Does Reason Required God- Page 2

The first question is this: if our reason evolved on the basis of a purely atheistic theory of evolution, from randomly-played games of atomic bumper cars, how could we trust our brains to give us true answers about the world?  This was something which puzzled the father of evolutionary theory himself, Charles Darwin.  In July 1851, he wrote a letter to a friend in which he said this:

With me, the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.  Would anyone trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind?

The idea that the random firing of atoms in our brains, that infinitesimal sequences of physical cause and effect could assist us, say, in sitting an exam in the theory of causation is a deeply problematic one; it’s like supposing that when you knock over a pint in the pub you can work out from the random shape of the puddle of beer on the floor who bought you the drink and what made you spill it.

And yet this is precisely what the atheist must argue.  Physical cause and effect is what shapes this universe and random chance is its guide.  Our ability to reason just happened.  Well, those of you familiar with the bumper sticker know exactly what it is that “just happens”.

Now I don’t know about you, but my first reaction to Darwin’s doubt was “well, it’s not quite true to call our reasoning random; there is at least a guiding principle to the randomness, namely natural selection.  Come on Darwin, you discovered it!”

But it’s not as simple as that.  And the reason for this is that natural selection does not necessarily operate to favour members of a species who happen to think truly about the world as opposed to those who think falsely about it.  What it does do is favour those with attributes which have greater adaptive value than its competitors.  Discerning truth is irrelevant to the process of natural selection, unless and to the extent that it can be shown that truth-discernment in each particular evolutionary context has adaptive value. 

So, to take an example, the standard atheistic account of religion holds that it must have begun because it conferred adaptive value on early man – for instance through the power of belief in life after death which might give you that edge in any scrap with inconsiderate cavemen from across the valley.