Darwinism

A brief itnroductin to Darwin's theory of evolution 

Two salient features of the living world:  Teleology and Taxonomy

Teology: Design in living things- purposefulness 'design; paculiar to living things- relatively recent
Teleology: Living things appear to have purposes or goals, and parts that serve those goals.

“As every instrument and every bodily member subserves some partial end, that is to say, some special action, so the whole body must be destined to minister to some Plenary sphere of action. Thus the saw is made for sawing, for sawing is a function, and not sawing for the saw. Similarly, the body too must somehow or other be made for the soul, and each part of it for some subordinate function, to which it is adapted.”

[Aristotle, On the Parts of Animals, Book I, part 5]

The idea that purposefulness [‘design’] is peculiar to living things is relatively recent.

For Aristotle, everything had a telos.

Taxonomy: There are ways of classifying living things that seem right and natural.

Carl  Linneaus: Systema Naturae (1735) 

Classification is nested (diagram below shows)

Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (1st century A.D.)

“And in the ages after monsters died, Perforce there perished many a stock, unable By propagation to forge a progeny. For whatsoever creatures thou beholdest Breathing the breath of life, the same have been Even from their earliest age preserved alive by cunning, or by valour, or at least By speed of foot or wing.”

[De Rereum Natura, Book V]

Lucretius - natural selection 

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck: Philosophie Zoologique (1809)

Lamark's Giraffe - creature can acquire characteristics in its lifetime
- Giraffe stretching its neck 

Lamark - inner need driving things 

New developments in geology helped to prepare the way for Darwin

Charles Lyell: Principles of Geology (1830-33)

Argued for principle of uniformitarianism:

i.e. that geological formations were caused by the same forces we see operating today Implied very slow, gradual change

And a very old Earth

Robert Chambers: Vestiges of the Natural History of creation (1844)

Argued that the fossil record formed an orderly sequence

The further back you go, the more different creatures are from creatures of today.

Darwin: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859)
Evidence from horse-breeders, dog-breeders etc

1. Inheritance: Animals and plants tend to resemble their parents more than they resemble randomly chosen members of the same species.

2. Variation: Individuals in a population of animals and plants are not all exactly alike.

3. Novelty: Occasionally, individuals are born which have traits that are not the same as those of their parents, or a combination of them. These traits often prove to be inheritable.

Evidence from observation of animals and plants in the wild:

4. All types of creatures produce so many offspring that, if those offspring all survived and bred at the same rate, the population would grow indefinitely .

“Although some species may be now increasing, more or less rapidly, in numbers, all cannot do so, for the world would not hold them.”[Origin of Species (Penguin, 1968), p. 117]

“The elephant is reckoned to be the slowest breeder of all known animals, and I have taken some pains to estimate its rate of natural increase: it will be under the mark to assume that it breeds when thirty years old, and goes on breeding till ninety years old, bringing forth three pairs of young in this interval; if this were so, at the end of the fifth century, there would be alive fifteen million elephants, descended from the first pair.” [Ibid.]

What Darwin understood from this  
What Darwin extrapolated from this evidence

Not all creatures that are born in a population will be able to survive and reproduce.

Because populations tend to grow indefinitely if left unchecked, eventually some resource that they need will become scarce (this is known as selection pressure).
not all species born in a population wlll survive & reproduce- struggle for existence
-> natural selection 

What Darwin calls the ‘struggle for existence’ will ensue.

Struggle for existence ---> Natural selection

Some individuals do better at surviving and reproducing than others because they are stronger, faster, better-camouflaged , etc. This process is called natural selection.

“[I]f variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterised will have the best chance of being preserved in the struggle for life; and from the strong principle of inheritance they will tend to produce offspring similarly characterised. This principle of preservation, I have called, for the sake of brevity, Natural Selection.”

Origin of Species, p. 170

If some traits are inherited, then it is not purely a matter of chance which traits will be more common in the next generation.

