Book Review
Imperial Science
Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism
by Alvin Plantinga
Oxford, 2011
(376 pages, $27.95, hardcover)
Increasingly over the last two decades, Christians have made great strides in taking back science from those who would misuse it as a tool for fostering a naturalistic view of the universe that renders God either non-existent or irrelevant to life on planet earth. Tired of meekly submitting to the oft-repeated but erroneous claim that unguided Darwinian macro-evolution has been "proven," a growing number of Christian academics have thrown down the gauntlet, calling upon materialist scientists to account for the Big Bang, the fine-tuning of the universe, the Cambrian explosion, the irreducible complexity of molecular machines, and the front-loaded, information-rich nature of DNA.
Though the positions taken by these brave Christian academics have varied, I think that the most exciting and fruitful work in the field has been done by such intelligent design (ID) theorists as Phillip E. Johnson, Michael Behe, William Dembski, Jonathan Wells, and Stephen Meyer. At grave risk to their reputations, they have questioned the ability of Darwinism to account for the diversity and specified complexity of life and have promoted an open dialogue on issues of origin and causation.
Sadly, ID theorists have been more often attacked than embraced by their academic colleagues. Even more sadly, those colleagues include not only philosophical naturalists but also theistic evolutionists, who accept a supernatural origin for the universe, yet insist that science must confine itself to methodological naturalism. Aware of this refusal on the part of many Christian academics to seriously question the reigning orthodoxy of Darwinian naturalism, I opened the pages of Alvin Plantinga's Where the Conflict Really Lies with considerable trepidation.
The Problem with Undirected Evolution
Plantinga, the O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, has been a guiding light within academia for decades. He has quite decisively laid to rest the problem of pain as a valid philosophical (as opposed to emotional) defeater of theism and has shown that belief in Christianity, far from being illogical or irrational, is philosophically warranted.
But what, I wondered, would he have to say about the Darwin debates? I am happy to report that, unlike many of his colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic, Plantinga acknowledges the presence of ID. He quotes Michael Behe's work at some length, and he concludes that irreducible complexity does carry some (if limited) weight as an argument for theism and against undirected evolution.
I emphasize the word "undirected," for Plantinga (who does waver and over-qualify himself on a number of points) makes one point absolutely clear: whereas evolution per se need not be incompatible with theism, undirected evolution is. Indeed, he devotes much of his book to demonstrating that the science of evolution has in no way proven—and cannot prove by the methods of naturalism—that evolution is undirected. The belief that natural selection occurred totally by chance, apart from supernatural guidance—a belief loudly touted by such new atheists as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett—"isn't part of evolutionary theory as such; it's instead a metaphysical or theological addition."
A Natural Fit & an Inherent Conflict
As Plantinga is widely regarded as one of the finest living philosophers, his pronouncement in this area carries (or should carry) considerable weight. Plantinga knows the difference between a scientific and a philosophical claim, and he refuses to allow Dawkins and Dennett to pawn off their anti-religious beliefs as scientific fact. More than that, he boldly exposes their rhetorical excesses by comparing them to "a certain kind of religious personality with which we are all too familiar: if you disagree with them, you are not only wrong, but wicked, and should be punished, if not in this world then certainly in the next."
Louis Markos , Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. His 19 books include Lewis Agonistes; Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C. S. Lewis; On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis; and From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on science from the online archives
17.6—July/August 2004
Old Science Confronts a Formidable Challenge in the Scientific ID Movement by Jay W. Richards
29.4—July/August 2016
on Noticing That Modern Science Has Rendered Atheism Irrational by Harry Biltz
more from the online archives
34.1—January/February 2021
Jesus' Astonishing Other Teaching on Marriage by James Ware
20.6—July/August 2007
The Beowulf Poet Was a Shrewd Christian Apologist by Douglas Wilson
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
