darwinian evolution & religion ~ slide 1 darwin, evolution, & religion zwhat are the issues?...
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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?