another problem for atheists is that
modern physics far from doing away with
the idea of God May eing glimpse of his
hand at
work he believes of course oh there are
Bernard Carr is a cosmologist and
studies how the laws of physics operate
in the
universe he says that the laws of nature
are so finely tuned to enable complex
life to exist that it is extremely
unlikely that this could have happen car
believes at least raises the possibility
of a tuner this is a diagram is called
the Pyramid of complexity and what we've
got here we've got the different levels
of structure in the universe and at the
bottom we've got the things like quarks
that make up the atoms and the atoms
build up to make molecules the molecules
build up to make living cells the cells
make organisms and eventually we end up
with brains and Consciousness it's
rather hard to to you know estimate what
the probability is but it was clearly
very very unlikely that those coinci
those fine tunings which allowed this
pyramid of complexity to arise would be
that how did this come about this this
rather terrific luck of course one of
the first explanations that comes to
mind that there was a tuner or a Creator
or if you like God and obviously for
people of a theological disposition the
idea that the fine tuning is evidence of
God of course is
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wonderful but of course there are other
exciting explanations as to why our
universe is so finely
tuned one such idea is the
Multiverse we have the possibility that
our universe
might just be one of of many many other
universes this is called the Multiverse
to the average lay person uh the notion
of the Multiverse stretches the
imagination to a far greater degree even
than the notion of a Divine Creator well
that's a very interesting point because
if you do have millions of other
universes if you do have this Multiverse
it's clear that you no longer need the
Creator because you can simply say it's
a selection effect that we have to be in
one of the univers
which allows us life to
arise now in that sense I think you
might say that the the Multiverse is the
last Refuge of the
atheist this idea of a mean to explain
away religion is a good example of the
atheist commitment to Charles
Darwin but I think they're pushing
Darwinism too far and I'm not
alone my concern about this is that
seems to be a scientific theory being
expanded Way Way Beyond its acceptable
intended limits Darwinism here is not
simply a philosophy of the emergence of
biological species but rather a way of
understanding everything Darwinism is
universal that's a very interesting
position it's one that I personally have
some difficulty with because I certainly
do not see the the darwinian Paradigm
operating for example in the history of
ideas
day by day the limits of Darwinism are
becoming increasingly
clear atheists hold on to the central
idea of darwinist evolution with quazi
religious ferver but the fact is that
the theory is getting on a bit it's now
147 years
old and as with religion's ancient texts
many of today's scientist of finding
holes in
it this is the carnegi Museum of Natural
History in Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania its fossil collection is
seen by some scientists as challenging
Darwin's theory of
evolution and Professor Jeffrey Schwarz
is a scientist who is turning Darwinism
on its head here we see um schwart says
the fossil record suggests that species
can appear
suddenly as well in in 1885 he does a
study of Jewish
boys one chap who found such ideas
particularly compelling was Adolf
Hitler David stack runs a course called
from Darwin to death camps he believes
the Nazis took gon's ideas one step
further using them to justify the
extermination of
Jews is there a direct line between
Darwin gton and Hitler there's a direct
line is Darwin responsible for what
happens under no is there an
intellectual connection then yes Darwin
removes the spirituality of mankind he
places man within nature once you do
that then you can begin to regard man as
as you regard animals and as you regard
the plant kingdom
you find very few goodmed liberal
atheists arguing the case for eugenics
these days but why not what's the matter
boys back in the 18th century a group of
French revolutionaries the Jacobin did
away with Christianity and sought to
build a society based on rational
thought it ended in extreme
violence well the first attempt to
create a society consciously without God
was made by the Jacobin in France in the
1790s with their Cult of reason it was
part of a broader desire to sort of
purify Society I mean these were people
sort of deadly moralists as it were and
um you know in order to implement their
moral Vision on Earth uh they
essentially tried to destroy
Christianity the Jacobin moral position
left them in no doubt as to what to do
with their ideological
enemies in Western France alone they
killed about a quarter of a million
people who had attempted to adhere to
the old religion the Jacobin weren't
having this they just slaughtered
them the Jacobin were not
unique Burley points out that societies
which have rejected God have not escaped
Mankind's violent
nature I think if you subtract God and
you subtract the notion of an afterlife
then there is a real risk particularly
in the political utopianism which we saw
which are so deadly in the 20th century
um there's a real risk that you will
attempt to create heaven on Earth go for
a quick fix in the here and now to have
the Arrogant illusion that you can
remake man and woman into some sort of
new being and that invariably results in
hell for ordinary
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people
this is Vladimir Niko a Catholic priest
who is chaplain at Royal Holloway
College he lived through this very same
kind of Hell in his Russian Homeland
which was then a Marxist Utopia based on
reason in 1974 Vladimir was drawn to God
and became a Christian unfortunately for
him this put him on the wrong side of
the communist
state I was secretly ordained PR e in um
organized
Community also clandestine community in
Moscow um that was in violation of the
state
laws atheism has been an integral part
of all Communist
States the party demanded Atheism in its
rules you can't be a party member if you
member of any religion actually
do you think that that secularism can be
as brutal as religious fundamentalism
well it has been going back to the
communist state when the state wanted to
exterminate religious groups it did that
with much cruelty so if we are talking
about the crimes of militant secularism
the list can be very very very long
fascism communism they were secular
ideologist basically and look what they
did
so in this case who is talking we We Are
all uh ideologies or religions we all
have criminal record in the past and we
should be humble about that I suppose
atheists don't go out to kill for other
people's beliefs you forgive me for for
mentioning Hitler Stalin ma no they
weren't um staring killed 20 million
people yeah but he was a Confucian
oh come on that
is that is
wriggling of of the most ludicrous
kind