Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Some people argue that religions are really just ethical systems aimed at persuad-
ing people to behave better, and thus that religious beliefs should be encouraged, but
this argument is incorrect. All religions start by postulating explanations about the
nature of the physical world and the forces that control it, based on human experi-
ence. It is only later that some religions try to justify their beliefs by recommending
or enforcing certain types of behaviour.
Religious beliefs do have some major positive effects. For example, many people
that run charities helping the poor and disadvantaged are motivated by their religious
outlook. It is also obvious that such beliefs have inspired and stimulated many forms
of art, especially painting, sculpture, architecture and music. You have only to look
up at the Sistine Chapel ceiling in St. Peter's in Rome or listen to the King's College
Choir in Cambridge, to realise this. Science has not inspired art to anything like the
same extent, but in my personal view, what science is doing is to reveal a Universe
whose complexity and beauty surpasses anything imagined by supernaturalists. To
appreciate this, look at the breathtaking photographs taken by the Hubble Space
Telescope.
On the other hand, science lacks for some, but by no means all, people, the same
emotional appeal as religion - it presents a view of human life that is bleak and
joyless by comparison, because of the absence of any discernable, overall purpose
in the Universe. This view conflicts with the purpose-driven, individual lives that we
all lead. This relative lack of appeal is probably the main reason why the majority of
people confine their interest in science to its useful applications or dangers, and turn
to religion to seek meaning and comfort, especially in times of grief and hardship.
Belief in the supernatural provides the possibility of hope in circumstances where a
naturalistic approach might provide none. As the poet T.S. Eliot wrote, “Humankind
cannot bear very much reality”.
The urge to believe in the existence of a personal, all-loving and all-powerful
God is very strong in many, but not all, people. The strength of this tendency is
shown by the lengths of irrational reasoning that some people will go to in attempt-
ing to explain how such a God can permit horrible things to befall innocent people.
For example, the argument has been advanced that the Holocaust was permitted
by God because he has given humans free will, that is, the ability to make choices
between different courses of action. The problem with this argument is that it con-
flicts with the idea that this God is all-loving, so how can he permit such events,
unless he is not all-powerful? This argument also does not explain terrible things
that happen, not because of human actions, but because of natural disasters such as
earthquakes.
A recent example of this type of thinking was shown by Rowan Williams, the
current Archbishop of Canterbury, who was observed to say, when witnessing from
close quarters the deliberate destruction of the Twin Towers in New York in 2001,
that “God is useless”. He later explained that this terrible event had been permit-
ted because God has given us free will. Thus the depth of his need to believe in an
all-loving God overrode the simpler explanation of such events provided by the natu-
ralistic viewpoint. On the naturalistic view of the world, such events present no such
problem - bad things happen to innocent people because they were unlucky enough
