The Psalmist asked: What is man that thou art mindful of him? (Psalm 8: 4)
In his empirical biological approach to the conception of God, Sir Alister argued convincingly that man is a religious animal; that there is a basic biological significance in man’s experience of the Divine, and that religion is part of his biological make-up.
He was a convinced Darwinian, yet asserted that ‘the living stream of evolution is as much divine as natural’ and maintained that Homo sapiens emerged with a predisposition for experiencing a ‘Divine Reality’, of whose existence Sir Alister had personal experience. He believed that human beings commune with this Divine Reality in the sacred act of prayer.