"Darwin's God" : Pigeon Feathers and Faith

Opinion Piece on Robin Marantz Henig's "New York Times Magazine" Article of March 4, 2007 on Darwinian Explanations as to "Why Do We Believe?"

On March 4, 2007, the New York Times Magazine ran an extraordinary article written by Robin Marantz Henig entitled "Darwin's God" and "Why Do We Believe?" Ms. Henig is a graduate of Northwestern and Cornell and has published many science articles dealing with topics of interest to those who have a theological or philosophical interest in the current faith and reason controversy . This excellent essay is about recent scientific studies into whether our brains are hard-wired by human cognition to believe in the supernatural and whether this was an adaptive and evolutionary condition to benefit humanity over time. This extensive and well-written essay should be read by anyone interested in the current faith and reason conversations or those studying the science versus religion debates. As expected, it has caused a back-lash among scientific atheists such as Hawkins, "The God Delusion" and others.

In Henig's article she makes clear that scientists are not trying to show that God exists, but simply why the belief in God and religion have remained such a permanent fixture in our consciousness psychologically. We know that the "fear and flight "response was necessary to the survival of civilizations, but if belief in God is irrational as some claim (for example Hawkins and Harris "The End of Faith") or just a delusion, than what purpose would that serve? Fearing the unreal, fleeing an unfounded figment of the imagination would not make much sense for evolutionary adaptation and further confounds logic.