Evolution and Religion

Special Evolutionary Issue of the online journal Politics and Culture. Edited by Joseph Carroll.

http://politicsandculture.org/2010/04/28/contents-2/

27 essays organized under five headings: (1) The Evolutionary Turn in Psychology and the Humanities; (2) Politics and Ethics; (3) Religion; (4) Literature; and (5) music.

Also, a symposium on the question "How is art biological," with commentaries by seven scholars and with responses from various contributors to each of the commentaries.

Many contemporary Jains assert that the ancient tradition of Jainism is compatible with modern science. Some authors specifically attempt to demonstrate the early evolutionary insights of “Jaina biology” which, when compared to Darwin’s 19th-century theory, may be partial, implicit, resonate with “Darwinian expressions,” or offer a corrective to Darwin’s account by redefining certain aspects of evolution altogether. 

In this presentation, I explore three strategic arguments contemporary Jain authors have made for their tradition’s compatibility with Darwin’s theory of evolution, namely that the Jain view posits (1) biological resonances and epistemic flexibility, (2) the evolution of consciousness explained through karmic variation, and (3) the exceptional possibility of human omniscience. I will highlight persistent challenges within these arguments that undermine any easy comparison between the Jain worldview and Darwin’s theory. 

The Jain tradition does not speak in one voice regarding modern science. However, as Jain communities move and develop into new contexts with fresh concerns beyond ancient orthodoxies, we find a proliferation of divergent responses to claims such as Darwin’s theory of evolution that keep the Jain tradition alive and changing in its own right.

This book addresses the relationship between religion and knowledge from a sociological perspective, taking both religion and knowledge as phenomena located within ever changing social contexts. It builds on historical foundations, but offers a distinctive focus on the changing status of religious phenomena at the turn of the twenty-first century. Including critical engagement with live debates about intelligent design and the ‘new atheism’, this collection of essays brings recent research on religious movements into conversation with debates about socialisation, reflexivity and the changing capacity of social institutions to shape human identities. Contributors examine religion as an institutional context for the production of knowledge, as a form of knowledge to be transmitted or conveyed and as a social field in which controversies about knowledge emerge.

This paper represents a detailed analysis of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's evolutionary understanding of taamei hamitzvot ("reasons for the commandments"), which he invokes to bridge modernity and tradition, philosophy and Jewish mysticism, halakha and aggadah. I explore R. Kooks reliance on medieval thinkers like Maimonides and Ibn Paquda as well as the classical kabbalah and explore his writing in the context of other contemporary Jewish thinkers.

Las relaciones entre ciencia y religión han sido a lo largo de los años un tanto turbulentas. En el siglo XX, entre quienes buscaban apaciguar esta situación se encontraba el físico Pascual Jordan, uno de los fundadores de la física cuántica, conocido en Alemania por su dedicación a la divulgación de la ciencia y a mostrar sus profundas consecuencias filosóficas y su compatibilidad con el pensamiento religioso. Este autor, de quien poco se conoce en el ámbito de la filosofía fuera de Alemania, aporta profundas reflexiones extracientíficas que poseen un valor propio y digno de ser tenido en cuenta a la hora de hablar de las relaciones entre ciencia y religión.
Jordan declara que la ciencia había arremetido contra la religión en tres “oleadas de ofensiva”. La primera de ellas proviene de lo que puede llamarse “la imagen copernicana del universo”. La objeción consiste en haber desechado la centralidad del hombre en el cosmos contra la concepción religiosa cristiana que consideraban al hombre “centro de la creación”. La segunda tiene que ver con el concepto mecanicista de la naturaleza. Laplace había establecido que en el universo todos los cuerpos se mueven siguiendo rígidamente las leyes mecánicas que Newton había descubierto. Así, la mecánica se volvió la cosmovisión vigente que comprendía al cosmos como un artilugio de relojería. La tercera, vino por el lado de la Biología. La teoría de la evolución describía el desarrollo del mundo desde los seres más simples hasta el ser humano. A fines del siglo XIX, Ernst Haeckel, basándose en esta teoría, sostuvo que la única “religión” auténtica era la de la ciencia cuyos pilares eran el materialismo y el determinismo. Según esta concepción la realidad sólo es materia en movimiento hacia lo complejo. De aquí que él mismo denominara esta “religión”, Monismo.
La principal consecuencia cultural que Jordan observó a comienzos del siglo XX fue una suerte de “pacto de ignorancia mutua” entre los científicos y la religión. Pacto que él mismo describe como una “asepsia” entre ambos ámbitos de la vida y la cultura. De ese modo todo científico evitará la religión y viceversa. Y quien quiera cargar sobre sí el peso de las dos visiones deberá revivir la tesis de la doble verdad.
En su obra “El hombre de ciencia ante el problema religioso” Jordan responde a cada una de las ofensivas: A la primera, responde que el universo no posee infinitud espacial, sino que se trata de una cantidad determinada de materia en un espacio no euclidiano. Y, por otro lado, que, en este espacio inmenso, sí, pero finito, las probabilidades de que exista vida (no hablemos de vida inteligente), son tan pequeñas que se puede desechar esa hipótesis admitiendo que realmente somos especiales. A la segunda, responde amparándose en las conclusiones de la física cuántica. La naturaleza no era en el fondo determinista, sino todo lo contrario. Ese indeterminismo del seno de la materia se propaga a los cuerpos macrofísicos por la ley de los grandes números, en el caso de los seres inanimados, o por medio de centros de comando y procesos en avalancha en los vivientes. A la tercera responde, que el proceso evolutivo también se realiza por medio de eventos cuánticos aislados que se propagan en avalancha, y que, por tanto, no podemos excluir a priori la posibilidad de que Dios esté dirigiendo el devenir de esta manera.
Ahora bien, en este debate no puede quedar fuera la filosofía, ya que las teorías científicas se irán modificando en el transcurso de los años, en cambio, la filosofía aporta soluciones más duraderas e integrales. La metafísica tradicional del ser, por su parte, hace contribuciones verdaderamente profundas y enriquecedoras acerca de muchos de los conceptos a los que la ciencia arriba o que a ella misma le sirven como punto de partida (p.ej. infinito, azar, causalidad, determinismo, etc.). En este sentido, el mismo Jordan acusa a la metafísica monista de empobrecer la relación y conducirla a callejones sin salida.

