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+--- Thread: Keeping the Darwinian Faith (/thread-4866.html)
Keeping the Darwinian Faith - C C - Feb 5, 2018
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/keeping-the-darwinian-faith/
EXCERPT: . . . [...] distinguished philosopher Michael Ruse, whose 2016 book *Darwinism as Religion* proposes that evolutionary theory is no mere explanation for our planet’s biology but a worldview that exceeds the warrant of science. [...] Ruse does not mean to cast aspersions on the science of biology. Rather, he seeks to show how Darwinian theory has served as a rival to the Christian worldview since the mid-Victorian period. [...]
Since religious practice today tends to be less institutional and denominational than it was even a few generations ago, it has become common to apply the label “religion” to everything from professional spectator sports and celebrity culture to partisan politics, philosophical trends, dietary fads, and Pokémon Go. All of these things resemble religion in important ways (tribalism, orthodoxies, et cetera), but they clearly serve different cultural functions. Ruse wants rather to get at what Beer called “Darwinian myths”: thus, he distinguishes between “Darwinism” as a worldview and Darwinian science per se, since the scientific theory of natural selection is not a myth but rather an explanation of the means by which the marvelous life forms around us have evolved. That scientific position was also available to Victorian clergymen like John Henry Newman and Aubrey Moore, who wrote that “Darwinism appeared, and, under the guise of a foe, did the work of a friend.” They rejected the Darwinian myth but accepted the science.
The specific myth Ruse has in mind, or perhaps the most salient of a family of myths, is a version of metaphysical naturalism — that is, scientism. [...]
[...] For the past 150 years, Ruse claims, “evolutionary thinking generally […] and Darwinian thinking in particular […] has taken on the form and role of a religion.” In other work, Ruse has argued that religious and anti-religious controversialists have much in common: a cultivation of orthodoxies, a tendency to dogmatism, and a telling zeal for persecuting heretics. In this book, he makes the case that atheists such as himself ought to grant the religious orientation behind Darwinian culture....
MORE: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/keeping-the-darwinian-faith/
RE: Keeping the Darwinian Faith - Syne - Feb 5, 2018
(Feb 5, 2018 10:38 PM)C C Wrote: In other work, Ruse has argued that religious and anti-religious controversialists have much in common: a cultivation of orthodoxies, a tendency to dogmatism, and a telling zeal for persecuting heretics. In this book, he makes the case that atheists such as himself ought to grant the religious orientation behind Darwinian culture....
I agree.
RE: Keeping the Darwinian Faith - Zinjanthropos - Feb 6, 2018
I think we're at a crossroad as far as evolution goes. I view the ability to genetically modify organisms to suit us as the next giant leap in evolution. If it aids life in general then on we go. Time will tell.
Don't really care what anybody calls evolution. It's happening every minute of every day no matter what. Beliefs and viewpoints all part of the parcel. Let's just hope we don't kill each other over them if we disagree....the argument being worse than the answer. Then again....c'est la vie!