Can religion survive Darwinism? Do scientists entering the lab or heading for the field have to bracket, or reject outright, all religious commitments and convictions? Trenchantly laying out the evidence for natural selection and carefully following and underscoring the themes and theses of Genesis, L. E. Goodman traces the historical and conceptual backgrounds of today’s evolution controversies, revealing the deep complementarities of religion and the life sciences. Solidly researched and replete with scientific case studies, vignettes from intellectual history, and thoughtful argument, Creation and Evolution forthrightly exposes the strengths and weaknesses of today’s polarized battle camps. Religious and scientific fundamentalisms, Goodman shows, obscure the real biblical message and distort the deepest insights and richest findings of Darwinian science.
Reviews
'Many of us feel that the time is long past due for declaring a truce in the war between evolution and theism. But making a cogent and sensible case for this conviction is not as easy as it sounds, so we cannot but welcome the decency and elegance which Goodman’s wise and widely informed deliberations come to our aid.'
– Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh, USA
'John Whitcomb and the late Henry Morris believed that the geological strata were all laid down in Noah’s flood, shortly after God had created everything in a week. Richard Dawkins holds that theology has nothing to offer to human understanding, and that only genes and memes make sense. They are all fundamentalists: so convinced they are right that they don’t need to consider the evidence. Goodman is a philosopher, and thinking about evidence is what he does. He does it well.'
– The Rev'd Jeremy Craddock, CHURCH TIMES
Contents
Introduction 1. Backgrounds 2. Leaving Eden 3. The Case for Evolution 4. Three Lines of Critique 5. "That has its seeds within it" Af Bibliography
Author Bio
L. E. Goodman is Professor of Philosophy and Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at Vanderbilt University, USA. His previous publications include Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself (2008), Islamic Humanism (2008) and In Defense of Truth: A Humanistic Approach (2001).
