of the several I chose was to do with faith and science, the lecturer being astronomer, Dr. Mart de Groot, (Who says real scientists don’t believe in God?). Anyway, I wouldn’t have recalled any of the lecture after 9 minutes alone 9 years - what I do remember is that I was both fascinated and also bemused at the science speak between the learned in astronomy in the audience and the lecturer - it was ‘astronomically’ above my head! I should have been more careful in my selection of subjects to attend. But I still vaguely remember the introduction to the lecture, very popular I imagine with anti-Darwinian scientists, with my apologies to the original author of the anecdote with my composition of it, but hopefully I will have repeated the essential gist.
The story (apocryphal of course) says that scientists at a science convention were congratulating themselves on how far they had come in their achievements. Someone introduced God into the discussions and it was decided that really, the idea of God was too old fashioned in our modern day and age. There were no Christian scientists present at this convntion and they decided that God and Science did not go together and that God should no longer use his influence in our world. He was no longer needed. He was needed in days gone by, but really, God had now passed his “sell-by date”.
After all we can now produce embryos in a test tube, we can clone animals, and even human beings, we can segregate undesirable characteristics in the DNA, we can do so many marvellous things in technology and engineering in every field of science. It is not that we have not appreciated God before, but now we have come of age where we no longer need him. In fact it’s no longer necessary for people to believe in him. We don’t want to be rude or impolite to him (Richard Dawkins wasn’t present at the convention), but it is just not the in thing these days to talk about God. We must let him know that mankind has appreciated him in the past, but that is now in the past. We don’t really want to put it as crudely and cruelly as that, but we must convey to God in some polite and delicate way that in our modern world he is really out of date, he has become an embarrassment and we really could do without him.
So the convention of scientists wondered how they could tell God he was no longer needed on planet earth without offending him too much. They decided to send a delegation of highly qualified scientists, who were also diplomats, to tell God in the kindest way possible, that he was no longer needed.
So, the delegation arranged an audience with God and told him all that they could now do on planet earth and in their very diplomatic way told him he was no longer needed. God obviously felt very hurt by this rejection but He said to the delegation of scientists, I see you think I really am passed my “sell by date”, but before you go, would you take just one test to see if you really can do without me? They readily agreed without any fear of failure. They were a collection of planet earth’s highest achievers in their respective scientific fields.
That is OK, said the delegation of scientists, who did not really want to deliberately offend God so they decided to humour him by conceding to his request. What are you proposing we should do, asked the delegates. Well, said God, what about making a human being like I once did as described in the Book of Genesis and see who will come out with the best model? So the group of scientists said, OK, that’s fair enough, let’s just do that. It would be worth the challenge, after all, they had now accomplished so much in the various sciences that it should not prove too difficult. And with all the human creations of alien creatures from man’s imagination they might even improve on God’s original model of man.
And so the scientists all began the task of getting together an appropriate amount of earth to put together and mould their first human creature. But then God interrupted, No! No! said God. If you are going to do it like I did, you have to make your own earth!
And so, we have these two opposing belief systems - Materialism V Intelligence: Darwin V God.
