The Unreasonableness of Atheism and other barriers to belief
(Acts 17:26-27 NIV) From one man he made every
nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the
times set for them and the exact places where they should live. {27} God did
this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him,
though he is not far from each one of us.
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to
please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and
that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Love never works coercively, it only works persuasively.
The unreasonableness of Atheism:
If the definition of an atheist is: someone who believes
that there is NO God. Then we can ask 'how does he know?' In order to know
that there is no God he must know all that there is to know. And therefore he
would be God. But we know that an atheist is just like us, a man with imperfect
knowledge. However in claiming to be an atheist he is setting himself up,
instead of God, as a kind of mini-god, since he claims that there is no God but
is making himself to be a god with all knowledge. This is unreasonable. However
in practise there might be other emotional rather than logical reasons why a
person chooses atheism. Disillusion with established religion, the problem of
evil, personal tragedy, fear, personal comfort and pleasure etc. A much more
reasonable position is that of the agnostic who claims that he does
not know whether there is a God and is open to the evidence.
Atheism is also unreasonable because it cannot explain the
origin or cause of the universe or the scientific laws that uphold it. The
atheist has no reasonable explanation for the 'first cause' of the universe.
Because there is no ultimate first cause one must assume that it just popped
into existence - which is really belief in magic or miracles. You could say
that the universe is just the product of happenstance - it just happened. But
very few atheists even think about these things. Some atheists seem to be happy
to live in a universe of happenstance and the resulting absurdness and
meaningless of our existence. The atheist view also results in a universe where
there is no ultimate justice, the bad guys get away with it. The atheist seems
to be quite happy that life is extinguished at death; of what ultimate
consequence is the life of an atheist?
The atheist is happy to critique the theist view but is
blind to the philosophical implications of his own view. He likes to object to
the problem of evil but is blind to the fact of the ultimate lack of justice
resulting from atheism. Of course if you are an atheist and have answers to
these problems let me know. Of course one can be a happy atheist, I do not deny
that, but ignorance is bliss. And of course the young atheist in the fullness
of vigour can find life happy and satisfying, but as old or middle age
approaches and the pleasures of youth become just dreams and you consider your
own mortality then you begin to realise the futility and meaningless of
atheism. When you are in the grave who will remember you and for how long?
Seeking after God:
Now to the atheist who realises the futility and emptiness
of atheism there is a better way. It is the duty of each individual to seek
after and hopefully find God should he exist, see the first verse I quoted
above (Acts 17:27). To simply say that there is no God is both illogical and
taking a huge gamble. Can you afford to gamble your eternity by lightly
dismissing God's existence. If God exists then he should be knowable. In the
second verse quoted above 'without faith it is impossible to please God,
because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards
those who earnestly seek him', Heb 11:6, it makes a number of statement which
are relevant for someone seeking after God. Firstly faith is required to please
God and secondly a measure of faith is required in that someone seeking him
must believe that he exists. Now clearly it is impossible to seek God if you do
not believe that he exists or could exist. However God will honour our honesty
if we say to him - 'OK God if you are there, then I want to find you'. The
third point to be noted from Heb 11:6 is that He 'rewards those who earnestly
seek him'. God is a God of rewards and he will reward those who diligently seek
after him, finding God will require some effort i.e. diligence on our part and
on God's part he promises to reward those who diligently seek him.
Faith:
Now what about faith? Faith is not some mysterious property
only possessed by religious people, on the contrary it is used by each and
every one of us each day. Let me illustrate faith using an experience I had
when I booked a flight from London to Casablanca in Morocco. Now I booked with
British Airways and I clearly believed that they had the ability to get me from
London to Casablanca, you could say that I had faith in British Airways - On my
part I had to get to the airport with my case and passport and ticket. If I had
arrived without my case and passport I would have demonstrated that I lacked
faith in their ability to get me to the destination. Now the plane took off and
we were rewarded by a short stopover in Gibraltar which has a beautiful view of
the Rock and a pleasant little lounge. Then we took off for Casablanca, but
shortly before reaching the airport we were informed that the airport was
closed due to fog and the plane was diverted to Tangiers. Now at this point I
still believed that BA could get me to Casablanca - and so after a wait we were
told to disembark the plane, they arranged a hotel that we could stay in.
