I am teaching through "How Then Shall We Live" video series with an adult
group at church on Wednesday nights. I read sections of that NY Times
article to last night's class for discussion. For most of those the
issue of evolution/age of the earth is simply a closed issue, but
article's equation of ape + genes = man fit into our
discussion.
I believe that FS would trace the train of thought as follows:
1. There is no god that has spoken to men.
2. We must build values, morals, ethics, purposes wholly on our own.
(Humanism)
3. Science shows no sign of supernatural processes at work. The
universe and all within it are "machines"
4. Man is no more than a machine ( e.g. Francis Crick). Our longing
for ultimate purposes and all humaness is just biochemically
driven. If you could add up all the physical parts you would get a
man.
5. Man can be treated as no more than any other machine or animal would
be.
I know that FS usually over simplifies matters, but he was a synthesizer
after all. But ultimately, we Christians cannot slip into a mindset of
materialism/naturalism. As FS states we live in an open universe where
God may act and he includes man as a free actor. If we think in terms of
a closed universe, not only have we closed in man, but closed out God.
As another side issue - I would like to hear Francis Collins speak more
to this end.
Al