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DARWIN & RELIGION.   Term Paper ID:28294 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses Darwin's theory of cause & change & religious view of doctrine of creation. Finds Darwin's theory more plausible.... More...

12 Pages / 2700 Words 4 sources, 16 Citations, APA Format $48.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Discusses Darwin's theory of cause & change & religious view of doctrine of creation. Finds Darwin's theory more plausible. Paper Introduction: When Darwin published his book, Origin of Species, he sparked off a huge debate between the authority of science and that of religion. The debate continues even today. This paper will look at Darwin=s theory of cause and change, and the corresponding religious viewpoint. According to the philosophy of natural theology widely accepted in England in Darwin=s time, God had designed, and looked after, every species and its numerous adaptations (Mayr, 1991, p. 14). Darwin could not accept this explanation of the enormous diversity and adaption he observed. His own observations were also in conflict with the belief of the theologians in a perfect world. He questioned why all the species from former periods were extinct if they were perfect. To Darwin, creation as described in the bible was contradicted by al Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. This form of reasoning, leading to a theological conclusion, althoughincreasingly rare among biologists of Darwin=s time, remained popular amongreligious apologists. 277). When Darwin published his book, Origin of Species, he sparked off ahuge debate between the authority of science and that of religion. Using these propositions, Darwin showed how his theory indicatedthat there could be no clear lines drawn between the classification ofspecies, only strongly marked and permanent varieties (Brooke, 1991, p.277). Preadaption to preexisting conditions could not explainthese phenomena (Brooke, 1991, p. Sedgwick went on to point out that, by looking at different layers ofthe earth, different species are found which, he believes, were createdbecause of the different conditions existing at different times during thelifetime of the earth. Science and religion in America. Similarities suchas the chorda in tunicates and vertebrates, or the gill arches in fishesand terrestrial terapods, had been totally mystifying until they wereinterpreted as vestiges of a common ancestor. Darwin even anticipated thatall plant and animal life descended from some form into which life wasfirst breathed. Darwin also claimedthe theory of creation could not explain why all forms of life could beplaced in groups subordinate to other groups, all within a few greatclasses (Brooke, 1991, p. 213-214).Although it challenged the traditional concept of design, some Christianwriters now proclaimed that Darwinism gave them a new understanding ofGod=s transcendence over and immanence in His creation. It cites as evidence the paucity ofintermediate forms in fossil records. Hovenkamp, H. The youngichneumonidae feeding on the living bodies of caterpillars was a similarexample, and neither of these seemed to be consistent with a beneficentGod. But how could this be true if God is indeedomnipotent? Cambridge, Mass: HarvardUniversity Press. 226). He concluded that such evolution had takenplace along a definite course, with each stage being one of progress and ofpreparation for the next. The laws of naturethat allowed the evolutionary process to occur were said to be the work ofa transcendent being, but the emergence of new forms pointed to thecontinuous involvement of that being in the creative process. 275). The closest one could come to providing empirical evidence fordescent by modification was the fact of artificial selection.Unfortunately, the lack of paleontological evidence for transmutation didnot help his cause. The diversity of plant andanimal life in the world took on an entirely different perspective when itwas realized that it could all be traced back to a common origin. The Linnean hierarchy became logical because it becameapparent that each higher taxon consisted of descendants of a still moreremote ancestor. He argued that the theory of natural selectioncould not apply here because if each stage represented an increase insurvival fitness, the earlier forms would have been exterminated over time. Mayr, E. (1988). Its importancelay in its explanatory powers and the fact that it provided a unity for theliving world that was missing until that time. Patterns of distribution that had previously seemedcapricious could be explained in dispersal of ancestors. This paper will look at Darwin=s theory ofcause and change, and the corresponding religious viewpoint. Although his predecessors had lookedmainly at the competition between species, Darwin looked within species,and reasoned that, in a struggle for limited resources, individuals betteradapted to the prevailing circumstances would survive to have the greatestnumber of progeny. 278). A theology informed by Darwinism could shed some light on the questionof God=s continued involvement with the world (Brooke, 1991, pp. (1991). The importance of the differences between a belief in Darwinism and abelief in God as the Creator of all things, is that the former can besubjected to scientific proof, though this proof is sometimes slow incoming, whereas the latter is not as easy to substantiate. Why would he create anything less than perfect? Similarly, if Darwin=shypothesis were correct, embryological and morphological similarities amongdifferent organisms could be attributed to common ancestry, and thegeographical distribution of species could be ascribed to migration anddivergent variation from the center of origin. He showed how the simplest spiralshell had gradually developed into a complex cyclical form through anapparently regular progression. To Darwin, creation as described in thebible was contradicted by almost every aspect of the natural world, and itcould not explain the fossil record, nor the hierarchy of types oforganisms that had been proposed by Linnaeus, or many of the other findingsof science. Darwin conceded that evidence for transmutation was lacking, butargued that it was impossible to provide