Is God Dead? Why God Won’t Go Away

Last week, we began looking at the research findings of two neurophysiologists who conducted extensive studies of the relationship between human consciousness and “the persistent, particularly human longing to connect with something larger than ourselves.” 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 “needs himself and makes himself necessary. He is a type of circulus vitiosus deus” (God is a vicious circle) he said. 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 according to skeptics.

Drs. Newburg and D’Aquili eventually reached a point in their research where science could take them no further saying, “We 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.” But how, exactly, does the mind “develop” its own capacity to perceive the spiritual realm? Darwin can only say—evolution—of course. But there are some real problems when we think about the “evolution of the mind.” According to Darwin, evolution proceeds from simple to complex, step by step, selecting only those traits that provide an immediate 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, “Evolution, after all, doesn’t plan ahead.” 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 “hard to find a reason,” says Newburg, “why natural selection would tolerate these natural developments, which would not be operational for millions of years.” In fact, the same holds for many Darwinian “adaptations.” If we think about Michael Behe’s Irreducible Complexity—the idea that there are complex biological systems that are only functional as a complete unit—we 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 and function fully. Therein lies the problem; half a bird’s wing is not much of an advantage to the bird. Biologist Steven Jay Gould once asked, “What good is half a jaw or half a wing?” Evolution does not tolerate partially completed projects for thousands—millions of years with an eye toward a brilliant final plan. Therefore evolution cannot explain why humans naturally long for something higher than themselves.

Even so, the good doctors conclude with this assessment: “Our 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.” Okay, there is a 50-50 chance, they say, that a God exists that humans can commune with.

Newburg and D’Aquili set out in their research and subsequent book, Why God Won’t Go Away, 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’s capacity to perceive the Divine is by 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 image of God (cf Gen 1:27). It is a deep-seated longing that resides in all of mankind who yearn to commune with the Creator in whose “image and likeness” 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’t Go Away. He is as much a part of the human mind as what makes you smile or makes you sad. At the same time it seems enormously unlikely that experiencing God through the neurology of transcendence “evolved” from common, think-less atoms.

Even still, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Madman screams from the town square: “God is Dead!” But what exactly did Nietzsche’s Parable of a Madman say, and why does it even matter? Join me again next time as we take a deeper look at the world of a Madman to help us possibly answer the question: Is God Dead?

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Ty B. Kerley, DMin., 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. You can contact him at dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.