{"id":3515,"date":"2010-11-03T11:07:50","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T15:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faithpromotingrumor.com\/?p=3515"},"modified":"2010-11-03T11:07:50","modified_gmt":"2010-11-03T15:07:50","slug":"3515","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2010\/11\/3515\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawkins versus the 'ultimate ground of all being'"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In God and the New Atheism<\/a><\/em>, John F. Haught describes what he sees as the big question facing Richard Dawkins and Intelligent Design (ID) theists, respectively:\u00a0\u201chow to explain the incredible complexity and diversity in living organisms and cells\u201d (88).<\/p>\n

ID proponents see the hand of a \u201cmaster intelligence\u201d making order from chaos, or complexity of simplicity. Dawkins cuts out the theological middle man by sticking to a naturalistic, Darwinian account summed up by Haught:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the scientist needs\u2026is the simple evolutionary recipe consisting of three ingredients: random variations or genetic mutations, blind natural selection of survivable variations, and an immense amount of time\u201d (88).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dawkins then one-ups the ID proponents, noting that if they \u201care going to use God as an explanation of living complexity, then they have to take the next step and explain the existence and \u2018complexity\u2019 of God (whatever \u2018complexity\u2019 might mean as an attribute of God)\u201d (90).<\/p>\n

Dawkins objects to ID\u2019s initial assumption that a personal designer (God) already exists in order to account for the creation of other complexities. Thus,\u00a0Dawkins\u2019s assumptions about what God must be include: \u201c(1) God, if God exists, is an instance of complex design; and (2) like any other instance of design the existence of God requires an explanation, such as the Darwinian one, in which complexity arises gradually out of physical simplicity by way of cumulative small changes over an immense period of time\u201d (90).<\/p>\n

Haught\u2019s theologically-grounded objection to these assumptions may seem foreign to many Latter-day Saints:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe God of theology is not an instance of complex design in Dawkins\u2019s sense of a composite put together over the course of time out of simpler components. Rather, God is the ultimate reason that there is the possibility of any complexity at all\u2026.What Dawkins is demanding is is that theology agree to drop its timeless understanding of God as the \u2018ultimate ground of all being\u2019 and substitute for that understanding one in which God\u2013if God exists\u2013needs an explanation just like every other instance of complex design. That is, God would have to come into existence gradually out of a primordial simplicity\u201d (91-92).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like other responses to new atheism before, God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens<\/em> invokes an absolute view of Deity to overcome evolutionary objections. Some Later-day Saints will feel such a response does not resonate with them and wish for a more specifically LDS response. In that regard I recommend Steven L. Peck\u2019s \u201cCrawling Out of the Primordial Soup: A Step toward the Emergence of an LDS Theology Compatible with Organic Evolution<\/a>\u201d (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought<\/em> 43.1 [2010]: 1-36). Peck relates some reasons why a move to invoke God as the Absolute or rational ground of all being \u00a0might not be adequate to an LDS view of God.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s down with the \u201cground of all being\u201d defense? How well does it overcome Dawkins\u2019s objections?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In God and the New Atheism, John F. Haught describes what he sees as the big question facing Richard Dawkins and Intelligent Design (ID) theists, respectively:\u00a0\u201chow to explain the incredible complexity and diversity in living organisms and cells\u201d (88). ID proponents see the hand of a \u201cmaster intelligence\u201d making order from chaos, or complexity of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctrine","category-theology-doctrine"],"yoast_head":"\nDawkins versus the 'ultimate ground of all being'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In God and the New Atheism, John F. 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Haught describes what he sees as the big question facing Richard Dawkins and Intelligent Design (ID) theists,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2010\/11\/3515\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith-Promoting Rumor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-03T15:07:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bhodges\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bhodges\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2010\/11\/3515\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2010\/11\/3515\/\",\"name\":\"Dawkins versus the 'ultimate ground of all being'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-03T15:07:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-11-03T15:07:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/#\/schema\/person\/27b84f4bde81e6fe00bf58182ec13ee2\"},\"description\":\"In God and the New Atheism, John F. 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