Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 1

Darwin, evolution, & religion

What are the issues? 1. Challenges to the methods &

nature of science Darwin’s theory is not a genuine

scientific theory 2. Design arguments & the design of

the universe

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 2

Darwin, evolution, & religion

3. Evolutionary ethics Does evolution entail an ethic of

competition, struggle, & survival? 4. Human dignity & the the soul

Does evolution from primates take away from the specialness of humankind?

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 3

Darwin, evolution, & religion

5. Biblical creation stories & evolution

Creation science or scientific creationism

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 4

Darwin, evolution, & religion

1. Is Darwin’s theory scientific? The “only a theory” charge The not well-confirmed charge

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 5

Darwin, evolution, & religion

2. Design arguments & the design of the universe One reason for the shock of Darwin’s

threat to the design argument is that this argument was immensely popular in England in the 19th century

William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) The tradition in England of clergymen-

naturalists

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 6

Darwin, evolution, & religion

And the form of the argument was based on living things

3. Evolutionary ethics Herbert Spencer (English, 1820-1903)

& William Graham Sumner’s (American, 1840-1910) Social Darwinism

Laissez-faire in economics & social policy

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 7

Darwin, evolution, & religion

Ethics of struggle, waste, competition, & survival

Critique: The is-ought problem; the

naturalistic fallacy The problem of what to select in

nature

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 8

Darwin, evolution, & religion

4. The challenge to human dignity Problem of soul Is Christianity compatible with a non-

dualistic view of human nature? Does dignity depend on origins?

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 9

Darwin, evolution, & religion

5. Stories of origins in Scripture & Darwin’s theory Literalist vs non-literalist approaches

toward Scripture The current literalism goes back to

the founding of the World’s Christian Fundamentals Society by William Bell Riley in Minneapolis in 1919

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 10

Darwin, evolution, & religion

Linked to George McCready Price’s earlier (1906) proposal that the fossil record was not sound evidence because of a cataclysmic flood

After the embarrassment of the Scopes trial in 1925, Fundamentalists change tactics.

Began defending what later became known as creation science or scientific creationism

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 11

Darwin, evolution, & religion

In 1946, Henry Morris published a book defending special creation and flood geology

1963 - founded the Creation Research Society; in 1972 renamed the Institute for Creation Research

New tactic: To give creation science time equal in schools to Darwinian evolution

Darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 12

Darwin, evolution, & religion

Comments Defenders of creation science

accept the prestige of science in the modern world. Why?

Are the scientific challenges to Darwin’s theory valid?