it would be nice if we'd share book reviews and research here.
working towards a more informed understanding.
to this end, i offer a review of M.Ruse's new book
The Evolution-Creation Struggle
Michael Ruse
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...103-9449855-7357467?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I think M.Ruse is one of the most profitable authors in the CED(creation-evolution-design) debate, this book is literally(was for me) a once-in-the-door-must-read-now book.
The book is an extended look at the distinction between evolution as a professional legitimate science and evolutionism as a metaphysical program which uses the science of biological evolution to create and justify it's moral, societal and eschatological worldview. As such the battle between YEC(young earth creationists) and people like Dawkins, Dennett, Gould, Wilson etc is a religion vs religion battle not as it is mislabelled and misunderstood as a religion vs science battle.
This book ought to be required reading for anyone who desires to enter into the innumerable online CED discussions, perhaps then something would actually get to the point of reasonable and fruitful conversations there, for without the distinction the argument is endless and worthless. I sure hope this book gets the eyeball time it deserves, especially from those i see everyday posting the same arguments that are category errors because they lack this distinction.
The theme of the book appears on pg3:
"The dispute (between evolutionists and creationists), as we shall see, is more than merely a matter of right and wrong. At some deeper level, it involves commitments about the nature of reality and the status and obligations of humans in this reality. In particular, I argue that in both evolution and creation we have rival religious responses to a crisis of faith--rival stories of origins, rival judgments about the meaning of human life, rival sets of moral dictates, and above all what theologian call rival eschatologies--picture of the future and of what lies ahead for humankind."
as he says in a few more pages--this is a clash of rival metaphysical world pictures, evolutionism and creationism.
Chapter 1-Christianity and its Discontents
Begins with a history lesson, "the Reformation did have repercussions and implications that slowly began to undermine the very foundations of Christianity." pg 13
It is this crisis of faith that Ruse locates both the beginning of creationism and evolutionism, brothers birthed from the same Western culture, responding to the same growth of secular science and the critical and people upsetting social and cultural changes that undermined the religious certainty that had previously glued together medieval European Christendom. "The first reaction to the eighteenth century's crisis of faith was simply to opt out of the conflict. In this view, reason and evidence, made supreme, are tools of the devil, and on the really crucial issues they are deceptive. The way to God is through an open and loving heart, through emotional commitment, not rational choice--that is, through faith and conversion. Thus the Protestantism of the Reformation gave way to evangelicalism, "pg 17 The first separation, the first big battle, is epistemological, something i have come to believe over the years and really appreciate how well Ruse ties together pieces i know but didn't fully see related to the big picture, a valuable thing.
He then makes a crucial alignment, millennial thinking and apocalytic thinking, in particular, premillennialism with creationism. This forms one of the major threads of his entire argument. But he looks at progress next, seeing it as postmillennialism, secularized and brought down from heaven to earth, applied to all of humanity not just a portion. This is the counterpoint thread to premill, and he associates it with evolutionism. How he does this is the topic of Chapter 2-From Progress to Evolution, "the cultural idea of progress led to the biological idea of evolution." pg 28 It is a good and informative chapter, perhaps if you only can skim a few pages this is the chapter to look at first. He introduces the great chain of being and the political connections to both the French Revolution and to Darwin's upper middle class British culture, thus laying the groundwork for Chapter 3-The Growth of a Pseudoscience and 4-Charles Darwin, the real meat of the book and when he introduces his really big idea.
Ruse is proposing that evolution started as a pseudoscience which incorporated cultural and social values into a system which only in the 1920-30 became a professional, a real science, as it incorporated genetics and becomes what we now call the neo-darwinian modern synthesis. Chapter 5-the Failure of a Professional Science is the years following Darwin and how the evolutionism domains the field by presenting a science-based ideology that has as it's purpose the explanation of the meaning of life and the human position within it.
Chapter 6-Social Darwinism is a short study of H.Spenser and T.Huxley and how they built "Popular evolution--evolutionism--offered a world picture, a story of origins, and a special place for humans in the scheme of things. At the same time, it delivered moral exhortations, prescribing what we ought to do if we want things to continue well."pg 122 rengthening the case for the religious nature of post-Darwinian evolutionism was its link to millennial thinking, which began to flourish in a major way in popular culture in the nineteenth century". pg 123
Progressivism or as Ruse terms it secular post-millennialism is the modern myth that most drives our modern capitalist societies, that evolutionism hooked into this thinking is crucial and most certainly one of Ruse's great contributions to the debate with this book.
