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Science and Faith: The Doorway Papers
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First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Arthur C. Custance
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About the Author
Arthur C. Custance was born and educated in England and moved to Canada in 1928. In his second year at the University of Toronto he was converted to faith in Christ. The experience so changed his thinking that he switched courses, obtaining an honours M.A. in Hebrew and Greek. In his 13 years of formal education, he explored many facets of knowledge and was particularly interested in anthropology and origins. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa in 1959 while serving as head of the Human Engineering Laboratories of the Defence Research Board in Ottawa (Canada) and was engaged in research work for 15 years. During that time he also wrote and published The Doorway Papers, and in retirement in 1970, he wrote 6 major books. His writings are characterized by a rare combination of scholarly thoroughness and biblical orthodoxy.
Biography of Arthur C. Custance
1910 - 1985
Arthur Custance was born in Norfolk, England. Upon completion of his primary and secondary education, he failed the Oxford and Cambridge Entrance Examinations (three times!). Just at this time the British Government had a scheme to “bring culture to the Colonies”, and offered to send him to the Canadian province of Ontario with the promise of 800 acres of land to build laboratories to bring improvements to farming.
About the Author
Arthur C. Custance was born and educated in England and moved to Canada in 1928. In his second year at the University of Toronto he was converted to faith in Christ. The experience so changed his thinking that he switched courses, obtaining an honours M.A. in Hebrew and Greek. In his 13 years of formal education, he explored many facets of knowledge and was particularly interested in anthropology and origins. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa in 1959 while serving as head of the Human Engineering Laboratories of the Defence Research Board in Ottawa (Canada) and was engaged in research work for 15 years. During that time he also wrote and published The Doorway Papers, and in retirement in 1970, he wrote 6 major books. His writings are characterized by a rare combination of scholarly thoroughness and biblical orthodoxy.
Biography of Arthur C. Custance
1910 - 1985
Arthur Custance was born in Norfolk, England. Upon completion of his primary and secondary education, he failed the Oxford and Cambridge Entrance Examinations (three times!). Just at this time the British Government had a scheme to “bring culture to the Colonies”, and offered to send him to the Canadian province of Ontario with the promise of 800 acres of land to build laboratories to bring improvements to farming.
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November 14, 2025
VOLUME VIII OF CUSTANCE’S ‘DOORWAY PAPERS’
Arthur C. Custance (1910-1985) had a Ph.D. in Education, and wrote a number of books, such as ‘Without Form and Void: A Study of the Meaning of Genesis 1.2,’ ‘The Mysterious Matter of Mind,’ 'Noah's Three Sons: Human History in Three Dimensions’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume I), ‘Genesis and Early Man’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume II), ‘Evolution or Creation?’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume IV), ‘The Flood: Local or Global?’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume IX), etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1978 collection, “This volume contains three published papers and one not published previously… All three are concerned basically with a single theme: the position of man in the universe and the importance, for his spiritual well-being, of a clear understanding of what this position really is. The first paper… is intended to show that there are excellent reasons for believing that the world we live in did not come to its present form by accident, but by design was structured and furnished in a way peculiarly suited as a setting for such a creature as man is. It owes its unique character to the character of the universe as a whole---as though the universe was made for the world and the world was made for man. In that case, in the final analysis, the universe was made for man!
“But can such a tiny speck of life in the immensity of space, living on such an insignificant little planet circling around a third-rate sun, which is only one among countless others of far greater magnitude, possibly have any significance? Could this puny creature be the cause of such a tremendous display of creative activity which is then merely a stage for HIM? The answer, I believe, is in the affirmative. Indeed, it can be argued… that it is man who gives significance to the universe by his very presence within it. If the world was made for man, it begins to appear that even the universe was created on his account… This is a staggering thought, but it may be the simple truth.” (Pg. 7)
He suggests, “If we assume that what God does is perfect… and requires no subsequent readjustment of its mechanism, then there need be no evidence whatever of any Person behind it---except as its Architect in the first place. In such an electric power plant… there never need be any superintendent present at all. The machine will serve the purpose for which it is designed, unattended. This is, in fact, Newton’s watchmaker, the Mechanic who wound up His device and left it to run by itself, unattended… It should be recognized that the more perfect the work of the designer and builder, the less evidence of his actual presence would there be in the end-product… I suggest that … in any perfected system that the more perfect it is, the less evidence there will be for the presence of a Superintendent. The very lack of evidence of any such Presence… is proof in itself that God’s work is perfect and not that it is NOT God’s work.” (Pg. 55-56)
