Atheist Book Review of How to Know God Exists

REVIEW--by Steven J. (chapter 2 part 1) The title of chapter 2 of How to Know God Exists might be considered a self-evaluation of the chapter itself: a description of evolution that (continuing a theme from chapter 1) ignores natural selection entirely and insists that evolutionary theory attributes every feature of living things to "blind chance." From time to time I have the thought (it is not original with me) that Ray is engaged in an elaborate hoax, the grandest demonstration of Poe's Law ever attempted. At least, I suspect that his understanding of evolution is not quite so abysmally bad as some of his statements suggest.

An example: Ray states that "this marvelous design [of the eye] occurs not just in humans, but in all the different creatures: horses, ants, dogs, whales, lions, flies, ducks, fish, etc. Think about what the theory of evolution claims: the eyes of all these creatures slowly developed over millions of years. Each of them was blind until all the parts miraculously came together and interrelated with all the others, because all the parts are needed for the eye to function." Does Ray really believe this is an accurate statement about evolution? All of these animals except for flies are vertebrates (and if Ray has ray-finned fish in mind when he writes "fish," they are all gnathostome vertebrates).

According to evolutionary theory, all inherited box-camera eyes from a common ancestor; their last blind ancestor was Precambrian. Flies, for their part, inherited eyes from the insect common ancestor (which in turn inherited eyes from an arthropod common ancestor). Nothing very like a whale or a fly ever existed with partially-formed eyes. On the other hand, some living species do have eyes that are "partially formed" with respect to other eyes in their phylum. Cephalopods (octopuses and squids) have box-camera eyes superficially similar to the vertebrate type, but the chambered nautilus has a simpler eye without a lens.

Still simpler eyes, mere cups or funnels (retinas without lenses or proper apertures) exist in limpets. Structurally similar eyes occur in the lancelet or amphioxus, a primitive chordate similar to the common ancestor of vertebrates. Eyes -- functional for their possessors -- exist in forms ranging from a tiny light-sensitive cluster of nerve endings (the planarian) to highly complex box camera or compound eyes in vertebrates and some trilobites respectively.

AUTHOR'S REBUTTAL: Steven J. said, "Flies, for their part, inherited eyes from the insect common ancestor (which in turn inherited eyes from an arthropod common ancestor. Nothing very like a whale or a fly ever existed with partially-formed eyes..." How do you know that? I would think that you merely believe it to be so.

It's not only the formation of the eye that is your problem. The entire human body system is interrelated and makes no sense if it evolved over a massive period of time. The brain, the lung, the eyes, the nervous system, etc., are not independent. They work together.

Please explain how breathing, blood flow, the heart, the brain, and the blood vessels worked while they were evolving. Explain why the heart evolved when there was no blood? Or do you believe that they evolved together? Why and how did the blood evolve when there was no heart to push it through the body? Did the blood know that the heart was evolving and would eventually push it around the body (which hadn't yet evolved)? How did the blood flow when there were no blood vessels? Did the blood vessels know that blood was evolving and would therefore need vessels to take it along with oxygen that had evolved, along with lungs that were evolving to supply oxygen for the blood?

I'm accused of misrepresenting the beliefs of the modern evolutionary theory. However, I don't believe that I do. There are millions who know nothing of populations and mutations. They just believe that evolution happened. They have never thought too deeply about how and why eyes evolved, and when challenged about the fact that every single eye of every dumb dog is breath-taking in complexity of design, they abandon the stupidity of evolution.

Those who don't, have a hidden motive for embracing such craziness, and I believe I know what it is.