Can a Darwinian be a Christian? : the relationship between science and religion

This book, first published in 2000, adopts a balanced perspective on the subject to offer a serious examination of both Darwinism and Christianity. He covers a wide range of topics, from the Scopes Monkey Trial to claims about the religious significance of extraterrestrials. He deals with major figures in the current science/religion debate and considers in detail the claims of the new creationism, revealing some surprising parallels between Darwinian materialists and traditional thinkers such as St. Augustine. Michael Ruse argues that, although it is at times difficult for a Darwinian to embrace Christian belief, it is by no means inconceivable. At the same time he suggests ways in which a Christian believer should have no difficulty accepting evolution in general, and Darwinism in particular.

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Ever since Thomas Henry Huxley tangled with the Anglican bishop of Oxford, evolutionists and Christians have been at one another's throats. Ruse thinks it's time for these antagonists to stop attacking each other's beliefs and to start comparing them. Once evolutionary theory has been stripped of antireligious polemics, and Christian orthodoxy of scriptural literalism, the two perspectives coincide at important points. The Darwinian account of how human selfishness wars against human altruism, for example, resonates with Augustinian teachings on original sin and Christian virtue. And many Darwinians share with Christians a conviction that humans stand apart from all other creatures in ways that reflect more than blind biological chance. To be sure, Ruse acknowledges the persistent tensions: evolutionary explanations of the mind, for instance, hardly reinforce faith in a divine origin for the soul, nor do sociobiological explanations of religion leave any place for an angelic metaphysics. Yet Ruse shows finally that rigorous Darwinians need not surrender their intellectual honesty to embrace Christianity, nor do devout Christians have to lapse into apostasy to accept Darwinian science. Balanced and scrupulous, this is an overdue book for turning a sterile debate into a meaningful dialogue. --Bryce Christensen

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For those dissatisfied with the tenor of the evolution vs. creationism debate, or who simply long for a more moderate intellectual engagement, Ruse (philosophy and zoology, Univ. of Guelph, Canada; Mystery of Mysteries) offers another perspective here: one designed to help rationalists come to terms with religion. Written from the viewpoint of a scientist willing to engage Christian literalism on its own terms, he systematically compares historical Darwinism and Christian beliefs and sensibilities, finding surprising parallels in both methodologies as they search for the meaning of life. While the author can be faulted in spots for minor misinformation (Augustine was not raised a Christian but underwent a conversion in midlife), he succeeds in offering as basic and thoroughgoing an engagement of biology and belief as one might hope for. And his honesty is noteworthyDa Darwinian can be a Christian, but, as Ruse notes, nobody claims that that's an easy path. Recommended for public and academic libraries.DSandra Collins, Duquesne Univ. Lib., PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Preface	p. ix
Prologue	p. 1
Chapter 1 Darwinism	p. 12
Chapter 2 Christianity	p. 33
Chapter 3 Origins	p. 49
Chapter 4 Humans	p. 68
Chapter 5 Naturalism	p. 94
Chapter 6 Design	p. 111
Chapter 7 Pain	p. 129
Chapter 8 Extraterrestrials	p. 143
Chapter 9 Christian Ethics	p. 157
Chapter 10 Social Darwinism	p. 170
Chapter 11 Sociobiology	p. 186
Chapter 12 Freedom and Determinism	p. 205
Epilogue	p. 217
Bibliography	p. 221
Index	p. 235

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