Page 66 - The Origin of Life and the Universe - International Conference 2016

The Origin of Life and the Universe

3 3 / entific methods, that is, by observation and experi-
ment.
8 We can therefore investigate by means of scientific
methods the materialist claim that matter has existed
for all eternity and that this matter can organize
The theory of evolution has no scientific basis, itself without a supramaterial Creator and cause life
on the contrary, evolutionist claims conflict with sci- to begin. When we do this, we see that materialism
entific facts. In other words, the force that keeps has already collapsed, because the idea that matter
evolution alive is not science. Evolution may be has existed since the beginning of time has been
maintained by some "scientists," but behind it there overthrown by the Big Bang theory which shows
is another influence at work. that the universe was created from nothingness.
This other influence is materialist philosophy. The claim that matter organized itself and created
The theory of evolution is simply materialist philosophy life is the claim that we call the theory of evoluti-
applied to nature, and those who support that philo- on—which this book has been examining—and
sophy do so despite the scientific evidence. which has been shown to have collapsed.
This relationship between materialism and the However, if someone is determined to believe in
theory of evolution is accepted by "authorities" on materialism and puts his devotion to materialist phi-
these concepts. For example, the discovery of losophy before everything else, then he will act dif-
Darwin was described by Leon Trotsky as "the ferently. If he is a materialist first and a scientist se-
highest triumph of the dialectic in the whole field of cond, he will not abandon materialism when he
1
organic matter." The evolutionary biologist Douglas sees that evolution is disproved by science. On the
Futuyma writes, "Together with Marx's materialist contrary, he will attempt to uphold and defend ma-
theory of history and society…. Darwin hewed the terialism by trying to support evolution, no matter
final planks of the platform of mechanism and ma- what. This is exactly the predicament that evolutionists
terialism." And the evolutionary paleontologist Step- defending the theory of evolution find themselves in
2
hen Jay Gould says, "Darwin applied a consistent today.
philosophy of materialism to his interpretation of Interestingly enough, they also confess this fact
nature." 3 from time to time. A well-known geneticist and outs-
Materialist philosophy is one of the oldest beliefs poken evolutionist, Richard C. Lewontin from Harvard
in the world, and assumes the absolute and exclusive University, confesses that he is "a materialist first
existence of matter as its basic principle. According and a scientist second" in these words:
to this view, matter has always existed, and everything It is not that the methods and institutions of
that exists consists of matter. Materialism denies science somehow compel us accept a material exp-
the evident existence of a Creator. lanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the
So the question becomes one of why the materialist contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence
point of view is false. One method of testing whether to material causes to create an apparatus of inves-
a philosophy is true or false is to investigate the tigation and a set of concepts that produce material
claims it makes about science by using scientific explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no
methods. For instance, a philosopher in the tenth matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover,
century could have claimed that there was a divine that materialism is absolute, so we cannot allow a
tree on the surface of the moon and that all living Divine [intervention]… . 4
things actually grew on the branches of this huge The term "a priori" that Lewontin uses here is
tree like fruit, and then fell off onto the earth. Some quite important. This philosophical term refers to a
people might have found this philosophy attractive presupposition not based on any experimental know-
and believed in it. But in the twenty first century, at ledge. A thought is "a priori" when you consider it to
a time when man has managed to walk on the be correct and accept it as so even if there is no in-
moon, it is no longer possible to seriously hold such formation available to confirm it. As the evolutionist
a belief. Whether such a tree exists Lewontin frankly states, materialism is an "a priori"
there or not can be determined by sci-