Basically all I needed to do was to listen for my instructions and obey them,
so I dutifully boarded the coach to the hotel, got my room key and listened to
find out the time of the coach that would take us to the airport the next day.
The next day I boarded the coach and eventually the plane took off with all of
us now in business class on the 30 minute trip to Casablanca. So from this
example I think that we can see the requirements of faith; 1. Belief in BA to
get me to my destination and 2. A willingness on my part to do my part to get
to my destination by fulfilling BA's requirements.
Another common misunderstanding is that faith is blind faith
- we have to suspend judgement or our intellect to exercise faith; this idea is
nonsense. It is true that we exercise our faith in that which is invisible, but
that does not mean that it does not exist. Faith must have substance to believe
on, without substance it is wishful thinking. Since God created our intellect
and tells us to love him with our mind it would be surprising if he requires
that we suspend our intellect. The Christian faith is firmly based on
historical fact and evidence. See
Historical
Evidence and the Claims of Christ
. Hindrances to faith:
- Do you believe that God can do this for you? (see Mat 9:28) God is willing
are you?
- An unwillingness to obey - only you can deal with this - if you want to
obey but cannot, then cry out to God - unfortunately there does not seem to be
a gift of obedience, grit your teeth and just do it. God will honour it. Look
at the obedience of Jesus - our example - "Father, if you are willing,
take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42) -
obedience is never easy but it is an act of the will.
Rational reasons for believing in God:
Now if faith in God is not something mysterious and mystical then we can
believe in God for a number of rational reasons, for example:
- The first cause argument - the universe had a beginning, who started it?
- The scientific laws and constants are such that they allow the universe to
exist
- Because of design in nature which reveals a designer
- Because He revealed himself to me while I was ill
- Because I reached out to Him in time of trouble and he answered me
- Because He healed my daughter, wife etc.
- Because of God's historic revelation to people throughout history as
recorded in the bible
Now to be sure these do not constitute proofs of God's
existence, but for many they are sufficient in order to believe in God. God
does not usually force himself on anyone. If you are looking for overwhelming
proof it is unlikely that you will ever find it. God did not create us as
robots. Love never works coercively, it only works persuasively.
Barriers to belief:
- Hypocrisy in the Church - Firstly not everyone who claims that he is
a Christian is one. The Crusades were carried out in the name of Christ but
were clearly not Christian actions that could be backed by the bible.
Christians are not immune from sin, that is Christians are tempted to sin and
all to frequently fall into sin. The fact is that Christians are not yet
perfect but are being made perfect, that is a lifelong process.
- Offended by church life - there may be aspects of current church
life that offend you, say for example the charismatic movement. Maybe the
Charismatics are not for you, the Charismatics do not define the true church of
God any more than other branches of Christianity. The church is based on those
who accept Christ as their Lord and saviour of which the charismatic form a
part. Orthodoxy does not depend on being charismatic. I know of one person who
was a charismatic minister and is now a member of the Greek Orthodox church in
America.
- Fear of God - It is rational to fear God, He is the infinite,
eternal, Holy One who has the power to cast both body and soul into hell, but
there is more to say about God, however. He is also love and He is also
merciful. The bible says 'But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to
do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love' (1 John
4:18). It is quite common to fear God as we come close to him, because the
closer we come to God the more aware of our own sin and unworthiness. It is
then that we need to know that God has solved our sin problem because Christ
Jesus died for our sins upon the cross (1 Cor 15:3). Your fear is normal, and
was experienced by many of the great saints, such as Luther, Bunyan, and Newton
let it drive you to the arms of God who will relieve you of your fear. The
slave Captain Newton who became a Christian says in a hymn "T'was grace
that taught my heart to fear, t'was grace that fear relieved".
- Personal tragedy - some of us blame God for the early and maybe
unjust and painful death of a loved one. Its OK to get angry at God, he can
take it. However we are responsible for how we deal with these crises, we must
not allow them to make us bitter. If our loved one was murdered then we can
sure that God will ultimately punish those responsible either in this age or
the age to come. God will see that justice is done.