If there are novel variations, and enough time, Darwin argued, we can eventually get radically new types of creature by this process.

But natural selection is not the whole of the theory of evolution

The other key component is common descent

Common descent describes how, in evolutionarybiology, a group of organisms share a most recentcommon ancestor. There is evidence of common descent that all life on Earth is descended from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA).

1. Structural similarities between different creatures (homology)

Evidence of common descent: 2. The Fossil record

Archeopteryx, discovered 1861

1. The production of novel traits need not in any way be geared towards producing beneficial ones – it can be, for all intents and purposes, random.

2. The changes that evolution produces, according to Darwin, must be extremely gradual.

3. We shouldn’t think of evolution as progressive – in the sense of leading to better or higher forms

 Organisms are either well-adapted to their immediate surroundings or they aren’t – there isn’t any other evolutionary criterion of ‘better’.

Most of the time, organisms will be well-adapted, unless there has recently been a rapid change.

Natural selection <-- Creatives evolved <-- facts make sense 

A host of facts make sense if we assume that creatures evolved by natural selection

Teleology: Creatures are generally built so as to be well-suited to making a living in their environment
(That is, they are generally well-adapted.)

Taxonomy: The nested patterns reflect common ancestry.

Geographical distribution: e.g. the finches on the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) resemble South American finches more than European ones.

The differences between creatures that are otherwise close often reflect different environmental conditions and ways of making a living.

E.g. the beaks of the different Galapagos finches.

- Differences between animals close together... niche env 

He had no explanation for why organisms inherit traits from their parents, or for why novel traits arise.

He had no explanation for how life originated in the first place.

There are a number of theories about the origin of life, but no one agreed theory.

Inheritance and novelty are now generally taken to be explained by genetics.

Important developments in evolutionary theory since Darwin’s time

Some of the more recent important developments - evolutionary theory - competition between individual organisms - being able to run faster, reproduce 

The rise and fall of group selection  Natural selection can sometimes happen @ level of groups

The ‘Selfish Gene’ view of evolution - Richard Dawkin's competition between genes not organisms 

Evolutionary Developmental Biology (‘Evo-Devo’)

Seminar reading:

Is there any intrinsic connection between Darwinism and atheism?
Or between theism and rejecting Darwin's theory? 

John Hedley Brooke "Darwin and Victorian Christianity" In Greg Radick and Jonathan Hodge eg The Cambridge Companion to Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 

is there any intrinsic connection between Darwinism and athesim? 
- mankind image being reduced to another animal

Or between theism and rejecting Darwin's theory? 
3 fold threat- threat to God's taxonomy - sorted between animals 
'goes against ex nihilo'
Special nature - 'image of God' 
image of God can also be thought of authoritiy, intelligence, dominance
Teleology- goals - essence of natural selection 'blind process
genetic adaptations, mutations take place to environment, no plans, specific to survival without that environment. 

Process not looking ahead, blind accordig to immediate future, process doesn't appear to be guided by a divine God - threat. 

Problem of evil- survival of the fittest, indivudals not being looked after by a divine God.

If you're an evolutionary biologist is it hard for you to be theistic? 

Darwin considered himself to be fieercely attacked by the orthodox, found it ludicrous that he once intended to be a clergyman' 

' Darwin offended religious sensibilities (feelings) as well as common sentiment  (opinion) 
Darwin offended religious feelings as well as common opinion 

By: 
Going against most Christian's central belief in the doctrine- that human nature had been tainted by Adam's disobedience and the life in Jesus Christ special revelation of the nature of God. 

Doctrinal consequences- Darwin has shown that man had risen nt fallen?

Even Darwin's peers warned against trying to explain the origin of human beings- this goes beyond the limits of science.

Darwin's contrary view challenged images of a creator who created the world ex nihilo.

What did it mean for humans to be made in the image of God if we shared attributes to other primates? 

Darwin challenged natural theology - England confidence placed in arguement for design - pointed to wisdom and power of God. 

