Atheists assert that the natural world has no meaning or purpose. Dr. Denis Alexander, emeritus director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge, draws a different conclusion. Not only does recent evolutionary biological data appear inconsistent with the claim that the world is purposeless, but the Christian doctrine of creation has provided and continues to provide context and stimulus for the study of the natural world.

Nonbelievers also question whether belief in an omnipotent, benevolent Creator is consistent with a world of pain and...