Evolution Archives - Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Adam’s Ancestors

Book 301 pages Level: university Adam’s Ancestors is a story about a dark side of science and religion. Written by David Livingstone and published in 2008 by the Johns Hopkins University Press, Adam’s Ancestors traces the trajectory of the theory of the “pre-Adamites”: humans, or human-like beings, that were supposed to have possibly existed on Earth but that were not descendants of Adam and Eve. The theory of pre-Adamites arose as an attempt to explain the widespread distribution of people on the Earth (people of differing appearances, speaking differing languages), and also to explain certain portions of the book of Genesis. Thus, both science and religion are involved in the story. The theory that not all people are descendants of Adam and Eve—in other words, the idea that human beings are not all of one family—leads to some very ugly ideas. Livingstone does not censor the various people who speak on this idea, so the reader of Adam’s Ancestors must … Continue reading →

Dealing with Darwin

Book 265 pages Level: university In this 2014 book published by Johns Hopkins University Press, author David N. Livingstone explores reactions to Charles Darwin’s ideas among different groups of people with apparently the same religious beliefs. The groups he considers are all people with ties to Scottish Presbyterianism. Livingstone shows that these different groups all responded to Darwin in dramatically differing ways. From this Livingstone argues that what might be considered “religious” opposition to Darwin’s ideas, or to other ideas in science, might not be “religious” at all. If “religion” was the driving force in the how these Presbyterians responded to Darwin, then we would expect their responses to be somewhat similar. But since their responses were not, then other factors such as “place, politics, and rhetoric” must carry the greater weight in religious engagements with evolution and other ideas. The full title of the book is Dealing with Darwin: Place, Politics, and Rhetoric in Religious Engagements with Evolution. From … Continue reading →

The Secret History of Science and Religion

Radio program 90 minutes in 3 segments Level: all audiences This series aired on the BBC Radio 4 in 2019 and is hosted by Nick Spencer of Theos Think Tank in the UK. The show features accomplished scholars such as John Hedley Brooke and Bernard Lightman, and touches on scientific figures ranging from Robert Grosseteste to Isaac Newton to James Clerk Maxwell to Georges Lemaître. Spencer argues that the supposed conflict between science and religion hinges on ideas about what it means to be human. Therefore often the conflict is not really about religion and science in the usual way that people think about them. For example, Spencer interviews Fern Elsdon-Baker (Professor of Science, Knowledge and Belief in Society at Birmingham University in the UK), whose research suggests that professed atheists reject a strictly materialistic evolutionary explanation for human origins at a similar rates as professedly religious people. Click here to access the web site of this program, courtesy of … Continue reading →

Claiming Darwin

Article 4000 words Level: high school and above This article by Myrna Perez Sheldon was published in 2015 in Cosmologics Magazine, which is a project of the Science, Religion, and Culture program at Harvard Divinity School. Sheldon discusses the impact on evolutionists of both the resurgence of Creationism and Stephen Jay Gould’s ideas about “punctuated equilibrium” during the 1970’s and 1980’s. She notes that Gould framed Charles Darwin as a historical figure who had been influenced by his time and place. According to Gould, Darwin’s theory did come down to explaining natural order without recourse to God, but largely because of Darwin’s own historical context—“all the higher order harmony that used to be seen as the source of evidence for God’s benevolence is epiphenomenal upon the struggle of something lower for personal gain. That’s all.” If this framing sounded a great deal like “Adam Smith’s economics translated into nature,” it was “no accident” according to Gould. Gould went on to … Continue reading →

From Cosmologics: On Darwin and Place

Articles (two) 4500 words (total) Level: high school and above These are two articles related to work by David Livingstone of Queen’s University, Belfast, who gave the 2015 Dudleian Lecture at Harvard Divinity School. They were published in Cosmologics Magazine, which is a project of the Science, Religion, and Culture program at Harvard Divinity School. Click here to access “David Livingstone: Putting Darwinism in Its Place” from Cosmologics Magazine. This is an excerpt from Livingstone’s book Dealing with Darwin: Place, Politics and Rhetoric in Religious Engagements with Evolution. Livingstone argues that how Darwin’s ideas were received varied widely. In some places Darwin’s ideas were rejected. He notes how some sought to cast “Darwinism and Catholicism as twin allies against the inductive truths of science and the revealed truths of scripture. It thus became possible to conflate as a single object of reproach an old enemy—popery—and a new one—evolution…. these were indeed the enemies of God.” Others welcomed Darwinism as endorsing … Continue reading →

