{"id":60740,"date":"2025-04-24T20:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T00:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=60740"},"modified":"2025-04-24T20:22:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T00:22:34","slug":"why-god-wont-go-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2025\/04\/why-god-wont-go-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Why God Won\u2019t Go Away"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last week, we began to look at the research findings of two neuro-physicians who conducted extensive research studying the relationship between human consciousness and \u201cthe persistent particularly human longing to connect with something larger than ourselves.\u201d Darwinians have long argued that religion is simply a human invention that evolved to serve as a coping mechanism in a cruel world. Nietzsche even went so far as to claim that God \u201cneeds himself and makes himself necessary. He is a type of circulus vitiosus deus<\/em>\u201d (God is a vicious circle). Likewise, since religion is a mythical creation of the evolving human mind, there are striking similarities between all religions throughout history. Or so it would seem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drs. Newburg and D\u2019Aquili eventually reached a point in their research where science could take them no further saying, \u201cWe were left with two mutually exclusive possibilities: either spiritual experience is nothing more than a neurological construct created by and contained within the brain, or the state of absolute union that the mystics describe does in fact exist and the mind has developed the capacity to perceive it.\u201d But how, exactly, does the mind \u201cdevelop\u201d its own capacity to perceive it? Darwin can only say\u2014evolution\u2014of course. But there are some real problems when we think about the \u201cevolution of the mind.\u201d According to Darwin, evolution proceeds from simple to complex, step-by-step, selecting only those traits that provide an immediate <\/em>survival advantage to the species. A few weeks ago, we used the example of a bicycle evolving into a motorcycle to show the impossibility of such a progression. In the same way, it is hard to imagine what type of advantage a species has by possessing only a partially functional capacity of neurological transcendence. Newburg rightly notes, \u201cEvolution, after all, doesn\u2019t plan ahead.\u201d Like the bicycle, it does not tolerate the extra deadweight of a motorcycle engine block because it knows that someday it will be a shiny motorcycle; no, evolution is blind. The advantage to the species must be immediate. It is \u201chard to find a reason,\u201d says Newburg, \u201cwhy natural selection would tolerate these natural developments, which would not be operational for millions of years.\u201d In fact, the same holds for many Darwinian \u201cadaptations.\u201d If we think about Michael Behe\u2019s Irreducibly Complexity<\/em>\u2014the idea that there are complex biological systems that are only functional as a complete unit\u2014we quickly see that no bird can fly without a fully developed wing. But the evolution of the bird wing, it is suggested, took countless generations to develop fully and functionally. Therein lies the problem; half a bird wing is not much of an advantage to the bird. Biologist Steven Jay Gould once asked, \u201cWhat good is half a jaw or half a wing?\u201d Evolution does not tolerate partially completed projects for thousands\u2014millions of years with an eye toward a brilliant final plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, the good doctors conclude with this assessment: \u201cOur understanding of the brain and the way it judges for us what is real argues compellingly that the existence of an absolute higher reality or power is at least as rationally possible as is the existence of a purely material world.\u201d Okay, there is a 50-50 chance, they say, that a God exists that humans can commune with. Just looking at the brain\u2019s capacity for neurological transcendence alone, we can say it is just as likely that the idea of God is just a mind game as it is likely that a supernatural Creator truly exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newburg and D\u2019Aquili set out in their research and subsequent book, Why God Won\u2019t Go Away<\/em>, to answer precisely that question: Why have human beings always grasped for a transcendental supreme Being? What is it about the mind of man in which the thought of God never goes away? Perhaps there is a third possibility. Maybe it is that the human mind\u2019s capacity to perceive the Divine may be by<\/em> design so that mankind might glimpse the ultimate reality of a genuinely divine Creator and Designer. For Christians, this is the natural outworking of man having been created in the imago Dei<\/em> (image of God; Gen 1:27). It is a deep-set longing that resides in all of mankind who yearn to commune with the Creator in whose \u201cimagine and likeness\u201d they were created. It is what that portion of the mind was created, fully formed and highly functional, for. And THAT is Why God Won\u2019t Go Away<\/em>. He is as much a part of the human mind\u2019s self as what makes you smile or makes you sad. It seems enormously unlikely that experiencing God through the neurology of transcendence \u201cevolved\u201d from common, think-less atoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even still, Fredrich Nietzsche\u2019s Madman <\/em>screams from the town square: \u201cGod is Dead!\u201d But what exactly did Nietzsche\u2019s Parable of a Madman<\/em> say, and why does it even matter? Join me again next week as we take a deeper look at the world of a Madman to help us possibly answer the question: Is God Dead?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gloria in excelsis Deo!<\/em>Ty B. Kerley,<\/strong>DMin.<\/strong>, is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ and live in Ardmore, OK.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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