| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"buckeye" |
| Date: |
27 Jan 2008 10:45:10 AM |
| Object: |
Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion |
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/reviews/377
Book Review, 24 January 2008
Reviewed by Ernan McMullin
The seeds of genesis and creation
Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion
Francisco J. Ayala
National Academies Press, £$24.95
Tablet bookshop price £15.30 Tel 01420 592974
Francisco Ayala is a former Dominican and one of the most distinguished
evolutionary biologists of his generation, a former president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Both the AAAS
and the American National Academy of Sciences (NAS) take as part of their
responsibilities the furtherance of the public understanding of science;
both organisations acknowledge the importance to that understanding of a
realisation of the limits of the sciences. A recent statement from the NAS
expresses one of those limits thus: "Religion and science answer different
questions about the world. Whether there is a purpose to the universe or a
purpose for human existence are not questions for science."
Ayala agrees. What challenged him to write this book is the widespread
uneasiness with the Darwinian theory of evolution among evangelical
Christians in the United States and their consequent support for the
intelligent-design hypothesis. Ayala takes apart the intelligent-design
theories one by one to show that they are groundless and that the ID
hypothesis itself can be undermined by focusing on the many examples of
imperfect design in organic structures that are directly traceable to the
vagaries of evolutionary history. Since the attack on evolution is prompted
in large part by religious considerations, Ayala goes on to propose in
rebuttal a sharp (perhaps slightly too sharp) separation between scientific
knowledge and religious belief, using terms reminiscent of Stephen Jay
Gould's famous principle that "they cannot be in contradiction because
[they] concern non-overlapping realms of knowledge".
Ayala's exposition is admirably clear. He fills out Darwin's own evidences
for evolution from comparative anatomy, palaeontology and biogeography with
new data. But he devotes his main attention to genetics - his own area of
expertise. Just as the finite speed of light has allowed us to explore the
distant past of the galactic universe, the string of millions of
nucleotides that constitute the DNA distinctive of the individual organism
allows us to look equally deeply into that organism's past ancestry,
tracing a path from the complex animals of today right back to the
primitive organisms of the primeval seas. It has given altogether
convincing evidence of the thesis of common ancestry, allowing one to
determine not only what the stages were in the evolution leading to a
particular kind of organism but, roughly at least, even when the forking in
the branches of the family tree occurred. All in all, Ayala can conclude,
to my mind quite reasonably, that "there is probably no other notion in any
field of science that has been so extensively tested and corroborated as
the evolutionary origin of living organisms".
But what about evolution's "gift" to religion, according to the book's
title? The only one Ayala mentions is in the area of theodicy: the
cruelties of the living world that so troubled Darwin "are difficult to
explain if they are the outcome of God's design", but follow naturally if
they are an inevitable part of evolutionary process. (An objector might ask
whether or not that process is itself the Creator's choice ... this would
need further discussion.) Although he fences off religion from issues about
the natural world and its history, he does allow that "scientific knowledge
may provide a basis for theological insights". He does not elaborate.
Still, prompted by his choice of book-title, one might well inquire whether
evolutionary theory does, in fact, offer any further such gifts.
And the answer comes loud and clear. The success of the theory itself
allows the recovery of an insight from the early and medieval Christian
Church that was almost entirely lost from view in the unfortunate turn to
biblical literalism in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, a shift that
has, sadly, proved long-lasting in some quarters. Inspired by the
exegetical practice of the earlier Greek fathers, St Augustine took it as
obvious that the first two chapters of Genesis were not to be interpreted
literally, not least because to do so would make them mutually
inconsistent. Furthermore, his own soaring account of the Creation made it
seem antecedently unlikely that a transcendent Creator would have to keep
adding to his work day after day. Surely an all-powerful and all-wise
Creator would have got it right from the beginning? Augustine proposed that
the potentialities of all the living kinds that would come after were
implanted in the new creation from the beginning, each to make its
appearance, he says (drawing on texts from Scripture), when the conditions
of earth and water are right. He admits that to know how those "seeds", as
he called them, were to bring this about would call for a degree of insight
into natural process that he did not possess. That would have to wait for
Darwin. That Augustine would regard Darwin's validation of his own
theologically inspired insight into the origin of living kinds as a welcome
gift can hardly be doubted.
Further Darwinian contributions could be more far-reaching in their
theological implications. Catholic theology has traditionally understood
the Genesis story of the Fall as being about two historical individuals in
an original state of innocence, later lost by their sinful disobedience,
with terrible consequences for their descendants. But thanks to Darwin's
theory and the convergence of multiple lines of evidence, it is now
generally accepted (as John Paul II allowed in a 1996 address) that the
human body is of evolutionary origin. It would follow that the first humans
were necessarily the inheritors of animal instincts and urges that would
have been morally innocent in their unreflecting predecessors but were now
potentially transformed into human sin in the light of newly awakened moral
sensibilities. This conflict between body and spirit would have extended to
all humans, affirmed, this time on genetic grounds, to constitute a single
species. And it would be transmitted by physical generation.
