Encyclopedia of Evolution.pdf - Online Reading Center

evolutionary medicine
Can an Evolutionary Scientist Be Religious?
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easier to detect, or imagine, in broad universal terms rather than in
biological particulars, most of the scholars who attempt this union
have been physicists such as Erwin Schrödinger and John Polkinghorne.
The Templeton Foundation, started by a rich philanthropist,
gives awards for investigations that bring science and Christianity
together. These awards have a greater cash value than a Nobel
Prize.
Of course, it also works the other way. Richard Dawkins has
pointed out that, while atheism has always been possible, it was
the Darwinian revolution that allowed people like him to be honest
and intellectually fulfilled atheists.
Evolutionary science has eroded the credibility of many
specific religious beliefs that have prevailed for centuries. This
includes not only the claims of the creationists about the age
of the Earth, the origin of humans, and the biblical flood, but also
some more general tenets of Christian theology. Most people who
identify themselves today as Christians would not insist on a literal
interpretation of the biblical account of Adam and Eve as the first
humans. They identify Adam and Eve as symbols of prehistoric
humans. But Christian theology has long maintained that the sinful
nature of humans entered into a previously sinless human race
through the sin of Adam and Eve. According to this view, dominant
even today, “original sin” entered humans through “the Fall” of
Adam and Eve. Evolutionary science, however, claims that human
nature is the product of evolution (see sociobiology), as are all
other human mental attributes (see intelligence, evolution of). As
more and more human mental processes are explained by brain
structures and functions (for example, stimulation of the right temporal
lobe produces experiences that appear identical to religious
visions), the role of a separate spirit becomes more and more difficult
to believe, unless the human spirit is an exact replica of the
human brain. While some religious people claim to have had revelations
that could not have been generated by their brains, other
people are understandably skeptical of these claims, especially
when prominent religious leaders claim that “God told them” which
American political party God preferred.
Most religious scientists are quite silent about their beliefs.
One prominent evolutionary scientist who has taken a stand, but
done so very cautiously, is paleontologist Simon Conway Morris.
He wrote, “We do indeed have a choice, and we can exercise our
free will. We might be a product of the biosphere, but it is one with
which we are charged to exercise stewardship. We might do better
to accept our intelligence as a gift, and it may be a mistake to imagine
that we shall not be called to account.”
Further Reading
Hauser, Marc D. Born to Be Good: How Nature Designed Our Universal
Sense of Right and Wrong. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Shermer, Michael. The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat,
Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule. New York:
Henry Holt, 2004.
If science and religion, especially evolutionary science and
Christian religion, are to be compatible, a rethinking of both science
and religion must occur. Science already undertakes a constant
process of rethinking (see scientific method). It is religion
that must take the unaccustomed step of questioning ancient
assumptions.
Further Reading
Banerjee, Neela, and Anne Berryman. “At churches nationwide,
good words for evolution.” New York Times, February 13, 2006.
Conway Morris, Simon. The Crucible of Creation. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
Darwin, Charles. On The Origin of Species By Means of Natural
Selection, 1st ed. London: John Murray, 1859.
Dawkins, Richard. A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies,
Science and Love. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
Dean, Cornelia. “Scientists speak up on mix of God and science.”
New York Times, August 23, 2005. Available online. URL: http://
www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/national/23believers.html.
Easterbrook, Greg. “The new convergence.” Wired, December
2002, 162–185.
Gould, Stephen J. Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness
of Life. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002.
———. “The narthex of San Marco and the pangenetic paradigm.”
Chap. 20 in I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural
History. New York: Harmony, 2002.
Harris, Sam. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of
Reason. New York: Norton, 2004.
Haught, John F. God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution. New
York: Westview Press, 2001.
Heilbron, J. L. The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Mansell, Henry L. The Limits of Religious Thought, 4th ed. London:
John Murray, 1859.
McGrath, Alister. Dawkins’s God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning
of Life. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publications, 2004.
Pigliucci, Massimo. Tales of the Rational: Skeptical Essays about
Nature and Science. Smyrna, Ga.: Freethought Press, 2000.
Rice, Stanley A. “Bringing blessings out of adversity: God’s activity
in the world of nature.” Perspectives on Science and Christian
Faith 41 (1989): 2–9.
———. “On the problem of apparent evil in the natural world.” Perspectives
on Science and Christian Faith 39 (1987): 150–157.
Ruse, Michael. Can a Darwinian Be a Christian? The Relationship
between Science and Religion. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2000.
Thomson, Keith. Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature. New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005.
Zimmer, Carl. “Whose life would you save?” Discover, April 2004,
60–65.
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