Evolution, Chance, and God: Understanding the Relationship between Evolution and Religion
Ebook
Evolution, Chance, and God looks at the relationship between religion and evolution from a philosophical perspective. This relationship is fascinating, complex and often very controversial, involving myriad issues that are difficult to keep separate from each other. Evolution, Chance, and God introduces the reader to the main themes of this debate and to the theory of evolution, while arguing for a particular viewpoint, namely that evolution and religion are compatible, and that, contrary to the views of some influential thinkers, there is no chance operating in the theory of evolution, a conclusion that has great significance for teleology.
One of the main aims of this book is not simply to critique one influential contemporary view that evolution and religion are incompatible, but to explore specific ways of how we might understand their compatibility, as well as the implications of evolution for religious belief. This involves an exploration of how and why God might have created by means of evolution, and what the consequences in particular are for the status of human beings in creation, and for issues such as free will, the objectivity of morality, and the problem of evil. By probing how the theory of evolution and religion could be reconciled, Sweetman says that we can address more deeply key foundational questions concerning chance, design, suffering and morality, and God's way of acting in and through creation.
Explores and introduces the debates surrounding the relationship between religion and evolution, arguing, from a philosophical perspective, that the theory of evolution and religious belief are compatible.
Introduces the issues and debates concerning the implications of the theory of evolution for religion from a philosophical perspective, rather than from the usual religious or scientific viewpoint
Develops philosophical arguments for the compatibility of evolution and religious belief, contrary to the traditional view, from both sides of the debate, that they are incompatible
Explores the consequences of the compatibility of religion and evolution for central issues in the philosophy of religion, including free will, ethics, the problem of evil, and the nature of chance
1. Introduction: Evolution and Religion Today
2. The Theory of Evolution
3. Evolution and the Evidence: Questions and Answers
4. Evolution: Reactions and Implications
5. Evolution, Chance and Determinism
6. Chance and Randomness in Evolution
7. How Does God Act?: The Compatibility of Religion and Evolution
8. Evolution and Design, and the Challenges of Evil and Morality
Notes
Guide to Further Reading
Index
Evolution, Chance, and God is a timely and relevant contribution to the current discussions on science and religion. Clear and engaging, it provides a lucid account of evolutionary theory and isolates the major questions that are raised (or ought to be raised) in considering its relationship to religion. Sweetman's volume also makes important clarifications and conceptual distinctions crucial to the debate.
Foregoing the tired clichés of the debates between evolution and religion, Sweetman offers the reader a precise and honest account of what is at stake. In asserting the non-random foundation for evolutionary processes, he poses new philosophical challenges to naturalism and atheism by closely examining what we mean by chance, randomness and, above all, causality. Determinism and design are not dirty words when thinking about evolution and religion; Sweetman discloses why this is true.
- Title: Evolution, Chance, and God: Understanding the Relationship between Evolution and Religion
- Author: Brendan Sweetman
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2015
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781628929867, 9781628929843, 1628929847, 1628929863
- Resource ID: LLS:9781628929867
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-12T01:38:40Z
Brendan Sweetman is Professor of Philosophy at Rockhurst University, USA. He is author and editor of ten books, including Religion and Science: An Introduction (2010) and Religion: Key Concepts in Philosophy (2007).