Gregor Mendel – Father of Genetics

Book 128 pages Level: all audiences This 1997 book by Roger Klare is part of the Enslow Publishers Great Minds of Science series. It provides an overview of Fr. Gregor Mendel’s life and work that is oriented towards younger readers, and that is based largely on the biography of Mendel by Hugo Iltis. From the publisher: Gregor Mendel is known as the father of genetics. Genetics is the science of explaining how parents pass certain characteristics to their offspring. Mendel was an Austrian monk. He experimented with peas and other plants in the garden of the St. Thomas Monastery in what is now the Czech Republic. Mendel would cross-breed pea plants with different traits—round peas and wrinkled peas, for example. He wanted to see what their offspring were like. His experiments led to some startling discoveries. Though Mendel thought he had discovered something important, he never knew just how important his work really was. When Mendel published the results of … Continue reading →

What Good is Stardust?

Article 4 pages Level: all audiences This 2001 article from Christianity Today by Howard J. Van Till discusses what galaxies and stars are, and what they do. What they do is, among others things, produce over time the materials needed for us to exist today. Van Till, professor (emeritus) of physics and astronomy at Calvin College, notes that “the universe is a cosmos that is fully equipped with all of the resources and capabilities to provide for the needs of the day” and that it also “is richly gifted with remarkable capabilities for organizing itself, in the course of time, into new structures and forms”. He asks whether it is expecting too much for the universe to be a creation of God that is so generously gifted that it can even in time produce living creatures themselves? Van Till writes: [I]f the universe is a creation… then its natural capabilities are part of its God-given nature. That being the case, … Continue reading →

Evolution: Waiting and Purpose

Article (book excerpt) 1300 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from the book Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life, in which the author, John F. Haught of Georgetown University, illustrates that there is a directionality, and thus a purpose, self-evidently present in the universe—and therefore that evolution cannot be described as aimless. [Click here to download PDF]

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La Evolución, Entre Ciencia, Razón y Fe

Article 20 pages Level: high school and above In this article, published in the journal Scientia et Fides in 2015, Juan-Luis Lorda of the Universidad de Navarra provides a brief overview of Darwinian evolution, using quotes from G. K. Chesterton and Leo Tolstoy as his starting point. Lorda writes: La evolución es un tema que interesa a las ciencias, a la filosofía y también a la teología cristiana. Vamos a buscar los puntos de diálogo. Seguiremos este itinerario: 1. Una introducción donde aprovechamos dos citas, de Chesterton y Tolstoi para situar nuestra reflexión. Además, pensaremos en lo que se requiere para hacer verdadera ciencia. 2. Nos plantearemos qué está demostrado científicamente sobre la evolución y qué no. 3. Trataremos sobre las afirmaciones que se inspiran en las ciencias pero son filosofía (o ideología). 4. Añadiremos lo que se puede decir desde la fe cristiana. Lorda’s conclusion: El universo, desde el Big Bang hasta el ser humano, es como un cuento … Continue reading →

Thomistic Evolution: A Catholic Approach to Understanding Evolution in the Light of Faith

Article collection Approximately 60 pages Level: high school and above The first page of the Thomistic Evolution website features the heading “Understanding Evolution with St. Thomas Aquinas”. Thomistic Evolution features a collection of sixty article written by a team of Dominicans with backgrounds in science, theology and philosophy. These are Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., who received his Ph.D. in Biology from M.I.T. and his S.T.D. in Moral Theology from the University of Fribourg; Fr. James Brent, O.P., who earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from St. Louis University; Bro. Thomas Davenport, O.P., who received his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University; and Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P., who earned his doctorate in sacred theology (S.T.D.) from the University of Fribourg. They write: Evolutionary theory has raised numerous disputed questions among the Catholic faithful and other Christian believers concerning the relationship between faith and reason and between religion and science. As a team of Dominican friars and scholars committed to the preaching … Continue reading →

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Category Archives: Evolution