Page 18 - The Origin of Life and the Universe - International Conference 2016

The Origin of Life and the Universe

science and religion. And you have to wonder that perception of conflict
is the reason why they refuse to entertain the possibility of God’s existence.
Tragically, 50% of people who attend church on a regular basis in the
United States think there is conflict. This is a very sad state of affairs.
And yet, it was science that brought me to the conviction that a
Creator must exist. When I entered college, I was an agnostic. I didn’t
know if God existed or not, and I honestly didn’t care. I simply wasn’t
interested in religion as a young man. The focus of my attention was bio-
chemistry. I wanted to do everything that I could to prepare myself to go to
graduate school to earn a PhD in biochemistry. As an undergraduate
student, I was convinced that evolutionary mechanisms could account for
the origin, history, and design of biological systems. But my convictions
were not based on a careful examination of the evidence. But instead, they
were based on what my biology professors taught me. I admired my
professors and because I respected them I accepted what they said about
evolution uncritically. In many ways, my acceptance of the evolutionary
paradigm fueled my agnosticism. When I speak on university campuses in
the United States, I run into students who—like me— think that evolution
is a fact but it is not because they’ve examined the evidence, it is because
their professors had taught them that very truth. Or that claimed “truth”.
When I have graduated school my views changed. You might say