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Summary:
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"I'm an evolutionary biologist and a Christian," states Stanford professor Joan Roughgarden at the outset of her groundbreaking new book, Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist. From that perspective, she offers an elegant, deeply satisfying reconciliation of the theory of evolution and the wisdom of the Bible.
Perhaps only someone with Roughgarden's unique academic standing could examine so well controversial issues such as the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, or the potential flaws in Darwin's theory of evolution. Certainly Roughgarden is uniquely suited to reference both the minutiae of scientific processes and the implication of Biblical verses. Whether the topic is mutation rates and lizards or the hidden meanings behind St. Paul's letters, Evolution and Christian Faith distils complex arguments into everyday understanding. Roughgarden has scoured the Bible and scanned the natural world, finding examples time and again, not of conflict, but of harmony.
The result is an accessible and intelligent context for a Christian vision of the world that embraces science. In the ongoing debates over creationism and evolution, Evolution and Christian Faith will be seen as a work of major significance, written for contemporary readers who wonder how-or if-they can embrace scientific advances while maintaining their traditional values.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Gracious, thought provoking, and well worth reading.
Customer Rating:
Many who don't find their own particular brand of theology or scriptural exegesis reflected as prominently in this book as they would like will rush to criticize it for not being what they would have written.
Nevertheless, this slim, focused book is well worth reading: for anyone with an interest in either Christianity or biological science.
It is a working life-scientist's thoughtful, careful consideration of how the core principles of evolutionary biology and the core truths of Christian faith can not only coexist in the same mind and heart, but actually complement and enrich one another.
It's not to be missed.
A needed presentation
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Excellent and honest with plenty of biblical references.
Very well written
A Christian's failed defense of Darwinism
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As a Jew I don't belong to the first in my preceding heading, but neither do I accept the second, contrary to the author's contention that "It is only Christians...who are challenging the teaching of evolution..." (p.11).
Above the title on the dust jacket of this book is the line: "WHAT JESUS AND DARWIN HAVE IN COMMON". Considering that Jesus is held by believers to be the incarnation of God, it is quite bold of one believer to elevate Darwin to a like status. The author indeed has through decades as an evolutionary biologist been what I see as indoctrinated regarding what is considered unshakable truth of at least much of evolutionary theory, which of course determines the origin of species, traditionally viewed as God's province. Author Roughgarden thus states that "The single tree of life is the basic fact of evolution" (p.13).
She argues (pp.14-15) that all organisms stem from the same ancestry because they share DNA, the chemical that genes are made from. As an example she cites paternity analysis, "we can tell whether people are related by seeing if their DNA is the same." Ironically, it is the people NOT related that point to the flawed logic. Those people and other organisms differ sufficiently in DNA not to be the relatives. The fact that all organisms share DNA to a great degree does not establish common ancestry, but can be owing to DNA constituting stuff from which organisms are made.
However, I do not wish to dwell on this aspect of evolution, because it bypasses the crux of the argument dividing Darwinians and their opponents, and which Dr. Roughgarden virtually ignores. It is that Darwinism is built on the denial of any purpose in the formation of organisms, on the supposition that only "blind" forces are responsible.
She devotes a chapter to "Evolution's Direction" (p.49) and insists that natural selection, calling it natural breeding, does have direction, unlike seemingly argued. The direction appears to be the known adaptation, but the question is not direction, applying to any event, but directedness--whether an event has an aim, a purpose. The author objects (pp.57-8) to a clergyman's claim that "one can clearly discern purpose and design in the natural world", and says that for these "to be considered facts of nature, some equipment would be needed or statistical test devised to demonstrate it."
I agree with her in a sense. One should demonstrate claimed facts, and this also applies to Darwinism. But I will focus on the purpose, aims, in question. Those aims are by proponents of Intelligent Design, a subject given another chapter by the author (p.80), considered displayed by the complex functionality of the organism's structure. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? More so than the fantastically stretched probabilities of accidental formation alleged by Darwinians. Nevertheless, the usefulness of the structure may itself not imply that it was designed for that purpose; one may wish it shown that such goal-directedness actually occurred. Dr. Roughgarden resorts to ridicule like "imagine animals stumbling around blindly until the intelligent designer plops eyes into empty eye sockets" (p.87). Perhaps most extreme is her charge "The intelligent designer makes miracles. The many irreducibly complex structures that organisms are said to possess constitute miracles their lineage has supposedly accumulated through time" (p.88). She then continues (p.95), "Intelligent design asks you to believe in God on the basis of miracles", and makes effort to discount Jesus' miracles, as not intended to prove God. The last, incidentally, does again not imply that some miracles may not lead to proof of God.
