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Title: Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution by Kenneth R. Miller ISBN: 0060930497 Publisher: Cliff Street Books Pub. Date: 15 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89
Rating: 5
Summary: A superb defense of evolution and religion
Comment: Kenneth Miller's "Finding Darwin's God" is an eloquent defense of evolution that refutes every argument ever advanced by so-called "creation scientists". He offers a sympathetic portrayal of creationism while providing clear, compelling evidence why it isn't science. His reasonable arguments in defense of evolution and religion are ones which every creationist should heed. Indeed, he clearly demonstrates the philosophical kinship which evolution shares with monotheistic faiths such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. However, some may regard his version of GOD as one more consistent with Deism than with Christianity.
Kenneth Miller is celebrated at Brown University for his excellence in teaching. Such excellence is mirrored in his crisp, eloquent prose. And it is literary excellence which deserves to be awarded with a Pulitzer Prize. Although I never had the pleasure of enrolling in his courses, I feel privileged to have helped him embark upon his successful career debating creationists throughout North America. Back in 1981 I was the sole evolutionist on an ad hoc campus committee which invited Kenneth Miller to debate creationist Henry Morris from the "Institute for Creation Research" in San Diego, California. Needless to say, Kenneth Miller won his first debate.
Rating: 5
Summary: Lucid, balanced guide to the challenges of science for faith
Comment: This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in a thoughtful analysis both of the most popular approaches for defending a belief in creation and also for those that oppose a belief in creation in light of the findings of modern science. Kenneth Miller is a professor of biology at Brown University and a committed Christian (although the book stresses the shared convictions of the major Western religions, rather than adopting a sectarian approach).
Miller considers first the arguments of young-earth creationists (Whitcome and Morris, Duane Gish, et al.) and answers these with an avalanche of scientific evidence. He then examines in two chapters the claims of old-earth creationists, especially Philip Johnson (who stresses a lack of transitional forms in the fossil record) and Michael Behe (who identifies what he considers are "irreducably complex" biochemical machines in the cell). In his careful analysis of these views, Miller helps the reader appreciate how both approaches are, in effect, misguided attempts to defend creation with a "God of the gaps." Each offers examples which, the authors hope, defy explanation by modern science. This (temporary) inability of modern science is then taken as evidence in support of the work of the Creator at that point. Miller shows the consistent failure of this mode of argumentation in the past and cites evidence published since the appearance of Johnson's and Behe's writings, which, unfortunately for them, fills in their hoped-for gaps.
One of the greatest dangers of a God of the gaps argument, Miller notes, is that each time science succeeds in filling one of these alleged gaps its success is misconstrued by atheistic scientists as proof that God must not exist. Miller turns his attention in the second half of his book to a refutation of the equally deficient views against creation that have been advanced by atheistic scientists.
In the end Miller affirms the wisdom of resting one's faith in a God who is the God of the stuff in between the gaps - whose handiwork is best seen in facts and qualities of the universe which are well known to science, rather than in those which are as yet undiscovered. Although he strongly affirms evolution, natural law, and chance, he sees these as means which God used for accoplishing His creative intention and safeguarding the genuine freedom and independence of His Creation. Miller affirms that the existence of the universe is not self-explanatory. Although he recognizes that the convictions of faith cannot be proven absolutely, he considers faith in the Creator to be reasonable and supported by such evidences as the anthropic principle. He also favors the possibility that God may utilize quantum indeterminacy and chaos as subtle means for interacting with His creation.
Rating: 5
Summary: Resolving the false dichotomy between science and religion
Comment: With no great understanding of the all issues on either side, I've always believed there can be no fundamental contradiction between valid science and valid religion, evolution and materialist determinism notwithstanding. AT LAST, a knowledgeable, well-informed evolutionary scientist who is also a Christian agrees, and has provided an OUTSTANDING discussion !!
Miller is a well-recognized biology educator and text book author, and he provides exceptionally clear explanation of evolution science, separating FACTS from theory and issues. Along the way he gives NO quarter to "Creation Science" or "Intelligent Design", and pretty much demolishes those ideas, while showing understanding and respect for the motivations of their advocates.
He also criticizes other biologists who he thinks carry evolutionary theories into inappropriate areas, or who take an extremist view of the implications of evolution for belief in God. He seems critical (though appreciative) of Jay Gould's observations of the seemingly sporadic nature of the fossil record, with large numbers of species appearing in short spurts of geologic time----meaning a few hundred thousand years---followed by long periods, millions of years, with no new species appearing. Gould labeled it "punctuated equilibrium," and for awhile it evidently caused some churning and controversy among biologists. Miller seems to delight in referring to the idea as "punk eek." Creationists jumped on it as evidence of "sudden" appearance of species and evidence of special creation, evidently by misunderstanding the meaning of a "short spurt" in geologic terms.
Miller makes the point that it is the extremists of both sides, science and religion, who have, perhaps erroneously, agreed on the following assumption:
"If the origins of living organisms can be explained in purely material terms, then the existence of God is disproved."
The second half of his book is devoted to examining whether that assumption is true. Obviously he believes it is not, and he makes a compelling case that evolution and religious belief are NOT incompatible. He is a materialist, meaning that all events and actions have material causes and explanations, but does NOT believe it implies that everything is predetermined, or that it precludes the idea of value or meaning in life. He sees the natural world with it's orderly, materialistic laws, as consistent with the existence of a creation designed by a Creator to allow randomness and free will.
From this and other readings, especially the PBS series on evolution and its web site, it appears to me that the controversy between religion and science is greatly overblown by minority extremists of both sides. Reasonable Christians see the Bible as poetry, legend, allegory, history as seen thousands of years ago, and especially as inspired revelation of the relationship between God and man----but certainly not as literal descriptions of events, and CERTAINLY not as science.
Reasonable scientists, on the other hand, see great mystery in the universe and in life, and uncertainties that can NEVER be explained or resolved by science. All the natural laws and universal constants seem uniquely, specifically oriented to allow the eventual evolution of intelligent beings like homo sapiens, a fact that some have labeled the "anthropomorphic principle." (Of course they are---If they weren't, we couldn't exist!) Quantum theory has shown inherent uncertainty at the level of atomic particles, and it leads to the existence of randomness and free will---certainly leaving intellectual room for the POSSIBLE existence of a supreme being that operates in accordance with natural laws, but who cares about values and meaning!! You will need to read the book for an explanation----a brief paraphrase is NOT possible!
Miller believes his view to be entirely consistent with Darwin's own, and closes with the following beautiful quotation from the last page of "The Origin of Species:"
"There is grandeur in this view of life; with its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most wonderful and most beautiful have been, and are being evolved."
Miller's book is OUTSTANDING, and covers religion/science issues in a very interesting way. Strongly recommend this book!!
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Title: Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism by Robert T. Pennock ISBN: 0262661659 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 28 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Can a Darwinian be a Christian? : The Relationship between Science and Religion by Michael Ruse ISBN: 0521631440 Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 2000 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr. ISBN: 0743202376 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr ISBN: 0465044255 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: DARWINS BLACK BOX: THE BIOCHEMICAL CHALLENGE TO EVOLUTION by Michael Behe ISBN: 0684834936 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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