- Problem of evil - this bound up with the problem of free will. If
God gives us free will then the possibility of evil automatically arises if we
choose not to obey God. It seems that God prizes our freely chosen love for him
so much that it is worth the price of all the evil in the world. God does not
want robots but those who choose to love and obey him. It seems to me that God
treats us as responsible adults who are responsible for our own actions. God
gives us dignity as well as responsibility. The ultimate answer to evil is that
he will judge each of us and either reward or punish us for what we have done
during our lives. Thus those who have done good will be rewarded and those who
have done bad will be punished. Since the problem of evil seems to one of the
main arguments for atheism, we have to ask what solution there is to the
problem of evil. What should God do about it? This is not as simple as it may
seem. Should God kill us as soon as we commit evil? Then no one would exist
because we all commit evil of some kind. Perhaps he should zap us with pain
when we commit evil so that we are in pain when we do an evil act. In fact God
has given the responsibility to man to control evil in the world, in the end we
have no one to blame for the problem of evil except man. The problem of evil or
rather injustice rebounds on the atheist because in the end with atheism you
have a system in which there is no ultimate justice - the wicked people get
away with their wickedness. One only has to think of all the murderers,
rapists, torturers out their enjoying life, including those men in India who
throw acid into a girls face because she turned the man down. The police do
nothing and the girls are disfigured for life with little prospect for
marriage. With Christianity human dignity and responsibility are maintained and
justice will be shown to be done on the day of judgement when we all stand
before God to give an account of our actions. Atheism ultimately leads to a
most hideously unjust system. It is usually easy for an atheist to live with
this until something unjust occurs that impacts his life.
- Problem of suffering - It seems that some people are very quick to
blame God for all the suffering they see around them and yet a good deal of it
is entirely man made. Wars, famines, torture, poverty and oppression are all
entirely man's responsibility and result usually from man's greed and hatred.
Religion is also blamed for wars, but on closer analysis it can be shown that
it cannot be condoned as Christian (who are commanded to love their enemies -
Mat 5:44) but is more usually associated with a form of tribalism. God has not
ordered things in such a way as to minimize suffering. After all he could have
dealt with the Devil the moment he sinned. He could have cast Adam and Eve into
Hell the moment they sinned and started afresh. Had he done so he could have
avoided the painful and unjust death of Jesus on the cross. The death of Jesus
on the cross one of God's answers to suffering - My Son Jesus suffered on the
cross so that I could forgive you of your sin and reconcile you to me. (Col
1:21-22, 1 Pet 3:18).
- Personal pleasure - Some of us avoid seeking after God because it
will mean that we will not be free to indulge in some of our pleasurable
pastimes. This is only true of illegitimate pleasure. There are many legitimate
pleasures that God has created for our enjoyment. God is interested in our
ultimate pleasure which is to enjoy him forever in heaven. (Psa 16:11). While
the consequences of our few sinful pleasures in this life result in eternal
punishment in the next life. The bible contrasts the temporal sufferings of
this life with the eternal weight of glory in the next life (2 Cor 4:17). Logic
would tell us to consider the eternal benefit of our soul rather than just our
immediate pleasure.
- Past sin - some of us are well aware of our past sins, some of us
may be tortured by the fact that we had an abortion or have led a very immoral
life. How can a holy God accept me with all my very real sins - you ask. If
your sins are of a sexual nature then read my essay
Jesus
attitude to sexual sinners. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus died
to save sinners, his death on the cross allows God to forgive you of your sin
and to accept you as though you had not sinned. He can deal with you as though
you had never sinned. Sure repentance is required on your part - which requires
that you acknowledge your wrong behaviour and to turn from it to God. Augustine
struggled with sexual sin for years until one day when God released him and he
became one of the greatest men of God in history.
- Evolution - the problem with evolution lies not so much as to
whether it is true or not, but in so far as it gives people the excuse
not to believe in God. Some people will say that the theory of evolution
rationally explains our origins without the need for God and therefore I don't
need to be accountable to God. I can do what I like because God does not exist.
