IS FAITH RELEVANT TODAY?

Question: In light of the theory of Evolution and modern science, isn’t religious faith pointless?

Answer: With the advent and growth of Evolutionism as a quasi-philosophy, there are many sceptics who claim that the religious sentiment is an immature product of early Man’s imagination and fantasy, and that today it is a delusion of stupid minds. Religious faith, they argue, is not only irrelevant, but a hindrance to social and intellectual advancement.

As to the origin of this religious sentiment, there are at least two possibilities:

First, that it was implanted or created in Man as a special or deliberate act. Viewed this way, the question would be settled.

Second, that in common with the rest of human emotions, it arose through the process of Evolution.

If we take this second view, we are faced with two additional questions:

A. What are the circumstances which brought about this sentiment?

B. What is its purpose?

As to A, if we regard all human faculties to be the result of accumulated modifications caused by the interaction of the organism with its environment, we must conclude that there exist in the natural order certain phenomena which have determined the growth of religious feeling, and that it is, therefore, as normal as any other faculty. There’s no reason to suppose that those phenomena proof of God’s existence are not present today.

As to B, assuming the development of simpler forms into the more complex, the end to which the progressive changes tend must indicate a measure of adaptation to the requirements of life. Therefore we may draw the conclusion that religious faith is in some way conducive to human welfare.

More pertinent to ask is why Evolution would have bestowed on Man a faculty which (supposedly) impinges upon the powers of his mind and deprives him of intellectual progress, rendering the majority of the race unable to appreciate the atheistic arguments of the minority.

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