because the process worked soslowly. However, it gives no explanation ofwhy such changes took place. According to the philosophy of natural theology widely accepted inEngland in Darwin=s time, God had designed, and looked after, every speciesand its numerous adaptations (Mayr, 1991, p. He proposed thatthe introduction of a new phenomenon unaccounted for by the operation ofany known law of nature was due to a power above those established laws,though it was acting in conformity with them. To this end, modern-day developments, such as DNAsequencing have demonstrated that even bacteria have the same genetic codeas plants and animals. He also referred to laws of nature being imparted to matterby the Creator, thus admitting a role for religion in his theory ofevolution, though in private he recanted the use of the word Creator,saying that he meant to refer to a wholly unknown process. References Brooke, J. In turn, the best adapted of these progeny wouldthemselves leave a greater number of descendants. Darwin=s theory could also explain a recurrent pattern in thegeographical distribution of a species: in a region where many species of agenus had been produced, there were usually many varieties of that speciesproduced. To explain this, he stressed the fragmentary nature ofthe geological record. Theologistssay that changes prove His continued involvement with His creation, but ifHe created the perfect world in the first place, this would not benecessary. In terms of the causes ascribed to species changes,Darwin=s theory presents reasons for adaptive changes and explains manyfacts known in his time, such as the geographical distribution of species,species behaving in ways for which they were not uniquely designed (theupland goose, for example), and the presence of vestigial organs. He found evidence of this in thework of breeders who selected characteristics they deemed desirable indomesticated plants and animals. He was thus challenging a vision of natural history that hadbecome fundamental to the way most religious thinkers conceived of therelationship between the organic world and its Creator. To explain his theory of creatures which had developed ways ofsurviving at variance with what would be assumed if they had been speciallycreated, he used examples such as upland goose, which, although it hadwebbed feet, did not swim; birds resembling woodpeckers which survived bypicking insects from the ground; and thrushes, which dived to feed onsubaquatic prey. 38-39). One long argument. Universityof Pennsylvania Press. transmutation occurred. Darwin=s theories, then, proposed that change was brought about bynatural selection: those organisms most suitable for survival under operantconditions would be those who produced the most offspring, thusperpetuating their particular adaptions to a particular set ofcircumstances. H. Since theconcept of God is intangible, the proof of His existence is present only inthe mind of believers. This latterrequires total acceptance of the concept of a supreme being, God, and hiscontinued involvement the world and its evolution. Along with these four religious beliefs, there were three secularbeliefs which were at odds with Darwin=s theory: a belief in the philosophyof essentialism (all the variable phenomena of nature are a reflection of alimited number of constant and sharply delimited essences); a belief in aninterpretation of the causal processes of nature as they had beenelaborated by physicists; and a belief in teleology (final causes, Godbeing the final cause of everything). Darwin concluded his book with the proclamation that there was agrandeur to his view of life which saw living powers breathed into a fewsimple forms which later evolved into a wide range of organisms (Brooke,1991, p. The first was a belief in a constant world. Darwinism and the divine in America.Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. 314-315). Darwin could not acceptthis explanation of the enormous diversity and adaption he observed. The affinityof island species with the inhabitants of the nearest mainland wascomprehensible if migration preceded separation from the mainland. Darwin felt he could explain the emergence and gradual perfection ofvarious species by three propositions: first, that gradations in perfectionin organs and species could occur; second, that variations could occur inthese organs and instincts; and third, a struggle for existence existswhich leads to the preservation of profitable deviations of a structure orinstinct. This makes Darwin=s theory more plausible in terms of reasonand proof. (Mayr,1991, pp. Apologistsof the time observed that a mechanistic universe, into which Godoccasionally intruded with miraculous acts of creation, had the defects ofemphasizing His transcendence at the expense of His immanence.Evolutionary perspectives allowed a more balanced view. Sir Richard Owen alsodisputed Darwin=s theory (Hovenkamp, 1978, p. Healso showed that convergence from common ancestors could give a historicalexplanation for the pyramidal, hierarchical arrangement of groups withingroups that was featured in most taxonomic schemes. Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press. They claimed that Darwin=s theory did not touch onthe central doctrine that everything ultimately owed its existence andpreservation to a power transcending the natural order (Brooke, 1991, p.279). This followed if all species first existed as varieties. After many generations,the remaining population of individuals would have diverged from theancestral population sufficiently to merit designation as a new species.. Open-minded religious commentators often emphasized that a Christiandoctrine of creation need not entail the view that every species had beenindependently created. Further evidence came from repeated evolutionary divergence meshedwith fossil records, the more ancient the fossil, the more often itdisplayed characteristics intermediate between later related forms (Brooks,1991, p. 7). He questioned why all the species from former periodswere extinct if they were perfect. Science and religion. Lastly, the world was anthropocentric, man having aunique position in the creation because he possessed a soul: animals didnot. An evolvinguniverse provided tangible evidence of