Even if evolution is proved to be a true account of our origins it does not
give us a warrant to do what we like. Because people do not believe in God, it
does not follow that they behave as bad people, we all know what is good or bad
even if we fall short of our ideal. Science does not give an answer to the
origin of the universe and the scientific laws which govern the universe and
which are 'just right' to provide an environment in which intelligent humans
can live. It is not sufficient to say that the universe just happened to
explode into existence. There has to be a cause and an intelligent cause at
that. One thing is clear and that is our origin cannot currently be explained
by purely naturalistic mechanisms - the origin of living cells from matter
(abiogenesis) is still a subject in which there is no evidence that it could
occur through purely natural means. Without abiogenesis the rest of evolution
has nothing to work on, because without living cells there can be no natural
selection.
- Pride - this is perhaps the greatest stumbling block to knowing God,
especially in the world we live in. It is hard for a person to stop being the
god of his own life. He will have to humble himself and acknowledge God to be
his Creator and His Lord. Pride might stop you coming to Jesus to be forgiven
of your sin. In order to be forgiven we have to admit that we have sinned, to
some people this is a big problem. All Christians have had to admit their need
of a saviour from sin and to humbly ask Jesus to forgive them. But having
humbled us he picks us up and we find that we are sons of God and also kings
and priests and heirs of eternal life.
- Intellectualism - This is closely allied to pride, but I have
separated them. If you are an intellectual then God can give you an abundant
feast of stuff to be intellectual about, but you may have to admit that you
were wrong about about much that you thought up to now. Jesus warns us 'I tell
you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little
child will never enter it.' (Mark 10:15) Because God is infinite there is an
infinite amount of depth to God that will satisfy you forever which is why
there will be no boredom in heaven - God is infinite and has infinite treasures
to satisfy your mind and soul. God wants us to love him with our body, soul and
mind - you do not need to sacrifice your intellect in order to follow God. I
think that C S Lewis is a good example of an intellectual who came to Christ.
- I have lived a good life - this may be true and commendable but is
it a perfect life? God's standard is perfection, anything less is sin. God's
standard is that we loved him with all our heart, strength, soul and mind and
that we love our neighbor as ourself (Luke 10:27). Another common misconception
is that good deeds cancel out bad deeds, they do not. The standard required is
100% not 51%.
- Seeking an experience: - I mention this because this can also be a
barrier to seekers. Having been convinced from scripture about the validity of
Christianity they seek a special feeling or experience from God, no doubt
inspired by the latest Christian paper back etc. I mention this from my own
experience, I went for years seeking that special experience from God that I
needed. There are those whom God vividly reveals himself, these are the
exception not the rule. Authentic Christianity is to walk by faith and not by
sight. We should use the means of grace that are available to us: the
scriptures, prayer, fellowship, the sacraments and for some a good Christian
wife or husband.
- Creating God in our own image: A common error is to create our own
idea of what God should be like and when we perceive the world as it is or we
look at the God depicted in the bible we throw up our hands in horror and
conclude that 'if I were God I would have done things differently'. We can
easily depict an all powerful, all present, all loving, all knowing and perhaps
an eternal God, for God would have to be an eternal uncreated being in order to
create the universe. If God were not eternal and uncreated then he would not be
God because something must have created God and therefore God would not be God.
It would also be wrong to say that God created himself because something cannot
come out of nothing. Most of us fall short of defining God as holy or righteous
or sovereign or even having free will because that gets us uncomfortable. If
God has an absolute set of moral standards then we get uncomfortable because we
realise that we fall short of those standards and we might not like those
standards. In fact if God is truly God then there comes a point when we stop
our armchair pontificating about what God should be like and have to consider
what God is really like. We change from philosophers, little gods, to finite
creatures searching to understand an infinite God. From that point humility is
required which also makes us uncomfortable.
- Bible difficulties See my
Bible difficulties
page on another site.
When a scientist discovers an anomaly in nature does, does he give up science?
An analogy with marriage:
In the old days we made our marriage vows in church and the English prayer
book said:
- for better or for worse
- for richer or for poorer
- in sickness and in health
In the same way when we commit ourselves to Christ we are
entering a spiritual union that is just as real as a physical marriage. God
does not promise us worldly riches or prosperity or even physical health.
However he does promise to be with us to the end (Mat 28:20) - and everyone who
has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or
fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit
eternal life (Mat 19:29). We need to commit ourself to Christ in the same way -
no guarantees in this life, eternal life in the next. Faith must be worked out
in practise, we must walk what we believe. For most people the first step
starts in the heart, it is based on trust in God, tentative at first but
followed over time by changes in our attitude and then in our actions.
For further essays see links section
Books:
- God :
The Evidence : The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Post-Secular
World by Patrick Glynn an ex-atheist. Very readable includes the Anthropic
Principle and Near Death Experiences.
- The
Case for Faith : A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to
Christianity by Lee Strobel. Very readable.
- The
Case for Christ : A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for
Jesus by Lee Strobel. Very readable.
- The
Creator and the Cosmos : How the Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Century
Reveal God by Hugh, Ph.D. Ross. One of the more readable accounts of
the big bang and the Anthropic Principle.
- Does
God Exist? : The Debate Between Theists & Atheists by James Porter
Moreland, Kai Nielsen (Contributor)
- Intellectuals
Don't Need God and Other Modern Myths by Alister E. McGrath
- Scaling
the Secular City : A Defense of Christianity by J. P. Moreland
- Is
There a God? by Richard Swinburne
- The
Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock
- The
Existence of God by Richard. Swinburne
- Theism,
Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology by William Lane Craig, Quentin Smith
- Beyond
Death : Exploring the Evidence for Immortality by Gary R. Habermas,
James Porter Moreland
- Reasonable
Faith : Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig
- Does
God Exist? : An Answer for Today by Hans Kung, Edward Quinn
(Translator)
- Does
God Exist? Science Says Yes! by Alan Hayward
- Atheism
: The Case Against God by George H. Smith
- Atheist
Debater's Handbook by B. C. Johnson
- Atheism
: A Philosophical Justification by Michael Martin
- The
Miracle of Theism : Arguments for and Against the Existence of God by
John L. MacKie
- Not a
Chance : The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology by R. C.,
Jr. Sproul. Not a Chance is Sproul at his best, which is very good. Reference
to chance explains nothing, as he shows. But it is an essential factor in the
struggles of atheism to appear rational in the face of the world where we live.
He shows secularism to be what it now is: a desperate faith
- Natural
Theology ; Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity.
Collected from the Appearances of Nature. by William Paley
- On
the Nature and Existence of God by Richard M. Gale
Links:
The following links are for those who want to seek after
God. They seek, in most cases, to answer questions asked by those who are
seeking to know God for themselves. Hopefully they may help overcome some of
the barriers to knowing God and coming to a reasonable faith.
The atheism of evolution:
When it comes to the philosophy of evolution, which
implicitly assumes that there is no God - we can ask the question why? Is it
because of logic or emotion? We need to ask ourselves, and more importantly ask
those who are at the forefront of such fields why do they insist on adopting a
naturalistic explanation of origins. After all if God created the universe we
need to know about it, and if naturalistic explanations are not sufficient to
explain our origins again we need to know about it. When I refer to 'we' I mean
the man in the street who has no scientific education. The truth of the matter
is that those who hold scientific power do not have proof of our origins by
natural means, certainly not when it comes to abiogenesis - in short it is
understood by them that our origins came by purely naturalistic means by faith
and not by fact. Now having said that, it does not necessarily mean that their
faith is 'bad' faith, after all if they have good reason to believe that life
occurred through naturalistic means we could say that while there is no proof
that life arose naturally never the less it is reasonable to presume this. So
let us examine this. One good reason is that life does actually exist and here
we are examining the issues, this is a good reason, but only if we reject any
alternative such as the (not to be mentioned in public God created us reason)
provided we ignore this alternative then a naturalistic reason remains a good
reason because it is the only reason (there is no alternative). If we let God
in through the back door (any door will do) then our naturalistic assumptions
crumble. Why do they crumble? Because life gives us abundant evidence of
design. Any scientist who does research on the nature of the cell will
encounter the fact that a cell has the appearance of being designed - given
such an appearance we have to make our mind up - is it actually by design or
did it come into being through a series of fortuitous accidents? Being the
perverse person I am I will take the simpler route - if it Quacks like a Duck
and looks like a Duck then it probably IS a Duck. Why do we try to obscure the
obvious?
