Dr Paul Allen

René Descartes (d. 1650) had some trouble trusting his senses. He coined the quintessential philosophical maxim: “I think therefore I am” because the only thing you can ever be sure even exists is yourself, since you are the one thinking that egotistical thought. Everything and everyone else in the Universe could be a figment of your imagination (or a product of the Matrix!) But that still proves that you have an imagination, and as the thinker you are thus the only one who certainly exists. I find it both bemusing and amusing that Descartes also whole-heartedly bought into the implausible notion of luminiferous æther (or ether). Æther is a “substance” that was universally believed—by everyone from any literate third grader to the auspicious father of physics, Sir Isaac Newton himself—to occupy every nook and cranny of outer space. Since light behaves like a wave, it must have a substance through which to move from the stars to earth, which “proved” space was not a vacuum. Ether ...

Westminster Abbey in London (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Charles Darwin died in April 1882. He wished to be buried in his beloved village, but the sentiment of educated men demanded a place in Westminster Abbey beside Isaac Newton . As his coffin entered the vast building, the choir sang an anthem composed for the occasion. Its text, from the book of Proverbs , may stand as the most fitting testimony to Darwin’s greatness: ‘Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her.’ So wrote Stephen Jay Gould , the eminent Harvard paleontologist, professor of geology, and ardent evolutionist in Discover magazine in 1982. Darwin was not buried in Westminster Abbey because he was a staunch defender of the faith. While he was not a friend of the church, neither was he an atheist. Continues Gould, “He probably retained a belief in some kind of personal god—but he did not grant...

Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia The so-called new atheists—the late Christopher Hitchens , Sam Harris , and Richard Dawkins —represent the perspective that science, properly understood, renders belief in God untenable. Dawkins argues that the best argument for God was always the argument from nature, but now that we know nature arose by natural processes, we know that God either does not exist or leaves no evidence of His existence. This perspective conflicts with the biblical view. The psalmist says the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 19). He looks at nature and talks about something beyond nature. The new atheists' view is also directly opposed to the view of early modern scientists such as Robert Boyle , Johannes Kepler , and Isaac Newton . Many of the leaders of the scientific revolution were devout men of faith. They had a deep conviction that nature was intelligible because it was made by a rational i...