God After Darwin: A Theology of EvolutionIn God After Darwin, eminent theologian John F. Haught argues that the ongoing debate between Darwinian evolutionists and Christian apologists is fundamentally misdirected: Both sides persist in focusing on an explanation of underlying design and order in the universe. Haught suggests that what is lacking in both of these competing ideologies is the notion of novelty, a necessary component of evolution and the essence of the unfolding of the divine mystery. He argues that Darwin's disturbing picture of life, instead of being hostile to religion-as scientific skeptics and many believers have thought it to be-actually provides a most fertile setting for mature reflection on the idea of God. Solidly grounded in scholarship, Haught's explanation of the relationship between theology and evolution is both accessible and engaging. The second edition of God After Darwin features an entirely new chapter on the ongoing, controversial debate between intelligent design and evolution, including an assessment of Haught's experience as an expert witness in the landmark case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District on teaching evolution and intelligent design in schools. |
From inside the book
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... materialist metaphysics in Western philosophy choked out any sense of the emergent novelty in life's evolution, and he struggled to provide an alternative philosophical framework.2 But only a minority of philosophers and scientists are ...
... Ironically, neither the proponents of intelligent design nor their materialist opponents actually deal with life. Both seek to purchase intellectual clarity only at the price of leaving out the novelty 4 1 BEYOND DESIGN.
... Materialist interpreters have typically dampened our intuitive sense of life's perpetual novelty by thinking of evolution only as the reshuffling of physical units (atoms, molecules, cells, or genes) already present. They have observed ...
... materialist metaphysics, can give considerable depth and richness to our sense of the great mystery into which our religions attempt to initiate us. Many good scientists, of course, will not see it this way. For a century and a half ...
... materialist ideology in which it is often packaged). Certainly Darwinian ideas are not perfect. That evolutionary theory will continue to undergo revision, I have no doubt. Even today there is some discontent with neo-Darwinism in the ...
Contents
1 | |
13 | |
3 THEOLOGY SINCE DARWIN | 25 |
4 DARWINS GIFT TO THEOLOGY | 49 |
5 RELIGION EVOLUTION AND INFORMATION | 61 |
6 A GOD FOR EVOLUTION | 87 |
7 EVOLUTION TRAGEDY AND COSMIC PURPOSE | 113 |
8 RELIGION ETHICS AND EVOLUTION | 129 |
9 EVOLUTION ECOLOGY AND THE PROMISE OF NATURE | 153 |
10 COSMIC EVOLUTION AND DIVINE ACTION | 173 |
11 DARWIN AND GOD AFTER DOVER | 193 |
12 CONCLUSION | 211 |
Acknowledgments | 219 |
Notes | 221 |
Index | 239 |