02/11/2008

You don’t hear in the popular media of many scientists who give up evolution and start believing in God. That’s what I said, you don’t hear of many. But that doesn’t mean that many do not do just that. I have met a few, but none are so close as my doctor.

Professional ethics get in the way of socialising, but from what I can gather, my doctor, a sharp young man, was not schooled in any sort of religion. I know his father too, and I know that he doesn’t have any well-defined monotheistic belief system, even though I had been talking to him about it for over 30 years.

It all came up when during a consultation he asked me what exactly I did with my life. Watching his eyes, I saw great interest when I told him. So I challenged him that to believe what I believed would throw down to him, a doctor and therefore a scientist, some fundamental challenges—challenges about creation and evolution. That prompted him to declare to me that he was on the same side as I. I asked him how it had come about.

“It was just these very issues that brought me to faith,” he said. “I came to faith through the anthropic principle, and because of the great improbability of evolution.”

In science, the anthropic principle postulates that the only kind of universe that could support human life is the one in which we live. Tweak any of the constants, change any of the physical properties of the universe and we wouldn’t exist, and neither would the universe. Put another way, we “fit” the universe and it “fits” us. Put a third way, it looks as if the universe was designed with humans in mind.

This reasoning leads directly to the conclusion that intelligence designed the universe, which is heresy to any serious evolutionist. And this is the track my doctor took. Looking next at evolution, he concluded that it was highly improbable that evolution could start with non-living material and end up with DNA.

With all that out in the open, then, he was emboldened to say that he came to believe in Jesus. Immediately I supported him by quoting the New Testament letter to the Hebrew Christians, that Jesus “created the world” and is “upholding the universe by his word of power” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

I look forward to going to see my doctor next time I need him!

 

You can find an excellent, 28-minute video lecture on the anthropic principle at doesgodexist.org. And while you are there, have a good look around. I am not connected to this website, but it is a good one.

You can also find a list of some scientists who believe in God, starting with the illustrious Michael Behe at the Intelligent Design website.