He observes, “Children may be born without a cerebrum and survive for several years… Such infants may still smile and coo when fondled and cry when roughly handled. These tragic creatures are conceived and come into the world like any other baby, so that it would seem as though the laws which God has built into the natural order are such that, regardless of the end-result, the union of the sperm and the ovum under proper conditions will inevitably lead to the development of a living thing, even when that end-result is tragic, i.e., a living OBJECT and nothing more. There is strictly nobody at home. We are therefore led to conclude that a great deal of what we have attributed directly to God’s activity in supplying some kind of vital soul, which thereafter acts out its will through the living body, may not always be a ‘soul’ at all. It may simply the the action of electrochemical forces, without CONSCIOUS purpose, fulfilling merely the laws of nature in a strictly mechanistic cause-and-effect manner.” (Pg. 67-68)
He continues, “It has been pointed out that the best examples of life which are purely mechanistic are to be found among plants. We are familiar with the way in which some plants will keep turning toward the sun throughout the day and will close when the sun goes down… To watch [through still-life photography] a patch of such flowers all open together and turn ... perhaps ninety degrees in unison gives one a powerful impression of purposive activity… yet we know for a fact that all such plant tropisms are chemically governed.” (Pg. 69)
He says of the famous Miller/Urey experiment, “Evidently nature has been designed in such a way that under proper conditions, some at least of the building materials of living substance will come into being as a natural consequence. This does not prove that life would occur spontaneously, since these substances by themselves are DEAD. What it does show is that the design of the universe is such as to allow for the appearance of life within the framework of its basic materials.” (Pg. 73)
He reports that Theodosius Dobzhansky, “while admitting that speciation is a ‘critical phase’ of the evolutionary process, he offered as proof of its occurrence the example of the salamander Ensatina Eschscholtzi … [where] certain populations … appear to be reproductively isolated from each other, whereas to the north they are connected ‘by an unbroken series of intermediate populations which are able to exchange genes.’ This is not the first time that a single population has spread into two geographically separate areas in such a way that the descendants no longer naturally interbreed… So while [George Gaylord] Simpson argues that those who accept evolution are supporting science whereas those who propose creation are simply expressing dogma, one cannot help but feel that the tremendous emphasis on the ‘proofs’ that evolution has taken place, by so many modern proponents of the new Faith who nevertheless cannot show what they are, is itself a retreat from fact to faith, from science to dogma” (Pg. 163-164)
He argues, “all experience is providentially directed toward increasing the pleasure which God takes in that individual; and part of God’s pleasure is to reconstitute the thinking processes of the individual so that he can gain a new understanding of the meaning of God’s creation and acquire a new sense of purpose. Not only do his motives become gradually purified, but his powers of comprehension acquire a new dimension… This new way of looking at things does not take the form of a loosely related series of articles of belief, each of which may be held as a separate proposition. Rather, it is a system of beliefs having an organic unity in which no one element can logically be sustained in isolation… It is these premises which demand the exercise of faith, but so do all premises---including those which underlie the philosophy of science… in any system of thought, one must always start somewhere, and the validity of the starting point must always be accepted on faith.” (Pg. 199-200)
This book may appeal to Christians studying such scientific issues.
Arthur C. Custance (1910-1985) had a Ph.D. in Education, and wrote a number of books, such as ‘Without Form and Void: A Study of the Meaning of Genesis 1.2,’ ‘The Mysterious Matter of Mind,’ 'Noah's Three Sons: Human History in Three Dimensions’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume I), ‘Genesis and Early Man’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume II), ‘Evolution or Creation?’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume IV), ‘The Flood: Local or Global?’ (The Doorway Papers, Volume IX), etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1978 collection, “This volume contains three published papers and one not published previously… All three are concerned basically with a single theme: the position of man in the universe and the importance, for his spiritual well-being, of a clear understanding of what this position really is. The first paper… is intended to show that there are excellent reasons for believing that the world we live in did not come to its present form by accident, but by design was structured and furnished in a way peculiarly suited as a setting for such a creature as man is. It owes its unique character to the character of the universe as a whole---as though the universe was made for the world and the world was made for man. In that case, in the final analysis, the universe was made for man!
