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God and Evolution
What does it mean to say that God “used evolution” to create the world? Is Darwin’s theory of evolution compatible with belief in God? And even if Darwin’s theory could be reconciled with religious belief, do we need to do so? Is the theory well established scientifically? Is it true?
In the century and a half since Charles Darwin first proposed his theory of evolution, Christians, Jews, and other religious believers have grappled with how to make sense of it. Most have understood that Darwin’s theory has profound theological implications, but their responses have varied dramatically.
Some religious believers have rejected it outright; others, often called “theistic evolutionists,” have sought to reconcile Darwin’s theory with their religious beliefs, but often at the cost of clarity, orthodoxy, or both. Too few have carefully teased out the various scientific, philosophical, and theological claims at stake, and separated the chaff from the wheat. As a result, the whole subject of God and evolution has been an enigma wrapped in a shroud of fuzz and surrounded by blanket of fog.
The purpose of this anthology of essays is to clear away the fog, the fuzz, and the enigma. Contributing authors to the volume include Jay Richards, co-author of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery; Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design; William Dembski, author of The Design Revolution; Jonathan Witt, co-author of A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature; Denyse O’Leary, author of By Design, or by Chance?; and David Klinghoffer, author of Shattered Tablets.
In the century and a half since Charles Darwin first proposed his theory of evolution, Christians, Jews, and other religious believers have grappled with how to make sense of it. Most have understood that Darwin’s theory has profound theological implications, but their responses have varied dramatically.
Some religious believers have rejected it outright; others, often called “theistic evolutionists,” have sought to reconcile Darwin’s theory with their religious beliefs, but often at the cost of clarity, orthodoxy, or both. Too few have carefully teased out the various scientific, philosophical, and theological claims at stake, and separated the chaff from the wheat. As a result, the whole subject of God and evolution has been an enigma wrapped in a shroud of fuzz and surrounded by blanket of fog.
The purpose of this anthology of essays is to clear away the fog, the fuzz, and the enigma. Contributing authors to the volume include Jay Richards, co-author of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery; Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design; William Dembski, author of The Design Revolution; Jonathan Witt, co-author of A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature; Denyse O’Leary, author of By Design, or by Chance?; and David Klinghoffer, author of Shattered Tablets.
388 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2010
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80 people want to read
About the author
Jay W. Richards
27 books65 followersJay W. Richards has served in leadership positions at the Discovery Institute and the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
He has written many academic articles, books, and popular essays on a wide variety of subjects, from culture, economics, and public policy, to natural science, technology, and the environment. His previous books include The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, with Guillermo Gonzalez (Washington DC: Regnery Publishers, 2004); The Untamed God: A Philosophical Exploration of Divine Perfection, Immutability and Simplicity (InterVarsity Press, 2003); Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong Artificial Intelligence, as editor and contributor (Discovery Institute Press, May 2002); and Unapologetic Apologetics: Meeting the Challenges of Theological Studies, as editor and multiple contributor, with William Dembski (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, February 2001).
Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem (HarperOne, May 2009), seeks to explain the market economy to people who don’t like economics, and defend it against its religious critics.
Richards is also executive producer of several documentaries, including The Call of the Entrepreneur, The Birth of Freedom, and The Effective Stewardship Curriculum (Acton Media and Zondervan, 2009). He has been featured in several television-broadcast documentaries, including The Call of the Entrepreneur, The Case for a Creator, The Wonder of Soil, and The Privileged Planet, based on his book with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez.
A self-described “shameless generalist,” he has academic specialties in philosophy, theology, and political science, including extensive research in formal logic.
He has a B.A. with majors in Political Science and Religion, an M.Div. (Master of Divinity) and a Th.M. (Master of Theology), with a thesis on social philosopher Michael Polanyi (from whom F.A. Hayek got his concept of “spontaneous order”). He also has a Ph.D. (with honors) in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. While at Princeton, he helped restart and edit the Princeton Theological Review, and led extracurricular apologetics seminars during his four years there.
His work has been covered (and sometimes harshly criticized) in The New York Times (front page news, science news, and editorial), The Washington Post (news and editorial), The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Nature, Science, Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, The Scientist, Physics Today, California Wild (California Academy of Science), New Scientist, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Enterprise, Congressional Quarterly Researcher, Human Events, American Spectator, First Things, Science & Spirit, Science & Theology News, Christianity Today, Crisis, National Catholic Register, World, Breakpoint, American Atheist, World Socialist of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and many other academic and popular outlets.