a God=s continual involvement withthe world he created. Survival was thus the driving force behind change accordingto Darwin=s theories. He insisted thatevidence of form, structure, and procreative phenomena, and the truth ofthe fact that classification is the task of science and species the work ofnature, all argued in favor of creationism He believed that species,like every other group, was a creation of the brain, not of nature.Likewise, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker held to the hypothesis that variationwas the means which nature adopted for peopling the globe with diverseexisting forms which, when they tended to transmit their charactersunchanged through many generations, were called species (Hovenkamp, 1978,p. Forexample, rudimentary organs which served no purpose could be explained asthe result of inheritance from earlier individuals for whom the organs hasplayed adaptive roles (Roberts, 1988, p. Geographical distribution of species could be explained byspecies in a particular location sharing the same ancestors. H. Fossil records are used bytheologists as historical evidence, but the theory comes mainly from thesupreme belief in God as the Creator, and his omnipotence. If God is thought to be omnipotent, and his world the best possiblecreation, then what would be the reason for documented changes? 23). (1978). British physiologist William Carpenter claimed to have found evidenceof God as a continued participant in the evolutionary process by comparingancient and modern forms of Foramenifera, a group of simple marineorganisms (Brooke, 1991, pp. In 1859 itwas still largely accepted that the world was a relatively new creation andthat, except for minor perturbations, it had not changed materially sinceit was created. Adam Sedgwick (Hovenkamp, 1978, p.. (1991). Darwin did not want to generate anger from his pious reviewers, so heexplicitly credited God with having impressed on matter the laws governingthe universe, while at the same time rejecting the doctrine of specialcreation. These example, however, could beexplained by the theory that as each species was striving to increase itsnumbers, natural selection favored the exploitation of every availableniche, and thus creatures which could adapt to new environments wouldsurvive. He reasoned that in an environment characterized by constant change,some variants would be better adapted to survival than the originalspecies, i.e. This left no possible transition from animal to man. Hisown observations were also in conflict with the belief of the theologiansin a perfect world. Although the theory of common descent was not invented by Darwin, hewas the first to adopt it consistently (Mayr, 1991, p. Thedebate continues even today. Everything had seemed to be arbitrary or chaotic in natural historyuntil Darwin came up with the theory of common descent, and now it all mademore sense. 14). While historical evidence couldbe construed as being circumstantial and open to interpretation, ongoingevidence, such as the breeding programs, is more direct evidence which canbe readily observed and substantiated, and is not open to differentinterpretations. If thereis need for change, then the world, as it was originally created, was notthe best possible world. 221) believed that species hadbeen constant for thousands of years, and that even though changingconditions could cause a species to die out, new species might have hadroom to occur and flourish, but the causation of these new species musthave been creation. Roberts, J. He saw no evidence of intermediate forms, contraryto what Darwin found when examining fossil records. Linnaeus had proposed that no organism ever became extinct,but simply underwent such drastic transformation that formerly existingtypes were changed beyond recognition. In Darwin=s time there were four common religious beliefs. In thecase of natural theology, the causes for change are not as clearly defined. Secondly, species and other taxa were believed to beunchanging, and the existing diversity due to creation. Darwin=s theory of evolution could also explain examples of imperfectadaption, such as the sting of a bee: the bee dies once it has stungsomeone, hardly a perfect defense system for the bee. His evidence came from direct observation of thedistribution of various species, and the fact that breeders selectedanimals and plants with particular beneficial qualities as their subjects.He also used fossil records to show adaptive changes in species over time,his evidence therefore coming both from historical evidence and fromsources outside history - ongoing sources. The presence of vestigial or rudimentary organs also favored Darwin=stheory of evolution, as did the occasional appearance of stripes on theshoulders and legs of horses - explicable if they had descended from aprior species. It proposes creation as the only cause for theappearance of new species. 227). Darwin=s own observations showed him that there were numerous, slight,hereditable differences among individuals in a species that might explainhow adaption took place by means of secondary agencies (Roberts, 1988, pp.4-5). He insisted that although there was a design andpurpose and a mutual adaptation of parts, that above and exterior to thephenomena of nature was a prescient and designing cause. Natural theology proposes that only God can bring about changes, andthat He does this according to the needs of time, such as climatic changes,changes in available foodstuffs, etc. After reading Thomas Malthus= Essay onthe Principle of Population, Darwin saw that population pressure amongorganisms, by generating a competitive struggle among individuals within aspecies, was also responsible for maintaining the relatively stablepopulations of plants and animals. Darwin=s theory of transmutation provided a scientific explanationfor phenomena that special creationists had regarded as facts. 277). Thirdly, it wasbelieved that the world was designed by a wise and benign Creator.Although imperfections were acknowledged, it was believed to be the bestpossible world, and adaption of organisms to their physical and livingenvironments was believed to be perfect because it had been designed by anomnipotent Creator. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.