“But can such a tiny speck of life in the immensity of space, living on such an insignificant little planet circling around a third-rate sun, which is only one among countless others of far greater magnitude, possibly have any significance? Could this puny creature be the cause of such a tremendous display of creative activity which is then merely a stage for HIM? The answer, I believe, is in the affirmative. Indeed, it can be argued… that it is man who gives significance to the universe by his very presence within it. If the world was made for man, it begins to appear that even the universe was created on his account… This is a staggering thought, but it may be the simple truth.” (Pg. 7)
He suggests, “If we assume that what God does is perfect… and requires no subsequent readjustment of its mechanism, then there need be no evidence whatever of any Person behind it---except as its Architect in the first place. In such an electric power plant… there never need be any superintendent present at all. The machine will serve the purpose for which it is designed, unattended. This is, in fact, Newton’s watchmaker, the Mechanic who wound up His device and left it to run by itself, unattended… It should be recognized that the more perfect the work of the designer and builder, the less evidence of his actual presence would there be in the end-product… I suggest that … in any perfected system that the more perfect it is, the less evidence there will be for the presence of a Superintendent. The very lack of evidence of any such Presence… is proof in itself that God’s work is perfect and not that it is NOT God’s work.” (Pg. 55-56)
He observes, “Children may be born without a cerebrum and survive for several years… Such infants may still smile and coo when fondled and cry when roughly handled. These tragic creatures are conceived and come into the world like any other baby, so that it would seem as though the laws which God has built into the natural order are such that, regardless of the end-result, the union of the sperm and the ovum under proper conditions will inevitably lead to the development of a living thing, even when that end-result is tragic, i.e., a living OBJECT and nothing more. There is strictly nobody at home. We are therefore led to conclude that a great deal of what we have attributed directly to God’s activity in supplying some kind of vital soul, which thereafter acts out its will through the living body, may not always be a ‘soul’ at all. It may simply the the action of electrochemical forces, without CONSCIOUS purpose, fulfilling merely the laws of nature in a strictly mechanistic cause-and-effect manner.” (Pg. 67-68)
He continues, “It has been pointed out that the best examples of life which are purely mechanistic are to be found among plants. We are familiar with the way in which some plants will keep turning toward the sun throughout the day and will close when the sun goes down… To watch [through still-life photography] a patch of such flowers all open together and turn ... perhaps ninety degrees in unison gives one a powerful impression of purposive activity… yet we know for a fact that all such plant tropisms are chemically governed.” (Pg. 69)
He says of the famous Miller/Urey experiment, “Evidently nature has been designed in such a way that under proper conditions, some at least of the building materials of living substance will come into being as a natural consequence. This does not prove that life would occur spontaneously, since these substances by themselves are DEAD. What it does show is that the design of the universe is such as to allow for the appearance of life within the framework of its basic materials.” (Pg. 73)
He reports that Theodosius Dobzhansky, “while admitting that speciation is a ‘critical phase’ of the evolutionary process, he offered as proof of its occurrence the example of the salamander Ensatina Eschscholtzi … [where] certain populations … appear to be reproductively isolated from each other, whereas to the north they are connected ‘by an unbroken series of intermediate populations which are able to exchange genes.’ This is not the first time that a single population has spread into two geographically separate areas in such a way that the descendants no longer naturally interbreed… So while [George Gaylord] Simpson argues that those who accept evolution are supporting science whereas those who propose creation are simply expressing dogma, one cannot help but feel that the tremendous emphasis on the ‘proofs’ that evolution has taken place, by so many modern proponents of the new Faith who nevertheless cannot show what they are, is itself a retreat from fact to faith, from science to dogma” (Pg. 163-164)
He argues, “all experience is providentially directed toward increasing the pleasure which God takes in that individual; and part of God’s pleasure is to reconstitute the thinking processes of the individual so that he can gain a new understanding of the meaning of God’s creation and acquire a new sense of purpose. Not only do his motives become gradually purified, but his powers of comprehension acquire a new dimension… This new way of looking at things does not take the form of a loosely related series of articles of belief, each of which may be held as a separate proposition. Rather, it is a system of beliefs having an organic unity in which no one element can logically be sustained in isolation… It is these premises which demand the exercise of faith, but so do all premises---including those which underlie the philosophy of science… in any system of thought, one must always start somewhere, and the validity of the starting point must always be accepted on faith.” (Pg. 199-200)
This book may appeal to Christians studying such scientific issues.
March 17, 2020
This book was pretty interesting. I did enjoy reading it although it was a bit scientifically dated (from the 1970s), and some of it did go over my head most during the last part of the book on dauermodifications (which seems a lot like microevolution).
It has left me wanting to read more about modern science, especially in the realms of cosmology and physiology. It’s amazing to see the design of the universe.
However, my primary critique of the book is his constant disparaging of evolution. While I understand and agree with him on what he says, he seems unwilling to admit that God could have used evolution in a way that was full of design and purpose without diminishing the value of man or his chief end in life. I would recommend it though. His critiques of evolution and the modern synthesis is good.
It has left me wanting to read more about modern science, especially in the realms of cosmology and physiology. It’s amazing to see the design of the universe.
However, my primary critique of the book is his constant disparaging of evolution. While I understand and agree with him on what he says, he seems unwilling to admit that God could have used evolution in a way that was full of design and purpose without diminishing the value of man or his chief end in life. I would recommend it though. His critiques of evolution and the modern synthesis is good.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews