Evolution; Its Nature, Its Evidences, and Its Relation to Religious Thought - Scholar's Choice Edition

Evolution; Its Nature, Its Evidences, and Its Relation to Religious Thought - Scholar's Choice Edition

Author: Leconte Joseph

Publisher:

Published: 2015-02-19

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9781297302237

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.


Nature's Witness

Nature's Witness

Author: Daniel M. Harrell

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0687642353

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People of faith insist that God is the God of the world around us. Yet scientific evidence supporting evolution seems to offer an explanation of reality different from the biblical one. In light of this apparent conflict, some choose either to deny the scientific data or separate science and faith from each other, giving the appearance that faith is disconnected from reality. Others accommodate faith to science, but run the risk of watering down faith such that faith "fills in the blanks" left by science. Against these options, Daniel Harrell asserts that the evidence for evolution accurately describes the world we see, but insists that this description does not adequately serve as an explanation for the world. Rather than seeing science and faith as diametrically opposed, Harrell suggests that evolutionary data actually opens the door for deeper theological reflection on God's creation. Writing out of a pastoral concern for those struggling to negotiate faith and evolution, Harrell argues that being reliable witnesses to creation helps people of faith be reliable witnesses to its creator. Whether they are pastors wondering how to talk about these issues with their congregations, or students asking whether their biology classes make their faith irrelevant, Harrell's readers are winsomely led on a journey of exploration in which a robust biblical faith can be held along with affirmation of the scientific data for evolution.


Darwinism and the Divine

Darwinism and the Divine

Author: Alister E. McGrath

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-02-02

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1444392514

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Darwinism and the Divine examines the implications of evolutionary thought for natural theology, from the time of publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species to current debates on creationism and intelligent design. Questions whether Darwin's theory of natural selection really shook our fundamental beliefs, or whether they served to transform and illuminate our views on the origins and meaning of life Identifies the forms of natural theology that emerged in 19th-century England and how they were affected by Darwinism The most detailed study yet of the intellectual background to William Paley's famous and influential approach to natural theology, set out in 1802 Brings together material from a variety of disciplines, including the history of ideas, historical and systematic theology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, sociology, and the cognitive science of religion Considers how Christian belief has adapted to Darwinism, and asks whether there is a place for design both in the world of science and the world of theology A thought-provoking exploration of 21st-century views on evolutionary thought and natural theology, written by the world-renowned theologian and bestselling author


Nature's Prophet

Nature's Prophet

Author: Michael A. Flannery

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0817319859

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An astute study of Alfred Russel Wallace’s path to natural theology. A spiritualist, libertarian socialist, women’s rights advocate, and critic of Victorian social convention, Alfred Russel Wallace was in every sense a rebel who challenged the emergent scientific certainties of Victorian England by arguing for a natural world imbued with purpose and spiritual significance. Nature’s Prophet:Alfred Russel Wallace and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology is a critical reassessment of Wallace’s path to natural theology and counters the dismissive narrative that Wallace’s theistic and sociopolitical positions are not to be taken seriously in the history and philosophy of science. Author Michael A. Flannery provides a cogent and lucid account of a crucial—and often underappreciated—element of Wallace’s evolutionary worldview. As co-discoverer, with Charles Darwin, of the theory of natural selection, Wallace willingly took a backseat to the well-bred, better known scientist. Whereas Darwin held fast to his first published scientific explanations for the development of life on earth, Wallace continued to modify his thinking, refining his argument toward a more controversial metaphysical view which placed him within the highly charged intersection of biology and religion. Despite considerable research into the naturalist’s life and work, Wallace’s own evolution from natural selection to natural theology has been largely unexplored; yet, as Flannery persuasively shows, it is readily demonstrated in his writings from 1843 until his death in 1913. Nature’s Prophet provides a detailed investigation of Wallace’s ideas, showing how, although he independently discovered the mechanism of natural selection, he at the same time came to hold a very different view of evolution from Darwin. Ultimately, Flannery shows, Wallace’s reconsideration of the argument for design yields a more nuanced version of creative and purposeful theistic evolution and represents one of the most innovative contributions of its kind in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, profoundly influencing a later generation of scientists and intellectuals.


Cultural Science

Cultural Science

Author: John Hartley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-09-25

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1849666040

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Cultural Science introduces a new way of thinking about culture. Adopting an evolutionary and systems approach, the authors argue that culture is the population-wide source of newness and innovation; it faces the future, not the past. Its chief characteristic is the formation of groups or 'demes' (organised and productive subpopulation; 'demos'). Demes are the means for creating, distributing and growing knowledge. However, such groups are competitive and knowledge-systems are adversarial. Starting from a rereading of Darwinian evolutionary theory, the book utilises multidisciplinary resources: Raymond Williams's 'culture is ordinary' approach; evolutionary science (e.g. Mark Pagel and Herbert Gintis); semiotics (Yuri Lotman); and economic theory (from Schumpeter to McCloskey). Successive chapters argue that: -Culture and knowledge need to be understood from an externalist ('linked brains') perspective, rather than through the lens of individual behaviour; -Demes are created by culture, especially storytelling, which in turn constitutes both politics and economics; -The clash of systems - including demes - is productive of newness, meaningfulness and successful reproduction of culture; -Contemporary urban culture and citizenship can best be explained by investigating how culture is used, and how newness and innovation emerge from unstable and contested boundaries between different meaning systems; -The evolution of culture is a process of technologically enabled 'demic concentration' of knowledge, across overlapping meaning-systems or semiospheres; a process where the number of demes accessible to any individual has increased at an accelerating rate, resulting in new problems of scale and coordination for cultural science to address. The book argues for interdisciplinary 'consilience', linking evolutionary and complexity theory in the natural sciences, economics and anthropology in the social sciences, and cultural, communication and media studies in the humanities and creative arts. It describes what is needed for a new 'modern synthesis' for the cultural sciences. It combines analytical and historical methods, to provide a framework for a general reconceptualisation of the theory of culture – one that is focused not on its political or customary aspects but rather its evolutionary significance as a generator of newness and innovation.


No Other Gods

No Other Gods

Author: Robert Karl Gnuse

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1997-05-01

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 0567374157

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This is the first full-scale assessment of the theological, social and ideational implications of our new understandings of ancient Israel's social and religious development. Scholars now stress the gradual emergence of Israel out of the culture of ancient Palestine and the surrounding ancient Near East rather than contrast Israel with the ancient world. Our new paradigms stress the ongoing and unfinished nature of the monotheistic 'revolution', which is indeed still in process today. Gnuse takes a further bold step in setting the emergence of monotheism in a wider intellectual context: he argues brilliantly that the interpretation of Israel's development as both an evolutionary and revolutionary process corresponds to categories of contemporary evolutionary thought in the biological and palaeontological sciences (Punctuated Equilibrium).


The Handbook of Sex Differences Volume IV Identifying Universal Sex Differences

The Handbook of Sex Differences Volume IV Identifying Universal Sex Differences

Author: Lee Ellis

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-06-30

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 1000902889

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The Handbook of Sex Differences is a four-volume reference work written to assess sex differences, with a primary focus on the human species. Based on the authors’ highly influential 2008 book Sex Differences, these volumes highlight important new research findings from the last decade and a half alongside earlier findings. In this, the work’s fourth and last volume, two related questions are addressed: Are there universal sex differences (i.e., sex differences found in all societies)? And if the answer is yes, what are they and how can each one be theoretically explained? To answer the first of these two questions, this volume condenses much of the research findings amassed in the book’s first three volumes into summary tables. Then, to help identify likely universal sex differences, three versions of social role theory and two versions of evolutionary theory are examined relative to each possible universal sex difference. Consideration is even given to religious scriptures as a sixth type of explanation. In the concluding analyses, 308 likely universal sex differences are identified. No single theory was able to explain all these differences. Nevertheless, the two evolutionary theories were better in this regard than any of the three social role theories, including the recently proposed biosocial version of social role theory. The Handbook of Sex Differences is of importance for any researcher, student, or professional who requires a comprehensive resource on sex differences.


Darwinism and Natural Theology

Darwinism and Natural Theology

Author: Andrew Robinson

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2012-03-15

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1443838195

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Can Christianity be reconciled with Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection? What relevance do the biological sciences have to religious thought? Does Christian theology have anything to offer when it comes to formulating scientific hypotheses? These questions are among those explored in this collection of essays arising from a meeting of the UK Science and Religion Forum held in Cambridge to mark the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. The volume brings together contributions from a distinguished group of scholars at the forefront of the field of science-and-religion, including Denis Alexander, R. J. Berry, John Hedley Brooke, Sarah Coakley, Celia Deane-Drummond, David Fergusson, David Knight, Christopher Southgate, Neil Spurway and Kenneth Wilson. The essays are organized around the theme of ‘natural theology’ -– the attempt to draw theological conclusions from reflection on the natural world. The essays cover historical, philosophical and theological perspectives, and explore some contemporary approaches to natural theology in the context of Darwinism.