Chapter 7-Christian Responses, but 8-Fundamentalism is the more interesting of the two chapters. He aligns fundamentalism with the American providential historical idea of the city on the hill, where the common ideology was that God has very special plans for America in His great scheme of things. It was nice to see a line about pew space, a crucial measure i used recently in a class i taught on American Presbyterian history, perhaps that is why i like the book, big pieces of it resonant with me...... He brings up Scottish Common Sense realism, the Civil War as a theological crisis that separated North and South, allowed the North to move more liberally religiously and socially and had the South, home to fundamentalism, react to all these as it separated and isolated after the War.
Chapter 9-Population Genetics outlines how evolution began to be a real professional science and slowly ridded itself of some of the more ideological and social values that it had. A big part of this is the definition of the two distinct levels-metaphysics with progressivism and the science with random mutation and the natural selection filter that increases population fitness to the environment without purpose or teleology.This forms the climax of the book, Ruse having presented his ideas and made his case.
Chapter 10-Evolution Today is a quick look at sociobiology and a look at evolutionism vs evolution today. Chapter 11-Nature as Promise and 12-Earth's Last Days? are basically Ruse's attempt to put himself in his opponents shoes, first liberal religious and second conservative fundamentalist to see how they can react to the distinction of evolutionism and the science of evolution. In the last Chapter-Conclusion, He basically recapitulates his major points (making this a good chapter to scan second) and asks how to solve the problem of these two battling religions. His answer calls for a little less stridence and a lot more sharing.
it's a good book, not so much for new information or really even new ways of putting it together, but for the straightforward presentation that will bring most people up to date with the ideas even if they disagree with Ruse. For the level distinction between evolutionism and evolution as a biological science is crucial towards making any progress in the discussion or in your personal understanding of the issues.
...
working towards a more informed understanding.
to this end, i offer a review of M.Ruse's new book
The Evolution-Creation Struggle
Michael Ruse
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...103-9449855-7357467?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I think M.Ruse is one of the most profitable authors in the CED(creation-evolution-design) debate, this book is literally(was for me) a once-in-the-door-must-read-now book.
The book is an extended look at the distinction between evolution as a professional legitimate science and evolutionism as a metaphysical program which uses the science of biological evolution to create and justify it's moral, societal and eschatological worldview. As such the battle between YEC(young earth creationists) and people like Dawkins, Dennett, Gould, Wilson etc is a religion vs religion battle not as it is mislabelled and misunderstood as a religion vs science battle.
This book ought to be required reading for anyone who desires to enter into the innumerable online CED discussions, perhaps then something would actually get to the point of reasonable and fruitful conversations there, for without the distinction the argument is endless and worthless. I sure hope this book gets the eyeball time it deserves, especially from those i see everyday posting the same arguments that are category errors because they lack this distinction.
The theme of the book appears on pg3:
"The dispute (between evolutionists and creationists), as we shall see, is more than merely a matter of right and wrong. At some deeper level, it involves commitments about the nature of reality and the status and obligations of humans in this reality. In particular, I argue that in both evolution and creation we have rival religious responses to a crisis of faith--rival stories of origins, rival judgments about the meaning of human life, rival sets of moral dictates, and above all what theologian call rival eschatologies--picture of the future and of what lies ahead for humankind."
as he says in a few more pages--this is a clash of rival metaphysical world pictures, evolutionism and creationism.