He has been interviewed for stories in print publications not just in the U.S., but also in Germany, Switzerland, France, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, and the UK.
Jay Richards has lectured at scores of academic conferences as diverse as the Evangelical Theological Society and the Western Economic Association, on scores of college and university campuses, at many public policy meetings, and on several occasions has lectured to members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. congressional staff.
He has written many academic articles, books, and popular essays on a wide variety of subjects, from culture, economics, and public policy, to natural science, technology, and the environment. His previous books include The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, with Guillermo Gonzalez (Washington DC: Regnery Publishers, 2004); The Untamed God: A Philosophical Exploration of Divine Perfection, Immutability and Simplicity (InterVarsity Press, 2003); Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong Artificial Intelligence, as editor and contributor (Discovery Institute Press, May 2002); and Unapologetic Apologetics: Meeting the Challenges of Theological Studies, as editor and multiple contributor, with William Dembski (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, February 2001).
Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem (HarperOne, May 2009), seeks to explain the market economy to people who don’t like economics, and defend it against its religious critics.
Richards is also executive producer of several documentaries, including The Call of the Entrepreneur, The Birth of Freedom, and The Effective Stewardship Curriculum (Acton Media and Zondervan, 2009). He has been featured in several television-broadcast documentaries, including The Call of the Entrepreneur, The Case for a Creator, The Wonder of Soil, and The Privileged Planet, based on his book with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez.
A self-described “shameless generalist,” he has academic specialties in philosophy, theology, and political science, including extensive research in formal logic.
He has a B.A. with majors in Political Science and Religion, an M.Div. (Master of Divinity) and a Th.M. (Master of Theology), with a thesis on social philosopher Michael Polanyi (from whom F.A. Hayek got his concept of “spontaneous order”). He also has a Ph.D. (with honors) in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. While at Princeton, he helped restart and edit the Princeton Theological Review, and led extracurricular apologetics seminars during his four years there.
His work has been covered (and sometimes harshly criticized) in The New York Times (front page news, science news, and editorial), The Washington Post (news and editorial), The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Nature, Science, Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, The Scientist, Physics Today, California Wild (California Academy of Science), New Scientist, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Enterprise, Congressional Quarterly Researcher, Human Events, American Spectator, First Things, Science & Spirit, Science & Theology News, Christianity Today, Crisis, National Catholic Register, World, Breakpoint, American Atheist, World Socialist of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and many other academic and popular outlets.
He has been interviewed for stories in print publications not just in the U.S., but also in Germany, Switzerland, France, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, and the UK.
Jay Richards has lectured at scores of academic conferences as diverse as the Evangelical Theological Society and the Western Economic Association, on scores of college and university campuses, at many public policy meetings, and on several occasions has lectured to members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. congressional staff.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 31, 2013
This is a very important book for anyone who is thinking about theistic evolution. It's a multi-author work that examines theistic evolution as well as Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish responses to both evolution (in the Darwinian sense) and intelligent design. My interest waned a bit in the Catholic section, written mostly by Jay Richards, but I can see how it would be very useful to Catholics, so the fault may be mine. At any rate, I think anyone who holds endorses theistic evolution or is considering doing so should read this book.
March 24, 2020
This is a collection of articles by Intelligent Design scientists from multiple faith backgrounds arguing to each of their respective faith communities about why the theistic evolutionary worldview fails based off of arguments from science, history, philosophy, and their various religions. Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism are represented in this book. Seeing as I'm in none of those categories (Eastern Orthodox here), I read them all!
It was really refreshing to dive back into ID research. I'm a huge fan of Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design and thoroughly enjoyed watching 'Expelled' when that was out. I've read many different things by many different ID theorists, and it is just excellent stuff. The research behind this theory is breathtaking, and so many people misunderstand and mislabel exactly what this group does and thinks (and discovers!).
This book is an argument against proponents of theistic evolution and their critiques of ID. It's divided into 4 sections: an overview of the controversies and definition of terms and theories, an argument against Protestant theistic evolutionists, an argument against Catholic theistic evolutionists, and an argument against Jewish theistic evolutionists (or, more accurately, against a lack of caring about anything going on in the evolutionary realm). The first section was really good and I loved the last chapter in the Judaism section. It was very poignant.
