Faith

Chapter 1 The Freethinkers Freethinking to find the truth If we are to learn the truth about the nature of existence, we must first do so with an open mind. In other words, to think outside constraints of any dogma or fixed ideas originating from authority figures or beliefs from our social bubble that incline us towards groupthink. In other words, we must be freethinkers. The Oxford Dictionary defines a freethinker as: "a person who forms their own ideas and opinions rather than accepting those of other people, especially in religious teaching." This is all well and good but a search of the internet for information about freethinkers reveals that groups calling themselves freethinkers are those who reject all forms of religion and deny the existence of God. In other words, atheists. Modern “freethinkers” are not true freethinkers because they are as bound to their own dogmatic denial of God as the fanatical delusions of an extremist sect are bound to their religion. A true freethinker must be able to reason without being constrained to a foregone conclusion that God does not exist. History of freethinking and reason in religious thought Freethinking has been rare throughout history with notable exceptions such as Socrates as expounded by Plato. Freethinkers have been persecuted, suppressed, tortured, and even killed for their views. Socrates was himself killed by the authorities for questioning the accepted orthodoxy. After Socrates there wasn’t much freethinking at all that we know of until the age of the enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th centuries. Before this, freethinkers who questioned the prevailing religious authorities were prosecuted as heretics with dire consequences such as being burned at the stake. The Christian Church went through a very nasty period culminating in the vicious Spanish Inquisition inflicting banishment, torture, and death to dissenters. The Spanish inquisition was part of a wider brutal Church regime that was a partnership between the Church and the kings of Europe which worked together to keep the rulers and Church leaders in power. Initially it was under the authority of the catholic pope. The breakaway protestant churches following Henry VIII turned out to be little better, the protestant archbishops working with their kings under the same model. The enlightenment (“age of reason”) The freethinking movement of the enlightenment was largely a reaction against the tyrannical regimes of Europe. A few brave philosophers and writers can be credited with kicking off the age of reason that brought about the separation of Church from state and allowed for reason to prevail over religious dogma. Three freethinkers stand out in the annals of history in bringing about the “age of reason”: Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Voltaire.... Chapter 2 The Case for a Power Greater than Ourselves Creation over a long time Atheism is often justified by pointing out the obvious problems with mainstream “creationism” beliefs such as the Genesis version that God created the world in seven days and then created man in his own image about six thousand years ago. But we know from science that the earth was populated by dinosaurs for at least a hundred and fifty million years until about sixty-five million years ago. We also know from science that apes evolved along with other mammals over millions of years and humans have been around for at least a hundred thousand years. However, creation does not contradict science if we accept that it happened over a very long time. The key question is whether the universe was created by “intelligent design”, or did it come about by random chance? The laws of physics and chemistry The first obvious problem for atheists to explain is how the laws of physics and chemistry came about, if not from a creative force? This is the argument of the deists, that the physical laws giving order to the universe are evidence of a creator or designer. Can the order in the universe really have come about from the chaos of a “big bang”? A useful analogy is: can an explosion in the wrecker’s yard result in a fully assembled Rolls-Royce? Evolution: chance or design? The “orthodox” interpretation of Darwin’s theory of evolution requires us to accept that it all happened by chance through a series of random genetic mutations. When a chance mutation occurs that makes a creature better adapted to its environment it will be more likely to survive. Thus, the fittest mutation will survive and will pass on its genes to its offspring. But is it reasonable to believe that molecules assembled themselves by pure chance into human beings? There is much scientific evidence in favour of evolution, however there is very little evidence that it came about by chance. The debate is not whether evolution is true or not. The debate is about the means of evolution. Did humans get here by random chance, or are we here by design? When we look closely at the perfection of nature, your hand for example, are you not convinced that it must have been designed, and cannot have happened by chance? Is it more plausible that we happened by chance or that we were designed? Which theory is the more rational? Both evolution and creation can be correct.......