Two men, Theist and Atheist, find themselves walking together along a woodland road.  As it’s a crisp and beautiful day and neither is in any rush the two begin a conversation.  Amid their talk of wives and children, occupations and recreation they both come to notice the beauty and harmony of the world around them: a sparrow picks at seeds on the ground, a gentle wind blows through the tall grass along the way, and the sunlight filtering through the trees overhead casts a variegated amber and green glow over the scene.

            “What a wonderful world we live in,” says Theist.

            “Wonderful indeed,” replies Atheist. “The grandeur of nature never ceases to amaze me.”

            “Quite right,” says Theist, “But we mustn’t forget to allow the grandeur of the world to turn our minds to the greatness of its Maker.”

            “I don’t follow you there,” says Atheist.  “To me the glory of the world is enough in itself; I see no reason to postulate a Maker—the world simply is.”

            Theist squints for a second and then responds, “How then do you explain all this: the beauty, the harmony, the integration, and how especially do you account for that?”  And with this Theist motioned to a one meter tall cube standing before them both in the middle of the road.  The block seemed heavy and solid and upon it was engraved the following: “DESIGN”.

            “Ah, yes,” said Atheist, “That is striking.  The complexity of the trees, the grass, even that little sparrow; I can clearly understand why these living things convey the impression of design.  But we must remember that these things are merely the end product of a process of development: little random genetic changes being filtered through a screen of natural selection in which what works survives.”  And with this Atheist put his shoulder to the block and began to push while Theist looked on.  Atheist’s heels dug into the ground and little beads of sweat emerged on his brow but after some effort he was able to push the block a good fifty feet away from where he and his companion had been chatting.  Once this labor was done he returned to Theist and smiled contentedly.

            “True enough,” said Theist, “But evolution can only take place because biochemistry is what it is.  Without the fundamental units of life being what they are with their ability to bond and divide as they do at the molecular level and so on we wouldn’t have evolved to enjoy the world around us.  Chemistry itself seems surprisingly specified; again, it seems designed.”

            “Quite right,” admitted Atheist, “But even those chemical mechanisms which underlie life are themselves the result of a process of development.  At the beginning of time it was all pretty much very simple and largely boring elements like hydrogen and helium and only through the slow march of time and the workings of gravity and so on did stars form which converted these basic elements into more interesting stuff like carbon.  These stars sometimes exploded and then reformed into new stars with planets and these planets (seeded, as it were, with these heavier and more complicated molecules) ultimately produced the first forms of life which then went on to evolve.  So, again, the design that seems implicit in chemistry (which stands behind the design that seems to underlie biology) is illusory—the end product of a natural process.”

            Once more, after concluding his remarks, Atheist walked up to the block and began to push it further down the road.  Theist could hear Atheist grunting and once or twice he thought he heard Atheist cursing the block in frustration for its being as heavy as it was.  This time when Atheist returned to Theist the block stood a hundred feet away and Atheist was panting slightly from his exertion.

            “What you say is all true,” said Theist. “But just as the development of biology is only possible because of the complex and very particular chemistry of our universe, so too the development of that chemistry is only possible because of the complex and very particular physics which order existence; just as biology is simply the flowering of idiosyncratic chemistry so chemistry is just the flowering of idiosyncratic physics.  Were the strengths of the fundamental forces or the sizes and masses of fundamental particles even very slight different than what they are complex chemistry wouldn’t exist and thus biology wouldn’t exist.  The reality of design persists.”

            At this Atheist became a bit irritated.  “Fine, but have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, our universe isn’t the only one that there is?  Perhaps there are countless universes out there—somewhere beyond the threshold of our observation—all being brought into existence by spontaneous fluctuations in a quantum vacuum (or something).  The fundamental forces present in each of these universes might have different values and the same might be true for their fundamental particles as well!  And given this diversity it’s only natural to imagine that at least some of the universes in this larger, potentially infinite collection would have physical laws such that complex chemistry would emerge at some point which would in turn give rise to biology and thus, in the course of time, to rational observers!”

            Then, somewhat brusquely, Atheist marched off in the direction of the block.  Theist tried to call after him that such thinking was entirely speculative—metaphysical even—and lacked any observational confirmation but Atheist didn’t seem to hear him—he was muttering indignantly to himself pretty loudly as he walked away.   Again Atheist began pushing the block and after quite a bit of huffing and puffing he came back to Theist, this time from a distance of one hundred and fifty feet.

            “There!  Done and done,” said Atheist to Theist, now pretty well exhausted and even a little grimy from all his effort.  “Like I said, (deep breath)… the design (deep breath)… is merely (deep breath)… apparent; it’s not real.”

            “But that simply doesn’t follow,” retorted Theist.  “Even if our universe is just one piece of a larger ‘multiverse’ that doesn’t really change anything.  Just as our universe operates according to certain regular laws it would seem that a quantum vacuum (or whatever) that makes large numbers of universes would operate according to certain regular laws too.  And if such an entity does exist why then, of all the possible laws it could be operating with, does it seem to be operating with precisely those laws that lead to the eventual emergence of a universe with our physics, which inevitably produce complex chemistry, which inevitably ends up producing life, which inevitably ends up producing rational observers?  It all hangs on a presumably very specific, finely tuned ‘law of laws’ which would allow for all the rest.  I mean, look,” and with this Theist pointed down the road to where the block rested—now a rather small dot in their field of vision for all the distance, “It’s still there.  You’ve only succeeded in distancing it from us.”

            With a clear tone of exasperation and a roll of his eyes Atheist took another long breath and said, “Well, you have to at least admit that it’s a lot smaller now.  When we first started talking the block was a meter cubed; now it’s so small I can blot it out with just my thumb.”

            Theist looked at his companion rather quizzically, then he looked at the block, then back to Atheist again, “Umm… I don’t know… something about that statement doesn’t seem quite right.”

“Naturalism is Irrational” (Part 1 of 6)
“Naturalism is Irrational” (Part 2 of 6)
“Naturalism is Irrational” (Part 3 of 6)
“Naturalism is Irrational” (Part 4 of 6)
“Naturalism is Irrational” (Part 5 of 6)
“Naturalism is Irrational” (Part 6 of 6)