Furthermore, in a much-quoted address to the AAAS in 1995, Ayala himself
argued from an analysis of DNA evidence that the (genetically) human
population could never have been smaller than several thousand breeding
individuals. It could not have gone through a bottleneck of only a single
pair, which would have left an unmistakable restriction of present genomic
diversity.
It would seem that, on the face of it, these further gifts from Darwinian
hands call for a reinterpretation of the Genesis story of human origins at
least as dramatic as the one Augustine had already given the Genesis
account of the origins of the living kinds. Although theologians are
unaccustomed to taking a lead from the natural sciences, some have already
been sketching the outlines of what such a reinterpretation might look
like. However, caution seems to be the order of the day. There is clearly
quite a lot at stake.
Ayala has shown in the past that he is well aware of the theological
ramifications of these Darwinian implications. But he has prudently decided
to pass them over in silence.
To many of the Christian critics of evolution for whom this book is
intended, these implications might well not appear as gifts!
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation
of Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is
why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v.
Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
.
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| User: "Christopher A.Lee" |
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| Title: Re: Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion |
27 Jan 2008 10:51:52 AM |
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On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:45:10 -0500, buckeye <buckeyeelo@nospam.net>
wrote:
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/reviews/377
Book Review, 24 January 2008
Reviewed by Ernan McMullin
The seeds of genesis and creation
Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion
Francisco J. Ayala
National Academies Press, £$24.95
Tablet bookshop price £15.30 Tel 01420 592974
Francisco Ayala is a former Dominican and one of the most distinguished
evolutionary biologists of his generation, a former president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Both the AAAS
and the American National Academy of Sciences (NAS) take as part of their
responsibilities the furtherance of the public understanding of science;
both organisations acknowledge the importance to that understanding of a
realisation of the limits of the sciences. A recent statement from the NAS
expresses one of those limits thus: "Religion and science answer different
questions about the world. Whether there is a purpose to the universe or a
purpose for human existence are not questions for science."
Sigh.
Religion only answers its own inside-the-religion questions with
inside-the-religion answers.
Science has nothing to say about religion.
Scientists should not compromise to accommodate religion.
.
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| User: "Sanitys Little Helper" |
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| Title: Re: Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion |
27 Jan 2008 11:56:03 AM |
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buckeye <buckeyeelo@nospam.net> wrote in
news:i5dpp3tlab4hn1gj5ku8q7eilh1gfcr466@4ax.com to alt.atheism on 27 Jan
2008:
Francisco Ayala is a former Dominican and one of the most
distinguished evolutionary biologists of his generation, a former
president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS). Both the AAAS and the American National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) take as part of their responsibilities the furtherance of the
public understanding of science; both organisations acknowledge the
importance to that understanding of a realisation of the limits of the
sciences. A recent statement from the NAS expresses one of those
limits thus: "Religion and science answer different questions about
the world. Whether there is a purpose to the universe or a purpose for
human existence are not questions for science."
Whether there is a purpose to the universe or a purpose for human
existence are not questions for honest people.
--
David Silverman D.B.E.
aa #2208
Lord Mayor of Dis
Lawful copyright holder of the term "Earthquack".
The monkeys are loose in the library again. They're gibbbering something
about "Answers In Genesis".
.
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| User: "Christopher A.Lee" |
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| Title: Re: Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion |
27 Jan 2008 12:09:39 PM |
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On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:56:03 +0100 (CET), "Sanity's Little Helper"
<elvish@noshpam.org> wrote:
buckeye <buckeyeelo@nospam.net> wrote in
news:i5dpp3tlab4hn1gj5ku8q7eilh1gfcr466@4ax.com to alt.atheism on 27 Jan
2008:
Francisco Ayala is a former Dominican and one of the most
distinguished evolutionary biologists of his generation, a former
president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS). Both the AAAS and the American National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) take as part of their responsibilities the furtherance of the
public understanding of science; both organisations acknowledge the
importance to that understanding of a realisation of the limits of the
sciences. A recent statement from the NAS expresses one of those
limits thus: "Religion and science answer different questions about
the world. Whether there is a purpose to the universe or a purpose for
human existence are not questions for science."
Whether there is a purpose to the universe or a purpose for human
existence are not questions for honest people.
There is nothing in the real world outside Ayala's religion, to make
one have that question. It's part of his religion. Why does he have to
try and bring his religious presumptions into the world beyond it?
And why does he have to embarrass himself by saying it to one of the
least religious audiences in America?
.
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