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Finding Darwin's God

by Ken Miller

Finding Darwin's God is a book written by Ken Miller which tries to bridge the gap between science and religion. Ken Miller is a professor at Brown University and writes high school and college biology texts. He is most famous for testifying against ID creationism at the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial in 2005, where a Pennsylvania school attempted to include ID in the classroom.

The first few chapters of the book are an excellent debunking of common creationist arguments, especially Michael Behe's irreducible complexity. The book is worth reading just for these chapters.

The later chapters is where he tries to prove that not only does a god exist, it is the God of the Abrahamic faiths. This is where I think he runs into some trouble.

Prof. Miller claims that the Abrahamic faiths say there is a definite beginning to the universe, and science has proven there was with the big bang. He then proceeds to use the fine tuning argument to support God. He also claims that quantum uncertainty and historical contingency proves that it is impossible to know everything, so we can't rule out God. To me this sounds like a complicated version of "Since you can't disprove God, it is okay to believe He exists".

Prof. Miller makes the point that since Christians don't have any problem with historical contingency, then why should they feel there is a problem with natural contingency. What he means by this is that history could have come out different, there was no reason for it to play out the way it did. But Prof. Miller is forgetting that many religious people do believe that all history happened for a specific reason known only by God. They don't accept historical contingency anymore than they accept natural contingency.

Prof. Miller agrees that evolution shows that humanity was not inevitable. He doesn't see this as a problem for evolution and religion, because he believes that God is a spirit. When the Bible says we are made in God's image, it really means spiritual image. He says that if humanity never evolved, then God could wait a few million years for a creature intelligent enough to contemplate its place in the universe. Once again I think that many religious believers would not find this satisfactory. They want to believe that God is basically a superhuman and that the universe exists just for us. All of us, not just our spiritual side. Also, an intelligent species may never have evolved on earth. He gets around this by saying that other species on other planets probably have intelligent beings too, and they would worship God.

Another question I have is that Prof. Miller believes God waited for a creature to evolve that could worship him, so he gave them souls. As he should know, intelligence would be a relatively gradual process. So there should be no leap from dumb people to people smart enough to contemplate God. So essentially he is saying that one generation were raised by soulless parents. Also, I'm not sure what is so great about a soul, since our physical bodies don't require one.

Prof. Miller agrees with most educated modern believers that the Bible should not be taken literally. He claims that God had to speak to ancient peoples in a way they would understand. Ancient people would not have known what DNA is, so that is why the Bible is silent on that issue. Ancient people were no less intelligent than modern people. They may not have understood DNA, but we do now. To me if God wanted to prove himself, he could have imparted knowledge to the ancients that we know they could not have acquired on their own.

Another point Prof. Miller makes is that evolution can be observed, as in the case of selection and speciation, while ID cannot. He is correct in asserting that if the ID people said that God created species in the past, and did so in a way to make it look like evolution occurred when it really didn't, then why doesn't He still do it now? Though Prof. Miller believes that God communicated with ancient people, but for some reason doesn't do that anymore. I don't really see much of a difference. Prof. Miller and the ID creationists both believe that God was once active in the world, but no longer is.

I think people who are religious and like science will enjoy this book. Even nonbelievers should like it, not only for the scientific information but just to see the various reasons for belief. I am still looking forward to reading Prof. Miller's new book, Only A Theory and I still highly respect him for his work in trying to stop the spread of creationism.