False Ideas Fit for Survival?

False Ideas Fit for Survival?

I have been reading/listening to some Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett lately. These two gentleman are promoting a concept that religion is an infectious idea (a meme, as they call it) that is fit for survival, and has therefore survived through the course of human history. As I was reading through I was wondering about something and thought some of you might like to tackle this idea (either for or against).

Here’s what I was thinking: If, through the process of natural selection, an idea can survive that is fit for propagation, then does that idea necessarily have to match up with reality?

Dennett says that religion is a fit idea that has survived because of its very “fit-ness.” He ascribes the continuance of religion as attributed to the process of natural selection. Throughout his discussion of religion (Breaking the Spell), he is basically claiming that God is false or unknowable (so false in practicality). However, natural selection has advanced and evolved this idea of God. So has the process of evolution given humanity a false, fit idea about God? If this is what Dawkins and Dennett are supporting (of course, not stated that way), then what else might be a false idea that has survived due to “fit-ness” through natural selection?
Thanks,
MJ
Some books related to this matter:
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Alister McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine – a rebuttal of Dawkins’ book
By Chance or Intelligent Design

By Chance or Intelligent Design

Recently after visiting a local archeology museum it was apparent that the philosophy of the exhibits, were immersed in evolution. The museum was filled with wide eyed children in awe at every corner reading about fossils, dinosaurs and apes through the lens of evolution which began with Darwinism. Unfortunately, this philosophy is treated as empirical science and not limited to museums, it is taught in our public schools today. “The truth is that Darwinism is not science but a naturalistic philosophy masquerading as science. So an honest debate between Darwinism and Christianity is not fact versus faith but philosophy versus philosophy, worldview versus worldview.”[1] The theory of evolution which is derived from Darwinism does not stand on factual evidence it is a philosophy of naturalism that tries to stamp out God and yet demands an Intelligent Designer.

Charles Darwin a naturalist is considered to be the father of evolution, who proposed a theory on how evolution occurs in the book On the Origin of Species published in 1859. Darwin thought that the origin of life happened by preexisting species developing into new species. For centuries it has been thought that the physical universe was eternal and Darwin was basically stating that there was no need for a creator because life was continually evolving.

As Darwinism claims that we are by chance evolving into forms of life just happening to produce intelligent beings, take a look at just one of the important aspects of the body, called DNA. “Simply put, DNA is like a language in the heart of the cell, a molecular message, a set of instructions telling the cell how to construct proteins-much like the software needed to run a computer. Moreover, the amount of information DNA includes is staggering: A single cell of the human body contains as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica-all thirty volumes-three or four times over.”[2] So how can evolution by chance or accident produce this type of development? The answer is that evolution can not but an Intelligent Designer can.

In addition since Darwin, scientists have figured out that the universe is not eternal but is expanding and evolution must have a beginning therefore, we now have the big bang theory. “The big bang theory delivers a near fatal blow to naturalistic philosophy, for the naturalistic credo regards reality as an unbroken sequence of cause and effect that can be traced back endlessly.”[3] But the big bang theory, can only trace back to the big bang explosion and along with evolution it still calls for an Intelligent Designer.

Where Darwinism can not provide answers for the difficult questions such as when did the earth begin and who created humans with the capabilities needed in life? Christianity can produce answers. It begins in the Genesis account when “God created the heavens and the earth,”[4] when “God created man in His own image”[5] and when He “breathed life into His nostrils.”[6] It is “apparent that God thought the fact of creation significant enough to put it first.”[7] It is also in the opening statements in the book of John as well as in the book of Hebrews and laced throughout other books in the Bible. It should also be noted that the Creation in Christianity answers the most important question, who are we? Why are we here?

Furthermore, it is time that “all Christians learn how to respond to the challenge posed by Darwinism”[8] in order to expose the holes in the theories of evolution and reveal the truth, which is “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

Deanna

[1] Charles and Pearcy Colson, Nancy, How Now Shall We Live (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), 96.
[2] Ibid, 75.
[3] Ibid, 59.
[4] Genesis 1:1.
[5] Genesis 1:26.
[6] Genesis 2:7.
[7] Erikson, Millard J., Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Academic, 1998, 393.
[8] Charles and Pearcy Colson, Nancy, How Now Shall We Live (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), 83.