Abstract: The purpose of human evolution seen from the point of view of a palaeontologist, computer scientist and Christian.

Resumen: La meta de la evolución humana desde el punto de vista de un paleontólogo, informático y cristiano.

Kurzfassung: Das Ziel der menschlichen Evolution aus der Sicht eines Paläontologen, Informatikers und Christen.

On the Jubjub bird and on Charles Darwin and evolution being possibly addressed in Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's "The Hunting of the Snark". --- 1st: 2015-01-01, update (minor changes): 2015-01-02 19:07 UTC. --- Errata (corrected on 2015-01-08): I used the Name "Dodgson" without having explained, that "Lewis Carroll" was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. --- 2015-10-19: More info on the source of Darwin's portrait. --- 2015-12-13: Raymond Schumann told me (related to Page 5, line 155): "The Victorians made morning calls in the afternoon."
https://www.google.de/search?q=The+Victorians+made+morning+calls+in+the+afternoon --- 2016-02-08: Additional image at bottom of page 1. --- 2016-02-20: Carroll's/Dodgson's obsession with time. --- 2016-03-12: Removal of empty page. Illustration by Grandeville added.

"Building on debates in the sociology of knowledge, this chapter explores how the recent popularity of creationist ideas within contemporary western cultures may be explained with reference to social structural changes. A brief history of creationism within the twentieth century is followed by a discussion of how and why the claims associated with creationism are viewed as plausible by those who affirm them. 

"

The rapid development of empirical science (physics, biology) and theoretical disciplines (theoretical physics) related to them, results in many theories on the origin, evolution and nature of the world, sometimes interpreted as contradictory to the theological conception. Consequently, under the influence of these achievements, within theology itself a position on the autonomy of both domains and on their complementarity seems to be more and more popular. With regard to this question, it is theology that should present the possibility of an understanding of the revealed truths such that they could coexist with scientific discoveries.
Based directly on biblical texts, the sophiological vision of the origin and nature of the world seems to be very interesting among other theological conceptions regarding this question. The present article attempts to confront the presumptions of sophiology regarding the eternal creative Wisdom with the scientific theory of the world’s nature (i.e. its laws), its development (evolution, accidentality of events) and on human existence (e.g. liberty) in order to demonstrate the possibility of the coexistence of these discourses without contradiction.

Q. As far as what I read from your book, you believe in evolution and think it goes along with religion?

Yes. The idea of Evolution is not in conflict with the belief in Creation of Species. Today evolution has gotten past the point of being considered merely a theory1. It is a scientific subject, and it is compatible with holy scripts. I can show you the evidence with close to 200 scientific and religious statements to prove it. By employing evolution, God demonstrates the miraculously economic operation of his system, his art and his might. The universe was created to produce meaning, to make sense and this is only possible with evolution. Simply put, evolution means that nothing comes to being suddenly. Life unfolds slowly and this is its most important characteristic. If we look carefully at the evolution in creation we see that it is a program, a plan if you will. For instance, an egg would not become a chick even if I hold it in the palm of my hand for 40 years; but, in the ecological system, which can be called “a palm of God's hand”, 40 million chicks are born every second. Religious scholars should not confuse the two.

Questions about our origin as a species are universal and compelling. Evolution-and in particular human evolution is a subject that generates intense interest across the world, evidenced by the fact that fossil and DNA discoveries grace the covers of major science journals and magazines as well as other popular print and online media. However, virtually all national polls indicate that the majority of Americans strongly reject biological evolution as a fact-based, well-tested, and robust understanding of the history of life. In the popular mind, no topic in all of science is more contentious or polarizing than evolution and media sources often only serve to magnify this polarization by covering challenges to the teaching of evolution. In the realm of teaching, debates about evolution have shaped textbooks , curricula, standards, and policy. Challenges to accepting and understanding evolution include mistrust and denial of science, cognitive obstacles and misconceptions, language and terminology, and a religious worldview, among others. Teachers, who are on the front lines of these challenges, must be armed with the tools and techniques to teach evolution in formal education settings across grades K-16 in a straightforward, thorough, and sensitive way. Despite the potentially controversial topic of human evolution, growing research is demonstrating that a peda-gogical focus on human examples is an effective and engaging way to teach core concepts of evolutionary biology.

Die Herausgeber dieses Buches sind der Meinung: die Frage nach Gott bleibt eine offene Frage. Die Frage nach Gott kann wie viele andere existentielle Fragen unseres Lebens, wie die nach dem Sinn der Welt, nicht über exakte Methoden beschrieben werden. So geht es darum, beides zu tun: die Welt so exakt wie möglich zu verstehen und zugleich eine Ahnung zu behalten für die Fragen, die unbeantwortet sind. Wie unsere Autoren zeigen, ist das Verhältnis von Wissenschaft und Religion nämlich keinesfalls durch einen Dauerkonflikt gekennzeichnet, sondern sehr vielschichtig und – historisch betrachtet – manchmal sogar für die Naturwissenschaft fruchtbar. Dies natürlich nicht im Falle von kreationistischen Übergriffigkeiten oder wissenschaftlichen Allerklärungsansprüchen, sondern dann, wenn ein echter Dialog stattfindet, der den Gesprächspartner ernst nimmt, das jeweils andere Terrain wahrt, und gerade so zu einem gelungenen Gedankenaustausch führen kann.

Las relaciones entre ciencia y religion han sido a lo largo de los anos un tanto turbulentas. En el siglo XX, entre quienes buscaban apaciguar esta situacion se encontraba el fisico Pascual Jordan, uno de los fundadores de la fisica cuantica, conocido en Alemania por su dedicacion a la divulgacion de la ciencia y a mostrar sus profundas consecuencias filosoficas y su compatibilidad con el pensamiento religioso. Este autor, de quien poco se conoce en el ambito de la filosofia fuera de Alemania, aporta profundas reflexiones extracientificas que poseen un valor propio y digno de ser tenido en cuenta a la hora de hablar de las relaciones entre ciencia y religion. Jordan declara que la ciencia habia arremetido contra la religion en tres “oleadas de ofensiva”. La primera de ellas proviene de lo que puede llamarse “la imagen copernicana del universo”. La objecion consiste en haber desechado la centralidad del hombre en el cosmos contra la concepcion religiosa cristiana que consideraban al ...

ntelligent design (ID) is a nonscientific idea that holds certain features of the universe and living things as too complex to have arisen through undirected, chance processes such as evolution by natural selection. Instead, proponents claim these features are evidence of design in nature and best explained by an unspecified intelligent cause or agent. The modern ID movement, which seeks to include ID content in science classrooms, distances itself from its clear Christian creationist roots by deliberately not referencing a supernatural designer.

According to Thomas Jefferson, the US Constitution created a wall of separation between church and state, religion and society. Yet, religion has played a significant political role in US history. It has helped communities bond together, has given a rationale for public engagement, has provided the motivation for social reform, and has been a source of controversy and culture wars. This course will explore the relationship between religion and public life in America. It will note its benefits and challenges to the commonwealth, and how religion remains a driving force for both social change and cultural identity in America.