Book Review: Reasons

Reasons edited by Thomas Gaston

This is a book that needed to be written.

It is, in overview, a panoramic look at some of the key intellectual reasons for believing in God, Jesus and the Bible, stringing them together in a compact and readable volume. And what a timely work it is. In the developed world faith is popularly regarded as nothing but superstition - something for the ignorant and uneducated. The evidence of this book illustrates that this is far from the truth.

Yet it doesn't ignore criticism and is even honest enough to draw the readers attention to possible objections to its arguments. But the overwhelming message is that Biblical faith in the 21st Century is robust and, contrary to popular belief, reachable by reason.

There are two halves to the book. Initially it looks at reasons for seeking. Why in this world of ever increasing secularism should we be interested in a God? The book begins with the wide angle lens examining the general philosophical reasons for asking the question, before moving to the scientific grounds of the finely tuned universe and the origin of life on earth. In terms of biology's witness of God this is where the book stops. In some ways this is a little disappointing, but it is equally important to recognise what the authors haven't put in. More on this later.

The next chapter looks at Consciousness and explains how consideration of this subject should lead us away from mere materialism. It speculates that quantum theory could provide an insight in to how consciousness works (although having suggested this it could do with more explanation of what quantum theory is and how it might relate to the problem of mind). The chapter is an important one but it in my opinion it also needs to be clearer that it is not advocating a kind of floaty soul that is separate from the body.

The next reason to seek comes from examining the evidence of human morality, before the first section concludes with what is the weakest chapter of the book, on The Problem of Evil.

In some ways this chapter is a little out of place here. Suffering is more likely to be seen as a reason not to seek God. But having included it in the book I didn't find the conclusions satisfying. The tone was at times condescending and a lot of space is used arguing over how much pain is required for there to be a problem, which all felt a little irrelevant. Then, when considering natural disasters such as the 2004 Tsunami we are told that this is not a theological event. I don't find this satisfactory, neither do I think that it is useful to explain the existence of pain as because it is only 'temporary'. Unfortunately the chapter only begins to address the key issues at the end when it says 'Suffering is mandatory for spiritual development'. This is the area that needs to be explored in far more depth.

But the next section gets us back on track with Reasons for Believing. It is crammed full of useful information from the textual reliability and historical accuracy of the Biblical texts to the evidence of prophecy, the nation of Israel, and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. There are many juicy morsels of information in these chapters that can't be conveyed properly in this short review, but certainly the gentle persuasion of the 'Resurrection' chapter is a particular triumph.

And here, after a short Epilogue, the book ends. But as alluded to above it is interesting to recognise what isn't included. There are no Intelligent Design type of arguments (that is if we don't include the very valuable chapter on abiogeneis). This is a great relief as they could have undermined the whole package. Though it does feel like there should be something more to say about life on earth. As yet this is still being worked through by Christian thinkers and a range of views exist. For example, there are Simon Conway Morris' ideas about convergent evolution making human beings an inevitability of the process of evolution, through to others who feel that the emergence of human beings required much more guidance. Either way it feels that the teleology of the earth's natural history should be an important topic.

The reader will leave this book amazed that such an enormous scope of argument has been covered in a little over 200 pages. This is the great value of the work. Such a wide range of issues surround belief in God, Jesus and the Bible, and in this one place a good number of them are dealt with expertly, each one building on the last.

The few criticisms discussed above certainly don't get in the way of me offering a hearty recommendation.

Dawkins finds Jesus

In perhaps his most famous book Richard Dawkins reaches an important conclusion.  He says:

...if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals co-operate generously and unselfishly towards a common good you can expect little help from biological nature.  Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

And this is the reason why we need to teach Jesus Christ.  Of course Dawkins doesn't accept that but he has, through biology, recognised this deep human need to be led out of our natural state of selfishness and competition, to a position of co-operation and consideration of the benefit of others, even above ourselves.

This is precisely the power of Jesus, and it's not just a matter of the wise words that we have recorded, like “love your enemies”.  Its about action too.  Jesus is the master who chose to become a servant, he is the King who chose to humble himself to a robber's execution, he is the one who washed his disciples feet, he is the one of would give, give and keep giving to the point of exhaustion.

The apostle Paul also recognised this. He said 'I know that nothing good lives in me'. But he also saw that in Christ he had found the way out of this mess, the pathway to a bright future for society.

Scientific Thinking

The idea that the methods of physical science are quite simply the only intellectual methods and should therefore be extended to cover every subject matter, including our understanding of ourselves, was put forward early in the nineteenth century by Auguste Comte and others. It is still a powerful faith, devoutly preached by many people today. Only radical confusion about the meaning of the word 'scientific' makes it seem plausible.

Mary Midgley in Science and Poetry

Self-replicating?

What brings DNA to life, what gives it meaning, is the cellular environment in which it is embedded... Genetic theorists with little biochemical understanding have been profoundly misled by the metaphors that Crick provided in describing DNA (and RNA) as 'self-replicating' molecules or replicators, as if they could do it all by themselves. But they aren't and they can't... You may leave DNA or RNA for as long as you like in a test-tube and they will remain inert: they certainly won't make copies of themselves... The functioning cell, as a unit, constrains the properties of it's individual components. The whole has primacy over its parts

Steven Rose, Lifelines: Biology, Freedom, Determinism
As quoted by Mary Midgley

The Romantic Poets...

...wrote against the dangers of the materialism that had became popular with the Age of Reason. This is not because they were anti-science but rather they saw the error in a purely reductionist approach. So Wordsworth writes:

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings:
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous form of things:-
We murder to dissect

in The Tables Turned

A functional creation

In its conclusion The Lost World of Genesis One summarises the argument for a functional view of creation:

1) The Hebrew word translated "create" (bara) concerns assigning functions
2) The account begins in v2 with no functions (rather than no material)
3) The first three days pertain to the three major functions in life: time, weather, food
4) Days four to six pertain to functionaries in the cosmos being assigned their roles and spheres
5) The recurring comment that "it is good" refers to functionality (relative to people)
6) The temple aspect is evident in the climax of day seven when God rests - an activity in a temple

To a Butterfly

I'VE watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless!--not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary;
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days, when we were young;
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.

________________________
STAY near me--do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find in thee,
Historian of my infancy!
Float near me; do not yet depart!
Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art!
A solemn image to my heart,
My father's family!
Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:--with leaps and springs
I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her, feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.

By William Wordsworth