Chapter 1-Christianity and its Discontents
Begins with a history lesson, "the Reformation did have repercussions and implications that slowly began to undermine the very foundations of Christianity." pg 13
It is this crisis of faith that Ruse locates both the beginning of creationism and evolutionism, brothers birthed from the same Western culture, responding to the same growth of secular science and the critical and people upsetting social and cultural changes that undermined the religious certainty that had previously glued together medieval European Christendom. "The first reaction to the eighteenth century's crisis of faith was simply to opt out of the conflict. In this view, reason and evidence, made supreme, are tools of the devil, and on the really crucial issues they are deceptive. The way to God is through an open and loving heart, through emotional commitment, not rational choice--that is, through faith and conversion. Thus the Protestantism of the Reformation gave way to evangelicalism, "pg 17 The first separation, the first big battle, is epistemological, something i have come to believe over the years and really appreciate how well Ruse ties together pieces i know but didn't fully see related to the big picture, a valuable thing.
He then makes a crucial alignment, millennial thinking and apocalytic thinking, in particular, premillennialism with creationism. This forms one of the major threads of his entire argument. But he looks at progress next, seeing it as postmillennialism, secularized and brought down from heaven to earth, applied to all of humanity not just a portion. This is the counterpoint thread to premill, and he associates it with evolutionism. How he does this is the topic of Chapter 2-From Progress to Evolution, "the cultural idea of progress led to the biological idea of evolution." pg 28 It is a good and informative chapter, perhaps if you only can skim a few pages this is the chapter to look at first. He introduces the great chain of being and the political connections to both the French Revolution and to Darwin's upper middle class British culture, thus laying the groundwork for Chapter 3-The Growth of a Pseudoscience and 4-Charles Darwin, the real meat of the book and when he introduces his really big idea.
Ruse is proposing that evolution started as a pseudoscience which incorporated cultural and social values into a system which only in the 1920-30 became a professional, a real science, as it incorporated genetics and becomes what we now call the neo-darwinian modern synthesis. Chapter 5-the Failure of a Professional Science is the years following Darwin and how the evolutionism domains the field by presenting a science-based ideology that has as it's purpose the explanation of the meaning of life and the human position within it.
Chapter 6-Social Darwinism is a short study of H.Spenser and T.Huxley and how they built "Popular evolution--evolutionism--offered a world picture, a story of origins, and a special place for humans in the scheme of things. At the same time, it delivered moral exhortations, prescribing what we ought to do if we want things to continue well."pg 122 rengthening the case for the religious nature of post-Darwinian evolutionism was its link to millennial thinking, which began to flourish in a major way in popular culture in the nineteenth century". pg 123
Progressivism or as Ruse terms it secular post-millennialism is the modern myth that most drives our modern capitalist societies, that evolutionism hooked into this thinking is crucial and most certainly one of Ruse's great contributions to the debate with this book.
Chapter 7-Christian Responses, but 8-Fundamentalism is the more interesting of the two chapters. He aligns fundamentalism with the American providential historical idea of the city on the hill, where the common ideology was that God has very special plans for America in His great scheme of things. It was nice to see a line about pew space, a crucial measure i used recently in a class i taught on American Presbyterian history, perhaps that is why i like the book, big pieces of it resonant with me...... He brings up Scottish Common Sense realism, the Civil War as a theological crisis that separated North and South, allowed the North to move more liberally religiously and socially and had the South, home to fundamentalism, react to all these as it separated and isolated after the War.
Chapter 9-Population Genetics outlines how evolution began to be a real professional science and slowly ridded itself of some of the more ideological and social values that it had. A big part of this is the definition of the two distinct levels-metaphysics with progressivism and the science with random mutation and the natural selection filter that increases population fitness to the environment without purpose or teleology.This forms the climax of the book, Ruse having presented his ideas and made his case.
Chapter 10-Evolution Today is a quick look at sociobiology and a look at evolutionism vs evolution today. Chapter 11-Nature as Promise and 12-Earth's Last Days? are basically Ruse's attempt to put himself in his opponents shoes, first liberal religious and second conservative fundamentalist to see how they can react to the distinction of evolutionism and the science of evolution. In the last Chapter-Conclusion, He basically recapitulates his major points (making this a good chapter to scan second) and asks how to solve the problem of these two battling religions. His answer calls for a little less stridence and a lot more sharing.
it's a good book, not so much for new information or really even new ways of putting it together, but for the straightforward presentation that will bring most people up to date with the ideas even if they disagree with Ruse. For the level distinction between evolutionism and evolution as a biological science is crucial towards making any progress in the discussion or in your personal understanding of the issues.
...
