Beyond Materialism

1. In the chapter, Beyond Materialism, Ken Miller talk about the Deist view of God and its impact on the leading men of the American Revolution Such Jefferson and Franklin. What is the Deist View and how does it attempt to explain the relationship of religion to science? How does this differ from notion of a personal God? The Deist view of God is magic. Their God did the work of nature, and they ruled the lives of man. They warmed us some days, and on other they made us shiver. They healed us when they wished, and other times they struck us down with sickness and death. They also filled a need that all men have, a need to see the world as sensible and complete. The also said they have to see the world around us because profound effects of science. This attempt to explain the relationship of religion to science to them is that Gods themselves were kind of scientific theory, invented to explain the workings of nature. As human begin to find material explanation for ordinary events, the Gods broke into retreat and as they lost one battle after another, a pattern was set up. The Gods fell backwards into ever more distant phenomena until finally, when all of nature seemed to yield conventional wisdom might have said that the Gods were finished. All of them (Pages. 192-193).

2. The author discusses uncertainty and the impact of quantum on modern evolutionary theory. He quotes Stephen Gould, a famous evolutionary biologist, as saying that had the “tape of life” been replayed we could get different results? Why? What does evolutionary theory say about role of uncertainty in the evolution of life on earth? Why might this make some people uncomfortable? Yes, the “tape of life” will have different result because any replay of the tape would lead evolution down a pathway radically different from the road actually taken. Stephen believes in cause and effect link that extent upward from quantum physic through chemistry and biochemistry into the undirected