This book gets really heady and technical at times, especially in the Catholic section where the authors dive deep into Aristotelian and Thomist philosophies. It's definitely written for people who have a familiarity with the controversies at hand and the worldviews mentioned. I think if I didn't have a background in reading ID literature, it'd be a harder read. If you're a theistic evolutionist in any of those 3 religious camps and you enjoy reading deep philosophy/science, this book will challenge your thinking. If you're curious about the debate and fall into any of those 3 camps, I'd suggest picking it up and reading the section relevant to you. If you're interested in the bigger controversies and arguments surrounding ID or in learning what ID is, skip this book and read the book by Stephan Meyer that I mentioned or go watch Expelled (by Ben Stein). This book is good, but it's definitely geared to a very specific audience and reading level. This might be a bit above the average reader's head. I would've loved more theistic representation (what does Islam say about this? Or any of the Eastern religions?), and also an update! This book was published 10 years ago. I'm curious as to what (if anything) has changed in this arena.
All in all, great book, but not for everyone.
It was really refreshing to dive back into ID research. I'm a huge fan of Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design and thoroughly enjoyed watching 'Expelled' when that was out. I've read many different things by many different ID theorists, and it is just excellent stuff. The research behind this theory is breathtaking, and so many people misunderstand and mislabel exactly what this group does and thinks (and discovers!).
This book is an argument against proponents of theistic evolution and their critiques of ID. It's divided into 4 sections: an overview of the controversies and definition of terms and theories, an argument against Protestant theistic evolutionists, an argument against Catholic theistic evolutionists, and an argument against Jewish theistic evolutionists (or, more accurately, against a lack of caring about anything going on in the evolutionary realm). The first section was really good and I loved the last chapter in the Judaism section. It was very poignant.
This book gets really heady and technical at times, especially in the Catholic section where the authors dive deep into Aristotelian and Thomist philosophies. It's definitely written for people who have a familiarity with the controversies at hand and the worldviews mentioned. I think if I didn't have a background in reading ID literature, it'd be a harder read. If you're a theistic evolutionist in any of those 3 religious camps and you enjoy reading deep philosophy/science, this book will challenge your thinking. If you're curious about the debate and fall into any of those 3 camps, I'd suggest picking it up and reading the section relevant to you. If you're interested in the bigger controversies and arguments surrounding ID or in learning what ID is, skip this book and read the book by Stephan Meyer that I mentioned or go watch Expelled (by Ben Stein). This book is good, but it's definitely geared to a very specific audience and reading level. This might be a bit above the average reader's head. I would've loved more theistic representation (what does Islam say about this? Or any of the Eastern religions?), and also an update! This book was published 10 years ago. I'm curious as to what (if anything) has changed in this arena.
All in all, great book, but not for everyone.
December 3, 2023
While I had a tendency before reading this book to conceive of God's creative process through evolution as Darwinistic and entirely uninfluenced, I now feel far more reticent about that view.
Interestingly, not because of any arguments for ID (which I am cautious about, but not in theory opposed to) but because of the philosophical implications of a *truly* random understanding of mutations and information generation. It undermines divine intentionality behind the physical world and the Thomistic conception of natural substances.
Otherwise, the book is good, while sometimes portraying Darwinist theists with an over-eager evil eye and suspicion.
Whether I support the concept of ID and its quasi mechanistic philosophical backdrop is still unclear to me. In any case, I'm glad I read the book because it showed I was wrong in some areas of thinking.
Interestingly, not because of any arguments for ID (which I am cautious about, but not in theory opposed to) but because of the philosophical implications of a *truly* random understanding of mutations and information generation. It undermines divine intentionality behind the physical world and the Thomistic conception of natural substances.
Otherwise, the book is good, while sometimes portraying Darwinist theists with an over-eager evil eye and suspicion.
Whether I support the concept of ID and its quasi mechanistic philosophical backdrop is still unclear to me. In any case, I'm glad I read the book because it showed I was wrong in some areas of thinking.
February 23, 2013
I didn't finish the book. The part responding to theistic evolution is very interesting and useful. But do I really need all that information about concepts I've never heard of (and may never again), like teleological evolution, Thomism, etc. I don't think that is a good use of my time, so I'm bailing out halfway through this one.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews