After slaying the Bull of Heaven, Gilgamesh and his devoted friend Enkidu embarked on a long trek back to the palace at Uruk. Along the way, Gilgamesh boasted to Enkidu that he had installed an ingenious security system to protect his royal chamber from intruders: if anything larger than a gnat passed through a door or window, the system would give it a lethal electrical shock. He added that the system logged each instance in which it was triggered and security cameras monitored activity outside his room at all times. There was no safe way in or out, Gilgamesh warned, unless one carried the electronic key card that hung from his neck.

But when the Champions of Uruk arrived at the royal chamber they found that the furniture had been overturned, the king's clothes were shredded and strewn across the floor, certain valuable items--jewelry, statues of lapis lazuli, and his T.V.--were missing, a half eaten sandwich was left on the dining table, and the words "William Loftus wuz here!" were painted on the wall.

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So many people have been reading and talking about The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, so I finally decided to pick up a copy and read it (twice). While Dawkins is an engaging and entertaining writer, his arguments are surprisingly weak. It is clear that he is completely unaware of the revolution in philosophy of religion that has taken place over the past few decades. It’s amazing to me that he could write a book against God and not deal with philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, or J.P. Moreland. Maybe he knows of them and simply ignores them (just as he refuses to debate someone of the likes of Craig). Or maybe he really is unaware. I lean toward the former.

While this is not the place to respond to all of Dawkins book—after all, it’s over 400 pages!—I do want to respond to Dawkins key claim that the design argument fails because it can’t explain who designed the designer. He says, “A designer God cannot be used to explain organized complexity because any God capable of designing anything would have to be complex enough to demand the same kind of explanation in its own right” (136).

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Where did we come from? Why are we here? How did life as we know it come about? Are we accidental by-products of a purposeless, dark, and cold universe (as Darwinian evolution teaches)? Or are we the pinnacle of creation by a loving God? In other words: Is the world a cosmic fluke? Or is the universe the handiwork of personal God? Few questions, it would seem, are more important than these.
If you’ve taken Biology 101, visited a museum lately, or watched a recent Discovery Channel documentary you’ve probably heard that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. University Professor Francis Ayala recently said, “Scientists agree that the evolutionary origin of animals and plants is a scientific conclusion beyond reasonable doubt.”

This idea shows up frequently in popular television shows, too. For example, in a Friends episode Phoebe and Ross discuss the merits of Darwinian evolution. Shocked to find that Phoebe rejects it, Ross says, “Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe. Evolution is scientific fact, like, like, like the air we breathe, like gravity.” If you look closely, you’ll also find Darwinism being taught in the children’s movie Lilo and Stitch and in a recent episode of The Family Guy. The take-home lesson is simple: smart people are supposed to believe in evolution, and only fools believe the world was designed by God.

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President Bush set off a firestorm of controversy when he claimed, in a lighthearted conversation with a Texas journalist, that intelligent design out to be taught in public schools. He said, “I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought, and I’m not suggesting—you’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes.”

Bush’s comments set off such a firestorm that Time magazine shortly had a cover story entitled, “Evolution Wars” that discussed the merits of intelligent design (ID) as a scientific enterprise. The controversy has continued into this election process, as the Republican candidates were asked in a nationally televised debate in 2007 whether they believed in evolution. Former Governor Mike Huckabee, Representative Tom Tancredo, and Senator Sam Brownback, indicated that they did not. John McCain said that local school districts should have the final say as to what is taught in their communities.

An interesting article was forwarded to me recently by Stan Jantz regarding the newly built SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) radio telescope funded to the tune of $30 million by Microsoft. The head researcher, Rick Forster, is working on this project in collaboration with UC Berkeley, which in case you don’t know, is one of the leading research institutions in the world. Why the huge investment of time, money and resources? Because, according to Forster, "It's nuts to think we're alone. It's just a matter of looking in the right direction, at the right time, at the right frequency, with the right algorithm.” Just to recap, a leading scientist receives $30 million, notoriety and accolades for having a hunch. Important to note that at this point, no substantial evidence whatsoever has been found to indicate that there’s life out there in the great beyond, and nothing suggests that anyone out there is trying to dial in on planet earth.

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For the past couple years “militant atheism,” as the Wall Street Journal put it, has been on the rise. Figures such as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and others have brought atheism to the forefront of cultural discussion through books, blogs, debates, and TV appearances. While their books have been mega bestsellers, there has been a need for critical responses to their views. David Berlinski—a secular Jew—has recently met that need with the release of The Devil’s Delusion.
The basic contention of the “militant atheists” is that science has disproved the existence of God. Known as the “God of the gaps” argument, it is widely believed that the more science progresses the less room there is for God. But, as Berlinski points out, the exact opposite is true. He says that scientific progress has “made the world more mysterious than it ever was. We know better than we did what we do not know and have not grasped.” While science has certainly progressed, so have the gaps that need to be filled. For example, there is no naturalistic explanation for the following: (1) where everything came from; (2) the emergence of life; (3) the origin of consciousness; (4) the origin of morality; (5) the fine-tuning of the universe (just to name a few). There are certainly speculations about these, but no convincing answers. This is why Berlinski says that the widely held idea that we are nothing more than cosmic accidents is “an article of faith. There is not the slightest reason to think this so.” In this brief review, I am going to highlight some of the key insights of The Devil’s Delusion.

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You gotta love Richards Dawkins. Seriously, nobody in the last quarter-century has been a more creative, persistent, and grumpy advocate for Darwinism than the famous evolutionary biologist from Oxford. Thomas Huxley--Darwin's own "bulldog," who aggressively defended and promoted the theories of natural selection and common descent to a 19th century audience--has nothing on Dawkins. If you put Huxley and all of Darwin's 21st century defenders in a big pile, it would be dwarfed by the single pile that is Richard Dawkins.

You have to admire Dawkins. He is almost single-handedly taking on his (and Darwin's) arch nemesis, the theory of intelligent design. Other prominent Darwinists, such as Michael Ruse, seem reluctant to endorse their colleague (Ruse is quoted as saying, "Dawkins makes me ashamed to be an atheist"). So Dawkins stands apart, not just for his ability to stir up media attention and capture readers (his book, The God Delusion, is an international best seller, even though most scientists think his arguments are weak and somewhat spurious), but also for his absolute refusal to consider the possiblity that the universe got here by supernatural means.

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It’s been awhile since I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and write, namely because everything in life has been so uncontrollably busy. Finally, I’ve got a moment between things on my to do list to reflect on something I’ve been thinking about. Two words: intelligent design. Not the kind that talks about where everything comes from, but rather, the kind that gives me a glimpse at the God I serve. To explain what I mean, I’m going to offer a little background on what’s been keeping me busy. We’re getting set to complete the purchase of our first home. That’s a big deal, but at face value, no bigger a deal than any of the millions of first homes purchased in every city and state in America. Maybe with a little more insight into the story, you’ll see why I’ve been pondering the Intelligent Designer and His perfect plans.