Saturday, April 12, 2008
Finding Darwin's God
Brown University professor Kenneth R. Miller looks for his own answer to the question, what kind of God do you believe in? After some thought, his response is, “Darwin’s God”. Miller does a great job of detailing evolution and the scientific rejection of intelligent design. He also looks for a way to reconcile his own Catholic faith with the science of evolution. Miller is great at explaining science, but he falls short in the area of theology. I do think this book is important and many will find it helpful. He is top notch at debunking intelligent design. However, I’m still not sure about Darwin’s God. I don’t feel Miller made much progress in answering that part of the question. I feel like I would appreciate Darwin’s God if I found it, but this book didn’t exactly paint a clear picture or spark a new creative idea about what it might be. Maybe that is the point. Maybe his goal was to drive home the idea that we can’t narrowly define God or explain God with a scientific experiment. If that is what he means, then I agree.
This book is great if you want a detailed dismantling of creationism or want a more in depth understanding of the shady history of Intelligent Design. If you want to learn 1001 ways to rephrase the statement “Science is not at odds with faith”, then you’ve found the perfect book. Unfortunately, I got it the first time and grew tired of the repetition.
The good news is that Miller is a wonderful speaker. He loves science and that enthusiasm is contagious. My recommendation is to skip the book and listen to this lecture. It is pure gold!
7 comments:
Hey Mike,
Sounds like an interesting book. I'm curious if or how Miller attempts to reconcile the concept of "survival of the fittest" with his concept of God. Does he address this?
I like what Darwin has to offer in many respects and how it illimunes, not detracts, from theological reflection of God. I especially like the progressiveness that is essential to Dawinism but yet often eclipsed in theology (by this I mean that God is still at work in the world and what we read in scripture is not some static story that happened in ages past but is OUR story for TODAY).
What I have difficulties with, however, is the idea that only the strong survive. It would seem to me that Christ refutes such a notion.
Your thoughts?
peace,
Chad
Thanks for the comment Chad. I don’t think there is anything to reconcile. Your comment points out a big misconception about evolution that is frequently spread as negative propaganda. This “urban legend” is a big reason people misunderstand and often vilify evolution.
Darwin does not condone survival of the fittest. The science of Evolution is in no way an appreciation or acceptance of stronger animals killing weaker ones. Actually, there is no such thing as “survival of the fittest” in evolution. The correct term is Natural selection and it is simply an observation that environmental factors favor particular genetic variances over other genes and those favored variances produce more plentifully and gradually become common in the next generations. In other words, the creation of a new species in no way depends on the extinction of another. Many factors go into the extinction of a species, but it is not the result of a new species. For example, the existence of humans doesn’t mean earlier primates became extinct. Extinction only occurs in situations where the environmental factors no longer allow earlier species to continue in their current form.
Natural selection is the story of how things survive through adaptation and live, not how things become extinct and die. Evolution is a very positive story about how life finds a way to continue through difficult circumstances. It is a wonderful characteristic of life and a beautiful story. Evolution offers hope that we can be transformed for survival.
Christianity, as well as many faith traditions, is all about transformation. You might call religion a means of character evolution as we point out and favor the best aspects of our character that we wish to pass on to our faith descendants. Unfortunately, religion and society has not always favored the best aspects of human character Whatever is favored will be passed on and become common. We are living with the results of some bad selections.
Mike,
Thanks for offering some clarity to some bad thinking. I readily admit that most of my "knowledge" about evolution and Darwin comes from my 10th grade biology class and spottings of an ichthus eating Darwin on bumper stickers (lol).
As you describe it above I agre with you - it is a beautiful story of transformation mirroring well our life in Christ.
peace,
Chad
Our society is certainly plagued with "bumper sticker" versions of both theology and science. Darwin Fish... you gotta just laugh at those things.
“Science is not at odds with faith”
I'm beginning to think that this is a meaningless statement. Miller should probably say "how I understand science is not at odds with my faith." Two nebulous all encompassing terms such as science and faith are too abstract unless one really defines what one is talking about.
Connor, That is a good point. I'd like to see where you are headed. Would you care to elaborate?
Well, the most obvious thing to say is that today's science does conflict with the faith of a creationist. Less conservative Christians may run into conflicts when discussing 'the Fall' and evolution or something like the Exodus for no evidence has from my knowledge ever been found for such an event.
From the other side, you might encounter someone who puts science and their philosophical beliefs together under the heading of science. Often these people tend to define faith simply as "believing without evidence" which doesn't really capture the true nature of faith.
I'm just beginning to flesh this out in my own head so the above is only a first step. The main issue is that when people discuss 'science and faith' almost everyone brings different views as to what each term means and generally mis-characterizes others' views.
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