Reply to Theo: The Basis for Religious Belief in the Modern Age

By Richard Hazzlewood

Replying to an atheist friend who claims religion is out of date, and the Design Argument is fatally undermined by evolution, I embark on a reply, drawing on the thought of two Medieval thinkers, Bonaventure and Aquinas, and discussing scepticism and faith, epistemology, and the unique place of faith in our world. My aim is to demonstrate that religious belief is still relevant, logically coherent and not only justifiable but in fact of substantial merit in the modern world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Hazzlewood
• Release date: May 26, 2020

Richard Hazzlewood

Quiet academic type from North West England. BA English, MA Renaissance Literature.I studied in exile by the rivers of Babylon for 3 years, aka Cambridge. And I descended into Egypt, aka PricewaterhouseCoopers. Now I live in a spiritual hermitage where I study literature, philosophy and religion.I am a Roman Catholic convert, and particularly find spiritual fulfilment in the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Liturgy of the Hours.Beer, wine, and spirits are my three branches of government. I am currently especially interested in French and Italian red.Philosophy is really the driving force of my life, and I always seek to question and open up new vistas on being. From Classical ethics to Medieval metaphysics to existentialism, I like to run the gamut of philosophical thought.Poetry is an abiding passion of mine.Finally, a list of books I hold very close to my heart: Augustine, 'Confessions'; Bonaventure, 'Journey of the Mind to God'; Dante, 'The Divine Comedy'; Plato, 'Phaedrus'; Cervantes, 'Don Quixote'; 'The Bhagavad Gita', & of course, 'The Bible'.

Book preview

Reply to Theo – The Basis for Religious Belief in the Modern Age

Richard Hazzlewood

Distributed by Smashwords

Copyright 2020 Richard Hazzlewood

The Statement

Theo,

You claim that advances in cosmology and evolutionary biology fatally undermine the Design Argument – the evidence for God from the apparent order and purposive design of nature. Our evolution from apes and earlier life forms both fatally contradicts Genesis 1-3 and makes a Creator God, a supreme designer of the human body and mind, wholly unnecessary, as these can be accounted for through complex evolutionary – self-determining – processes, as well as the entirety of nature. Additionally, the universe is not a neatly ordered series of planetary spheres, but a vast, wild and untamed cosmos. Evidence from design has been dealt a fatal blow. This makes faith in the modern age irrational and without any basis in logic. Religion is now an out-of-date belief system.

"…For in my opinion, once you can break the design argument, in all its complex and varying forms, the case for God collapses. It doesn’t just lose the last effective truth claims, but the case for a non-God universe becomes incredibly powerful on top."

I would say:

The Design Argument isn’t central to religious belief, it is merely an extrinsic logical demonstration of deeper subtleties. However design is still a valid and useful way of considering the wisdom of order and integrity that have come about. We will examine two Medieval thinkers in