Stephen E. Jones

Creation/Evolution Quotes: Religion #5: Atheism and evolution

Religion #5: Atheism and evolution

1. Atheistic religion
• "science ... sees itself as ... an atheistic religion
2. Atheism
• "Evolution is the ... engine of atheism"
• "evolution has clear consequences ... No gods worth having exist"
• Leading Darwinists claim there is no God
• "Before Darwin, we thought that a benevolent God had created us"
• "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist"
• Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge ... into the arms of a divinized father ... he has himself created
• "The proposition that the things and events in nature were not designed ... is doubtless tantamount to atheism"
• Leading evolutionists use arguments against God
• "What did God do before He created the world and mankind?"

Religion #5: : Atheism and evolution

1. Atheistic religion
• "science ... sees itself as ... an atheistic religion

"It is no more heretical to say the Universe displays purpose, as Hoyle has done, than to say that it is pointless, as Steven Weinberg has done. Both statements are metaphysical and outside science. Yet it seems that scientists are permitted by their own colleagues to say metaphysical things about lack of purpose and not the reverse. This suggests to me that science, in allowing this metaphysical notion, sees itself as religion and presumably as an atheistic religion (if you can have such a thing)." (Shallis M., "In the eye of a storm," New Scientist, January 19, 1984, pp.42-43) [ top]

2. Atheism
• "Evolution is the ... engine of atheism"

"Evolution is the greatest engine of atheism ever invented." (Provine W.B., "Evolution: Free will and punishment and meaning in life." Slide from Prof. William B. Provine's 1998 "Darwin's Day" address, "Darwin Day" website, University of Tennessee Knoxville TN, 1998) [ top]

• "evolution has clear consequences ... No gods worth having exist"

"Naturalistic evolution has clear consequences that Charles Darwin understood perfectly. 1) No gods worth having exist; 2) no life after death exists; 3) no ultimate foundation for ethics exists; 4) no ultimate meaning in life exists; and 5) human free will is nonexistent." (Provine W.B., "Evolution: Free will and punishment and meaning in life." Abstract of Prof. William B. Provine's 1998 "Darwin Day address, "Darwin Day" website, University of Tennessee Knoxville TN, 1998). [top]

• Leading Darwinists claim there is no God
• "Before Darwin, we thought that a benevolent God had created us"

"Before Darwin, we thought that a benevolent God had created us." (Gould S.J., "So Cleverly Kind an Animal," in "Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History," [1978], Penguin: London UK, 1991, reprint, p.267). [top]

• "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist"

"...although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist." (Dawkins R., "The Blind Watchmaker," [1986], Penguin: London, 1991, reprint, p.6). [top]

• Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge ... into the arms of a divinized father ... he has himself created"

"Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness by creeping for shelter into the arms of a divinized father-figure whom he has himself created, nor escape from the responsibility of making decisions by sheltering under the umbrella of Divine Authority, nor absolve himself from the hard task of meeting his present problems and planning his future by relying on the will of an omniscient but unfortunately inscrutable Providence." (Huxley J.S., "Essays of a Humanist," [1964], Penguin Books: Harmondsworth, Middlesex UK, 1969, reprint, p.83) . [top]

• "The proposition that the things and events in nature were not designed ... is doubtless tantamount to atheism"

"Dr. Gray goes further. He says, `The proposition that the things and events in nature were not designed to be so, if logically carried out, is doubtless tantamount to atheism.' Again, `To us, a fortuitous Cosmos is simply inconceivable. The alternative is a designed Cosmos... If Mr. Darwin believes that the events which he supposes to have occurred and the results we behold around us were undirected and undesigned; or if the physicist believes that the natural forces to which he refers phenomena are uncaused and undirected, no argument is needed to show that such belief is atheistic.' We have thus arrived at the answer to our question, What is Darwinism? It is Atheism. This does not mean, as before said, that Mr. Darwin himself and all who adopt his views are atheists; but it means that his theory is atheistic, that the exclusion of design from nature is, as Dr. Gray says, tantamount to atheism." (Hodge C.*, in Livingstone D.N., eds., "What Is Darwinism?", 1994, reprint, p.156) [top]

• Leading evolutionists use arguments against God
• "What did God do before He created the world and mankind?"

"I suppose I had better mention the concept of a divine creator, but personally I do not find that particular hypothesis useful and I am tempted to ask about the cosmic accident that created Him (presumably before the 'big bangs' that started the universe). And what did He do before He created the world and mankind?" (Ager D.V., "The New Catastrophism: The Importance of the Rare Event in Geological History," Cambridge University Press: Cambridge UK, 1993, p.149). [top]

* Authors with an asterisk against their name are believed not to be evolutionists.