To be sure the physical sciences of physics and chemistry do
not need to postulate a God in order to be valid. They are methodologically
naturalistic rather than philosophically naturalistic. As a Christian I can do
physics and chemistry without compromising my beliefs, my methodology may be
naturalistic but my philosophy can be that God created the laws of science. In
actual fact, in both physics and chemistry the philosophy is not even
mentioned. There can be two people working at a laboratory bench - one thinks
that he is studying the laws of science as God created them and the other
thinks that he is studying the laws of nature. Essentially there is no conflict
between the persons philosophy and the work that he is doing. My sister is a
biochemist, she works in a hospital laboratory doing studies on DNA and
inherited genetic defects. I asked her what she felt about evolution and
creation - she commented that she had no opinion one way or the other. In other
words, evolution had no effect on her work whatsoever.
An example of Methodological Naturalism in science today - Vital
Dust: life as a cosmic imperative by Christian de Duve (1974 Nobel
prize for biology) published 1995 by BasicBooks.
I quote from 'Vital Dust' not because it is exceptional but
because it is typical of the implied atheism, that is methodological
naturalism, used by scientists today. This does not say that de Duve is himself
an atheist, but that in his science the possibility that God could have created
life has been excluded.
"A warning: All through this book , I have
tried to conform to the overriding rule that life be treated as a natural
process, its origin, evolution, and manifestations, up to and including the
human species, as governed by the same laws as nonliving processes. I exclude
three "isms": vitalism, which views living beings as made of matter
animated by some vital spirit; finalism or teleology, which assumes goal
directed causes in biological processes; and creationism, which invokes a
literal acceptance of the biblical account. My approach demands that every step
in the origin and development of life on Earth be explained in terms of its
antecedent and immediate physical-chemical causes, not of any outcome known to
us today but hidden in the future at the time the events took place."
[xiv]
"From the perspective of determinism and
constrained contingency that pervades the history of life as I have
reconstructed it, life and mind emerge not as the results of freakish
accidents, but as natural manifestations of matter, written into the fabric of
the universe. I view this universe not as a "cosmic joke," but as a
meaningful entity -- made in such a way as to generate life and mind, bound to
give birth to thinking beings able to discern truth, apprehend beauty, feel
love, year after goodness, define evil, experience mystery. I make no explicit
mention of God because this term is loaded with multiple interpretations linked
to a variety of creeds. As a scientist, I have chosen to provide a summary of
available evidence and to share my personal interpretation of this evidence,
leaving it to readers to draw their own conclusions. Lest I be misunderstood,
let me stress once more that the key word is chemistry, not some preconceived
notion of how things ought to be." [xviii]
"Foresight Excluded - In the making of a
Boeing 747, all steps are intentional, designed and organized according to a
detailed blueprint of the final objective. Things cannot have been the same in
the making of the first living cell. Every step had to stand on its own and
cannot be viewed as preparation for things to come. This kind of objectivity is
difficult to sustain because we know the outcome and also because our whole
thinking about life is permeated by intentionality. Cells are so obviously
programmed to develop according to certain lines, organs adapted to perform
certain functions, organisms suited to certain environments, that the word
design almost unavoidably comes to mind. A whole school of thought has
been inspired by these appearances of design, maintaining that living organisms
are actuated by final causes, in the Aristotelian senses of the term. Called
finalism, this doctrine is close to vitalism, the belief that living organisms
are animated by a vital principle. Both views are now largely discredited.
Design has given place to natural selection. The vital principle has joined
ether and phlogiston in the cementary of discarded concepts. Life is
increasingly explained strictly in terms of the laws of physics and
chemistry. Its origin must be accounted for in similar terms." [ p9 -
his italics]
"We need a pathway, a succession of
chemical steps leading from the first building blocks of life to the RNA world.
Chemistry, however, has so far failed to elucidate this pathway. At first
sight, the kind of chemistry needed seems so unlikely to take place
spontaneously that one might be tempted to invoke, as many have done and some
still do, the intervention of some supernatural agency. Scientists, however,
are condemned by their calling to look for natural explanations of even the
most unnatural-looking events. They must even, in the present case, eschew
the facile recourse to chance, as I hope to have made clear" [p24 - my
italics]
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