Why Us?

I just finished the most challenging, fascinating, stimulating, and breathtaking book I've read in a long time: Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves by James Le Fanu. I knew I would like this book from the first two paragraphs:

"Wonders are there many," observed the Greek dramatist Sophocles--"but none more wonderful than Man." And rightly so for man, as far as we can tell, is the sole witness of the splendours of the universe he inhabits - though consistently less impressed by his existence than would seem warranted. 

"Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars," observed St. Augustine in the fifth century AD, "and they pass by themselves without wondering." 

I devoured the book, eager to wonder at the mystery of human life, the complexity of God's creation. I found that breathtaking wonder, sometimes so powerful that it brought tears to my eyes. But I also found much more. Working from the "inside," Le Fanu uses science's most recent discoveries, particularly the Human Genome Project and breakthroughs in neuroscience, to call into question the entire system of scientific materialism that has reigned supreme for the last 150 years.

Le Fanu begins the book treating Darwinism as axiomatic, so much so that at one point I put the book down and complained to my brother. "This is ridiculous. Can he really not see the flaw in this?" My brother smiled and said, "Keep reading." I did so, and discovered that Le Fanu had laid a cunning trap. Through challenging (but fascinating) discussions of science, ranging from "prehistoric" man to the law of gravity, the secrets of DNA and the human genome, the electrical activity of the brain as it perceives and interprets the world, and more, the author exposes the flaws of a solely materialist understanding of life. He builds his case calmly and rationally until you reach the end and realize that the prevailing scientific dogma has just imploded under the weight of its own findings. Darwinism is finished. Is there any chance for further scientific investigation to vindicate it? Le Fanu says, no.

I found two things striking: First, the lengths to which "Science" will go to ignore the facts. To admit that there may be a non-material reality, such as the human mind and soul, destroys the myth that Science is the sole objective and rational arbiter of knowledge about the world. To admit that something inobservable by Science might be real is to admit that Science can't have all the answers. Rather than admit that, for the last century and a half, scientists have shoved under the rug anything that doesn't fit in the Theory...scientists have failed, in other words, to be true scientists, and they continue to do so.

Second, I was struck by the incredible mental gymnastics and, to be frank, spiritual suicide undertaken by evolutionary biologists, whose thinking has become futile. They are so committed to denying the existence of anything they can't know and explain that they are willing to sacrifice their very being. One example:

...one of the most astonishing claims in the history of science--that we are not, as we appear to ourselves to be, free and autonomous agents, but are rather the playthings of our 'selfish' genes. We are, apparently, machines created by genes for their own self-propagation--like some throwaway envelope, which they inhabit temporarily for a lifetime, before moving on to the next generation.

"They [the genes] swarm in huge colonies safe inside gigantic lumbering robots [ourselves] sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control,' writes evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. 'They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. We are their survival machines."

After sitting through countless college and postgraduate classes where Reformed Christianity was viciously attacked for its "determinism," I am stunned to find the open and unapologetic avowal, over and over, of a much more thorough determinism - a determinism as bleak, dark, hopeless, and meaningless as you will ever find. The materialistic view of the universe is the most demeaning, personhood-rejecting, soul-crushing...oh wait, there's no such thing as a soul.

I read this book at the perfect time. Our church's theme this year is "renewing our mind" as we begin a new series studying the book of Romans. The complex nature of Le Fanu's discussion awoke my intellectual hunger, but also paired perfectly with my study of Romans 1. The glories of creation Le Fanu describes shout the glory of the Creator (though Le Fanu himself never does so). As I read about the many wonders of life, I was forcibly made aware of God's "eternal power and divine nature, being understood from what has been made." Le Fanu demonstrated without doubt that secular man has missed what is plainly before him, making this book the best illustration I know of Romans 1: 18-23:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.