There is no need, however, to speak of miracles, or assume that organisms or their parts suddenly pop into existence. We know that every individual organism forms gradually, from smallest beginnings in germination, to full-grown maturity. And in this process, aims can indeed be detected. As I tried to bring to attention in other reviews and still find the need to do, this process of development, as well as the organism's other activities, are well known to have an aim, namely self-preservation. In other words, the purpose of self-preservation is an overwhelming phenomenon characterizing every living thing, if totally overlooked in the discussed disputes.
To speak of miracles in this respect is consequently pointless. Miracles are understood as events contradicting laws of nature, and the goal of self-preservation, distinguishing life from the lifeless, can be comprehended as part of nature's order.
a little gem
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Joan Roughgarden, an evolutionary biologist at Stanford since 1972 and an active Christian in her Episcopal church, wrote this book, she says, to provide a succinct statement of exactly what evolutionary biology does and does not know, and how the Bible relates to that scientific knowledge. The book is short enough to read in a few sittings, has no footnotes at all, avoids bogging down in secondary literature on the subject, and is written at a level for people with limited knowledge of science. I especially appreciated her irenic spirit.
At its simplest level evolution teaches that all of life is related in one big family tree, and that species change over space and time through "natural breeding" (as opposed to artificial breeding, for example, that farmers and others do today). Because of random mutations in the genes that are passed on from the "original" to the "copies," changes occur, some of which are favorable and some of which are deleterious. These mutations are random, but whether the overall evolutionary process has any "direction" good or bad is hotly debated among evolutionary biologists, says Roughgarden. Finally, she thinks Darwin is badly wrong about universal sex roles in which aggressive males seek passive females in a competition of perpetual conflict. She believes that cooperation and interdependence (eg, an ant colony) are as important in nature as conflict.
Roughgarden insists that there need not be any conflict between science and religion, or that they need to be relegated to separate spheres (but see pp. 56, and 83 where she seems to qualify this). "Intelligent design," she believes, invents problems that don't exist, is hard to take seriously, and so is a "non-starter" for mainstream science. She consigns ID to "junk science" along with the many versions of "junk religion." As one might expect, Roughgarden shines when it comes to science, but less so on matters theological and Biblical. But this is still a gem of a little book for those, as she says, who need to come up to speed on the subject for a Sunday school class or school board meeting, and it is heartening for a well-placed biologist like her to publish such an unapologetic confession of Christian faith.
A Well Informed Perspective
Customer Rating:
Overall, I found this book to be good. Her perspective on the biology, geology, and unsolved parts of evolution are excellent. It is fairly familiar as an overview of what evolution is and the general state of the thought. The theology is a bit off at points though it is generally clearer than most academics who attempt to reconcile their discipline with the Bible and the Christian faith in someway. Suppose that's going to depend on your denomination as it informs your theology and what you consider literal and figurative. I am informed by a Reformed Presbyterian perspective, which has significant pockets where evolution can be accomodated to the text of Genesis with not problem. I personally don't take a literal six-days and not necessarily even the old age (YOM) instead of day in sequential order as the author does. I am more inclined to think of Genesis of a framework with parallels between days 1 and 4, 2 and 5, and 3 and 6. Plus, I find her fair and broad as she quotes John MacArthur to the Pope and a variety of theological perspectives (not in much depth and mainly in how they relate their scientific views).
Either way, I think this is a valuable contribution to this dialogue. She's not as hard on atheistic scientists and their dogma as is warranted. I didn't notice a reference to your garden variety clowns like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett, for example, or any criticism of their vitriol and needless antagonism of everything and anything Christian. The lack of a willingness to take the atheist scientists to task is why I gave this book four stars instead of five. It's always easy to rip on the Fundamentalists. But if you're going to take a stand like this you need to rip "the professionals" as well. By casting this discussion into black and white, they're as much a part of the problem as anybody.
For those who want to accept that evolution is a fact that doesn't render Christianity untenable, this will be enjoyable and thoughtful. For people who view science as all there is to know, and the rest as mere speculation, this will not be an enjoyable book. Perhaps you can endlessly rehash 19th century materialistic philosophies, the Scopes Monkey Trial, and Intelligent Design in your own mind as the rest of us continue to think.
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