If you believe in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, it does not always mean you do not believe in God, Elliott Sober, a scientific philosopher and author, told an audience in Dale Hall on Monday.
The OU Department of Philosophy invited Sober, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s philosophy department, to participate in the David Ross Boyd lecture series, in which the department brings philosophers to campus for several days.
In his presentation, titled “Darwin and Intelligent Design,” Sober said many people think there are only two options concerning belief in God or evolution: atheistic evolution, meaning belief in Darwin’s theory that requires you to deny God’s existence and creationism, meaning belief in God that requires you to deny Darwin’s theory.
“Apparently, evolutionary theory has suggested to people that there is no God,” Sober said. “I don’t think the theory says that.”
Sober said he believes there is a third option, which he calls “theistic evolution,” meaning you can believe Darwin’s theory is true and that God exists. He used tenants of the theory of evolution to back up his argument.
Sober said the idea of unguided mutations in organisms does not mean the mutation was uncaused. He used an example of an experiment in which blue organisms are placed in a red and green environment – an environment in which developing camouflage for each organism’s respective environment would be favorable for the organisms’ lives.
Sober said the experiment showed that the frequencies of developing and not developing the coloring are all relatively the same, meaning the probabilities of the mutations were unguided because the organisms were not affected by what would have been good for the organism.
Sober also shared an analogy of gamblers tossing coins. The frequency of heads and tails on the coin is relatively the same, meaning it is not for the good of the gambler.
Sober said these experiments do not reveal the hand of God.
“Both these claims are consistent with the idea that God causes everything,” Sober said. “Maybe God is reaching into nature and causing those mutations.”
However, Sober was careful to explain that he was not arguing for or against God’s existence.
“I’m not actually arguing that God is involved in nature,” Sober said. “What I’m saying is that that belief … is left open by science.”
Sober said it was important to realize this position.
“The reason I give this talk when I go to universities is that I think there are a lot of people who don’t know what to think about this,” Sober said. “I think the noise that’s out there from the neo-atheists on the one side and the creationists on the other makes it kind of easy to forget this third position.”
Sober has authored and co-authored 10 books dealing with philosophy within science.
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omerbelkheir 2 years, 7 months ago
h الله خلق الانسان علمه البيان ولم يكن فى الاصل مخلوق اخر وتم تطوره عبر السنين وهذا امر مفرغ منه وهذا لاينفي حالة التطور التي تحدث على الاشياء الاخرى مثل تاقلم بعض الكائنات مع الظروف البيئية التى تعيش فيهاو هذا لاينفي اصل تلك المخلوقات او ينسبها الى جنس اخر فنظرية التطور لاتنطبق على الا نسان فى تحديد الاصل وان حدث الاشتباه فى المعالم او المظاهر فهذا الامر جلي بالنسبة لجميغ المسلمين
"h God created man he knew the statement was not originally a creature was another development over the years and this is devoid of it this is to discharge the case of development that occurs on other things such as the adaptability of some objects with the environmental conditions that live Vehau this discharge the origin of the creatures, or attribute it to a different race theory development, but does not apply to Wonsan in determining the origin, although there had been suspected of features or phenomena, this matter is clear for the Muslim JamieGhee" -translation by GoogleTranslation