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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Christianity, Evolution, and the Argument from Reason


When Darwin wasn't plagiarising other people's words, he came up with his own. And it turns out, he was reasonably intelligent. In fact, he was quite the philosopher, as he figured out the argument from reason, which happens to be a very powerful argument against all forms of atheism.


C.S. Lewis said it best in The Case for Christianity, in which he wrote "Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God." Before C.S. Lewis was born, Darwin came to the same conclusion. If, as he believed, we are ultimately descended from lower animals, what justification do we have for believing we can reason? Of course, we have none. There is no logical reason to ever believe we have a greater reasoning capacity than an ape.


By contrast, the Bible puts forward our creator God as a God of reason. This God, who gave us dominion over the earth and commanded us to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21), has created a predictable world, and given us everything we need to be able to subdue it. It's no coincidence that the scientific revolution coincided with the Reformation. It's no coincidence that virtually all scientists up until Darwin were Bible believing Creationists, or that Creationists continue to make great contributions to science, or that Evolutionists have a nasty habit of suppressing science that contradicts their religion.

Taking Evolution seriously, it's impossible to take Evolution seriously. If Evolution were true, the discussion would be futile. But taking Creationism seriously, it's entirely reasonable to assume mankind can reason.


This is just as well, because it both allows us to come to the conclusion that the Bible is true, and gives us compelling reason to accept that conclusion. Therefore we can be sure that the same God who created us also loves us. Unfortunately, it also tells us that God is a God of justice, and that every one of us has violated His laws, meriting His judgement. But the good news of God's love is greater than the inconvenient news of His justice, because God's love causes Him to prefer mercy and grace.


Thus, God took the only just option available to Him. Rather than punishing sinners for our sin, He sent Jesus, who knew no sin, to take our punishment for us. Because of this, we can confess Jesus as Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, and that is literally all we need to do to receive the forgiveness for sins that He offers. Science is certainly not the only blessing God gave to man, neither is it the greatest.

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