Under the Microscope: Today I return to the topic of science and religion, spurred by Richard Dawkins's recent article in The Irish Times and by his pompous recent radio interview with Marian Finucane. Dawkins claims that conventional Christians are unsophisticates who believe in things for which there is no evidence and that this poses a challenge to science.
This is Dawkins's position, not the official position of science. In any event, I believe his conclusions are extreme. Thoughtful Christianity does not insult rationality.
This is not the first time I have taken issue with Dawkins. Apart from the fact that I disagree with him, I also have a practical reason for opposing his attack on religion. I, and others, spend much time trying to engage the public with the scientific world. It is difficult enough to make progress without having our difficulties compounded by allowing the notion to go abroad that one is considered a redneck in the scientific world unless one first sheds one's religion.
Dawkins began his article by trying to deal with the, for him, awkward fact that several eminent modern scientists have proclaimed a qualified belief in God. These include Albert Einstein who needs no introduction, Sir Fred Hoyle, who worked out how the elements are forged inside stars, and Paul Davies, the physicist and author of several best-selling books on science.
Dawkins labels such scientists as atheists and explains away their pronouncements on God as "a feeling of awe at the majesty of the universe and the intricate complexity of life" they "share with other atheistic scientists".
He is simply wrong. The feelings of these scientists are far more complex than Dawkins admits. Let Davies speak for himself. In The Mind of God , his 1992 book, he writes: "I belong to the group of scientists who do not subscribe to a conventional religion but nevertheless deny that the universe is a purposeless accident. Through my scientific work I have come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it merely as brute fact. There must, it seems to me, be a deeper level of explanation. Whether one wishes to call that deeper level 'God' is a matter of taste and definition."
The God that scientists such as Davies, Einstein and Hoyle point to is impersonal, a cosmic intelligence that lies behind the order and complexity of the natural world. They do not subscribe to the idea of the personal Christian God who takes an interest in us as individuals.
Most of the greatest scientists of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries believed in the Christian God, however, and even today many top-class scientists believe in a personal God. Many of the greatest scientists of all time, including Einstein, were motivated to do research in order to reveal how God made the world. Some of our most prominent scientists today, such as Francis Collins of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, are similarly motivated.
Dawkins despises religion, particularly the Catholic Church. He homes in on miracles, which he labels as devices used by religion, particularly Catholicism, to hook children and unsophisticated adults. He claims miracles "amount to a scientific claim, a violation of the normal running of the natural world", citing stories such as that of the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the Raising of Lazarus and so on.
It is true, of course, that miracles run counter to scientific explanation. When asked to comment on a miracle, science must say that it contradicts scientific understanding of how the world works. Having said that, it seems to me that the conscious and ongoing acknowledgment of miracles plays little or no role in the life of a mature and intelligent Christian. Ninety nine point nine percent of the Christian message is to live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ: don't let materialism dominate your value system, love God, love your neighbour, forgive your enemy, live frugally and take responsibility for your actions.
I realise there are probably very many unreflecting Christians, but thoughtful Christianity is underpinned by the evidence of the positive effects its practice brings to one's life. Thoughtful Christians are those who are so impressed by the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ and by the evidence of the positive effects on their lives of abiding by the teachings of Jesus that they are prepared to believe in the personal God of whom Jesus spoke, just as they would take on faith the word of a tried and tested friend.
Professor John A Murphy, the University College Cork historian, wondered in a recent letter to The Irish Times why scientists such as myself don't debunk all the Bible miracle stories. But there are possible natural explanations for them.
One natural explanation of the loaves-and-fishes miracle is that the people in the crowd, moved by the words of Jesus, so effectively and generously shared the little they had that there was enough for all. If you think about it, this could work - unless, of course, the crowd were composed entirely of academics.
• William Reville is associate professor of biochemistry and director of electron microscopy at University College Cork