Darwin never denied the appearance of design but his casual natural selection showed how nature could counterfeit design. 

for one contemporary teologian Hodge- Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, through its emasculation (undermining) of design, amounted to atheism. 

He believed this bcause Darwin contradicted the msot prominent Christian view, essentially natural selection was a series of events ewithout the presence of an acting creator- no active God who has designed everything from ex nihilo. How can Darwin explain the image of God? If he is ssaying there is an ape-like ancestor which humans came from? 

Darwin had good intentions to start with, he began as a reformer not a destroyer of Christian theology 
Many did see opposition between evolution & creation - but it was also possible to see evolution as God's method for creation. 

Paley was more in awe of nature + more spritual + more religious - complexity - Paley
Darwin random process - different perspective to Paley

Two contrasting views:
English reformer: English reformer of the language of design emphasis beneficient laws of nature rather than divine intervention. A notebook entry reads 'the creator creates by laws'- general sense - law-government evolution- develop in certain way.

Romantic naturalist
On this interpretation the young Darwin found God in nature rather than deduced God's existence from it. 

Both views have religious meaning 

Can we learn anything useful from examining changes in Darwins private religious belief?
Darwin agnostic yet he insisted that there were days when he deserved to be called a theist 

Death of Darwin's infidel father caused him to test the dammable doctrine
Innocent 10 year old died
Darwin's friend told him that to advance in science he must not itroduce religion in his works 

Anglican Church taught darwin to test the rationality of faith through evidence 

“Can the mind of man, which has … been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?” 

wider implications? ^ 
Conclusion nature work of God, perhaps idea of  a God developed as we grow older- evolutionary? or did God make that happen? Can humans be trusted to hold wider-reaching definitive beliefs if they evolved from a mind as feabile as an animall?

FAITH EVIDENCE 

'A child's belief in God might be compared with a monkey's fear of a snake' 
Kant duty 4 duty's sake - not moral? -> evolutionary,  meaningful, metaphysical -> functional response to the environment without myth of morality that would be challenged <- moral order improve ourselves for God? = take that away have nihilism if there is no such thing as the good why be good - animal kingdom pact mentality 

As with  all general theses there is room for nuance
- not defintive, room for new interpretationns 

'T H Huxley  describes the sciences as “extra-Christian'

He found nothing in Darwin evolution to exclude the posssibility of an original design in the primordial (beginning of time) state of nature

Even among Darwinian biologists evolution remained highly controversial 
evolution & natural selection open to theological interpretation

FAITH EVIDENCE 
There were respectful christian clerics who encouraged Darwin with their support

Christian Socialist Charles Kingsley - there would be more wisom in a diety to make all things make themselves than to make all things directly. So, can safely reject image of an intefering diety- magician.

Frederick Temple - whose advocacy did not prevent him being Archibishop to Canterbury. 

FAITH EVIDENCE 

6.Outline some of the areas of Darwinism which might be in harmony with “a mature Christian faith” (206). Were there other factors contributing to the “Victorian crisis of faith” (207)?

- had other roots extending back to enlightenment 
-  Germany methods of biblical criticism in most radical forms stripped Christ of his miracles
- Gospel writers written after events had happened - implied they'd been oridinary falible men whose beliefs reflected their own times.
- Urbanisation and industrialisation encouraged the spread of secular views 
- Expanding literacy and demand- created situation 
28.5mil publications appearing annually secular presses
24.5 mil publications appearing annually from religious publishers

AnglicanChurch - Bible should not be understood unmeditated word of God but as inspiring record developing spritiuality 

FAITH EVIDENCE

6.What are the “problems with the conflict model” (209)?
- conceals fact many scientisits have had deep religious convictions
- within religious traditions usually liberal as well as conservative forces
-  conceals efforts of mediators to achieve harmony or integration

7.What are the “crude master-narratives” from which there is a need to “escape” (211)?
- nature fully autonomous (independent)