Thursday, August 26, 2010

New book announcement: William A. Dembski and Denyse O'Leary slam "Christian Darwinism" - O'Leary


In Christian Darwinism: Why Theistic Evolution Fails As Science and Theology (Broadman and Holman, November 2011), mathematician Dembski and journalist O’Leary address a powerful new trend to accommodate Christianity with atheist materialism, via acceptance of Darwinian ("survival of the fittest") evolution.

This trend includes "Evolution Sundays" at churches and endorsements by high administration officials like Francis Collins.

Dembski and O'Leary say it all just doesn't work. How can we accommodate self-sacrifice as the imitation of Christ with "altruism is just another way you spread your selfish genes!" How can we accommodate monogamy as the image of Christ and his church - for which he gave himself up - with "The human animal was never meant to be monogamous!"?

In the authors' view, no accommodation is possible. More to the point, accommodation is not even necessary. There are good reasons for doubting Darwin and good reasons for adopting other models for evolution - or for deciding that there is not enough evidence to make a decision.

Dembski and O'Leary insist that this conflict has nothing to do with the age of the Earth. Darwinism is, as they will show, the increasingly implausible creation story of atheism, which diverges at just about every point from the Christian worldview on which modern science was founded.

Yet Darwinism is publicly funded, and taught, in many jurisdictions, without any criticism permitted.

Reactions - not only praise but criticism - are expected and much appreciated! Regular updates will be provided at www.uncommondescent.com, so persons who wish to comment on the project can post there.

Contact: Denyse O'Leary oleary@sympatico.ca

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy:

2 comments:

Peter Black said...

Denyse,
You bring pause and light to those of us who flirt with theistic evolutionary notions.
Despite your suggestion to comment on the uncommon descent site, I wished to comment here, anyway. :)
Thank you -- your work is appreciated.

Unknown said...

Congratulations on proving the incompatibility of religion with science; and yet I would take this in exactly the opposite sense.

Science cannot prove that God does not exist - in exactly the same way it is impossible to prove the non-existence of the Tooth Fairy, UFOs, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. What science can do is show that God is in no way necessary to explain our existence.

To paraphrase: science diverges at just about every point from the ignorance from which modern science emerged. Yet science is publicly funded, and taught, in many jurisdictions, without any ignorance permitted.

Popular Posts