The Science God: Thinking, Values, and Faith

         

 

 

      by Dwight Wendell

 

Introduction

In this book, the main thing I’ll try to do is reason my way to a moral code that is grounded in observations of the physical world. Only after that task is done will I talk about how grasping that code then leads us to further conclude that there is, likely, a consciousness present in the physical world. A being like what humans have long called “God”.  

I claim it is reasonable for us to say that a “sort of God” does exist. The term “sort of God” describes a personal concept of a deity, which is what I believe every person’s idea of God must be if they are to truly hold such a concept at all. Each person’s idea of God has to shape her or his daily actions, or that idea has no real meaning in that person’s life. So it has to be personal. My aim is to make that personal, pragmatic, rational idea of God reachable for every reader.   

I know that a lot of modern readers will be tempted to stop reading this book right here. I’m asking them to hang in there and give it a chance. In return, I will save the “God conclusion” till the very end. We’ll focus first on making the case for a universal moral code, a code of right and wrong. God can wait a bit.

 

 

                       

                                        Boat-building Near Flatford Mill 1815 

(human thought engaging physical reality) (Constable; Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

 

            Liberty Leading The People (Human thought engaging human reality)

                            (credit: Eugène Delacroix, via Wikimedia Commons) 

 

For those readers who feel a writer’s personal background must be understood if readers are to understand his thinking, I will say that I have been studying this problem of what moral means – what makes “right” right – for more than 50 years. From the time I was a boy, through a long career teaching in the British Columbia schools, eight years of post-secondary study, three degrees (two undergraduate, one graduate), time in agriculture, six rock bands, and small business, time spent raising three kids, and a lot of life. However, in my view, all these experiences neither add to, nor detract from, my case. The case must stand on its own. Thus, but for the odd anecdote used to illustrate a point, there will be no more about me.

It is also worth noting here that the ideas, historical records, perspectives, and texts I discuss in this book are mainly those of a man who was born into, and moulded by, Western culture. I know that plenty of other effective ways of handling the world – in other words, other ways of life – are available today. I will also say from the outset that I know that in every era in history, nations rise to dominance over their neighbors usually for only a few generations. Then, the dominant one gets passed by a competitor, almost always by war.

But one of this book’s goals is to show that a moral code which is true in all cultures exists and is available to all humans via their capacity to reason. A case built on reasoning and evidence can lead us to a moral code that is valid in all cultures. This code, once it is understood by many informed, resolute people, could then lead us to a way out of our war habit. 

I’ll say more on the possibilities of our species’ finding a way to evolve without war as we go along. For now, I’ll be content to say that this dream is not far-fetched or ridiculous. In my lifetime, I saw the USSR go from being a monolithic super-power to a footnote in history. Without a world war. I sometimes still can’t quite believe it. Furthermore, there have been civilizations in the past in which large areas and populations existed under one umbrella of law. Large scale order and stability are possible. The trick for us will be to learn to bring about that order without war. And it will begin from patient, diligent, focused efforts by a determined few who are guided by a moral model that works.

I will also say to my doubters at the outset: if you’re cynical about our species’ ability to live by both reason and love, then you haven’t contemplated the alternatives: ignorance and hostility. In this century, these could lead to our asphyxiating in an atmosphere too toxic to breathe. Or worse. Whole nations scorched in nuclear wars. Let those images renew your resolve.

We can do this. If we, the human race, can reason our way to an understanding of ourselves as we are, one that explains the facts of our history, we can then lay out a path to that world that we presently only dream of. People working from a valid model of human societies could still save our species from itself.

It’s true that I am a son of the West. I tend to think and speak using the ideas and terms that I learned in my country and its schools. However, I believe the conclusions I draw in this book are universal. They can be extracted by logic from observations of the physical, biological, and human aspects of reality as it is revealed in the historical records and daily life experiences of all nations.

The system of ideas that I will construct for readers of this book will then lead logically to a modern theism. In short, Faith and Reason aren’t enemies. They shouldn’t even be called friends. They’re different aspects of the same thing.

The version of “Reason” I will use in this book will be the inductive one called “science”. I will show that science and its way of thinking support a model of cultural evolution on which we can build a universal moral code, one which, with a few other models from science added, can lead us to belief in a deity.

 

We can use the scientific method, apply it to evidence, and reason our way, via a small number of steps, to belief in good and in God. That is the point of this book.